Woodard and Haden: Conversations With Charlie Haden (Silman-James) Interviews transcribed from tape recordings and transformed into print are often boring substitutes for writing. With judicious editing, however, the technique can be illuminating. Journalist Josef Woodard’s many chats with … [Read more...]

Book: Damon Krukowski, The New Analog (The New Press) The introduction of the compact disc in 1982 made analog sound delivered by phonograph records and landline telephones obsolete—didn’t it? If not, then the advent of iTunes in 2001 and the iPhone in 2007 replaced analog forever—didn’t … [Read more...]

Joachim Kühn New Trio, Beauty & Truth, ACT For more than half a century the German piano virtuoso Joachim Kühn has made it all but impossible to categorize his music. He, bassist Chris Jennings and drummer Eric Schaefer begin his eclectic new album with Ornette Coleman's title … [Read more...]

Rahsaan Roland Kirk, The Case Of The Three Sided Dream (Arthaus Musik/Monoduo Films) Producer-Director Adam Kahan includes biographical facts throughout his film about Kirk (1935–1977), the most prominent jazz multi-instrumentalist of the late twentieth century. Friends, family members and Kirk … [Read more...]

Dan Meinhardt, Outset (ears&eyes records) When the venerable Chicago jazz entrepreneur Bob Koester opened a new record store last fall, he initiated a live music policy by bringing in Outset, a quartet formed in 2013 by tenor saxophonist Dan Meinhardt. Koester, the founder of Delmark Records … [Read more...]

John Coltrane, Live At Birdland (Impulse) On this observance of Martin Luther King’s birthday, we recommend an album that John Coltrane made at the height of the 1960s civil rights movement in the southern United States. He wrote “Alabama” following the bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street … [Read more...]

Bill Evans, Some Other Time: The Lost Sessions From The Black Forest (Resonance) Producer Zev Feldman’s specialty is discovering previously unreleased music by major jazz artists. In 2013 when he visited Villengen, Germany, the home of the former MPS label, he hit the jackpot—recordings … [Read more...]

Dr. Lonnie Smith, Evolution (Blue Note) The venerable organist’s doctorate is a figment, but his musicianship and ability to mold combos of any size into formidable units are even more real than when he moved from piano to organ in the 1950s. In this return to the Blue Note label after nearly … [Read more...]

Joshua Redman And Brad Mehldau, Nearness (Nonesuch) They forged their empathy when Mehldau was the pianist in saxophonist Redman’s quartet in the mid-1990s. In encounters over the years since, they have honed their rapport to a remarkable degree. These duo recordings from six cities on their … [Read more...]

Erroll Garner, Ready Take One (Octave/Legacy) Legacy follows the expanded reissue of Garner’s monumental Concert By The Sea with fourteen previously unissued studio tracks. Recorded in the late 1960s and 1971, they find the pianist radiating his customary ebullience at the keyboard and in … [Read more...]

Wolfgang Muthspiel, Rising Grace (ECM) The Austrian Guitarist Muthspiel is the leader, but he and his sidemen are so wrapped together in the music on Rising Grace that they might have been billed as a collective. Trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, pianist Brad Mehldau, bassist Larry Grenadier and … [Read more...]

George Cables, The George Cables Songbook (High Note) As he awaits news about a second kidney transplant, health problems haven’t affected Cables’ fleetness and lyricism at the piano. Most of the compositions here are new, although his celebrated “Think On Me” dates to 1968 and “The … [Read more...]

Bill Frisell, When You Wish Upon A Star (Okeh) Much of guitarist Frisell’s early exposure to music was by way of the sound tracks of motion pictures and television programs. His versions of some of that music show up on several of his albums. When You Wish Upon A Star takes his fascination a … [Read more...]

Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra, Basically Baker, Vol. 2 (Patois) During the decades he spent developing Indiana University’s jazz studies program, David Baker (1931-2016) became one of the most honored educators in his field. His student bands produced top-level players like trumpeter Randy … [Read more...]

Tom Harrell, Something Gold, Something Blue (High Note) Harrell’s front-line partners in this stimulating venture are fellow trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and the adventuresome guitarist Charles Altura, each more than three decades younger than the leader. They blend and contrast through eight … [Read more...]

Nick Sanders & Logan Strosahl, Janus (Sunnyside) Collaborators since their student days at the New England Conservatory nearly a decade ago, pianist Sanders and saxophonist Strosahl are dedicated to tradition and improvisation. Making the two qualities inseparable, they take listeners on an … [Read more...]

Cecil Payne & Duke Jordan, Brooklyn Brothers (Elemental Music) This classic pairing is an essential repertoire item in Elemental Music’s series reissuing Xanadu albums from the 1970s. Payne (1922-2007) was among the great baritone saxophonists of his generation, perpetually in demand as a big … [Read more...]

Bria Skonberg, Bria (Okeh) In her first album for a major label, Bria Skonberg achieves consistency that in the past she sometimes obscured in forced vocal mannerisms. Her trumpet work, based in traditional jazz and swing, includes surprising bebop touches. She has unfailing agility and good … [Read more...]

After sideman work, then membership in cooperative groups with Cyrille Neville, Devon Allman and others, in 2012 the St. Louis blues guitarist and singer Mike Zito formed his band, The Wheel. Few dedicated jazz listeners also keep up with developments in the music that grows out of country blues … [Read more...]