Nicholas Payton has frequently stated that his favorite musician is Miles Davis. So, here on Couch Sessions he taps a couple of veterans with similar shared histories – with each other and with Miles, bassist Buster Williams and drummer Lenny White.
Bonding over their love of the avant-garde and cinematic sonics, left-field jazz duo sunking has combined these two worlds to create a colorful, hectic harmony that denounces convention.
Charles Lloyd long considered himself a ‘searcher of sound’ and his last of the three trio outings, Trios: Sacred Thread, certainly is a testament to that descriptor.
Juba Lee is the follow-up for saxophonist Avram Fefer’s quartet to 2019’s Testament. It’s alive, edgy, and engaging as one would expect from the musicians that comprise the unit,
Guitarist Bill Frisell, on his third recording for Blue Note, expands the quiet, explorative music he delivered on 2020’s Valentine through a much different instrumental configuration
Not only does Olli Hirvonen fuse jazz with Americana, but he adds slide guitar, and fashions an airier, lighter overall sonic due to both his own playing and that of bassist Kenney, who plays a Fender Bass VI.
The new SmallsLIVE Living Masters Series has issued Kirk Lightsey Live at Smalls Jazz Club, their second offering, following this past August’s release of vocalist Sheila Jordan’s Live at Mezzrow. As the series name implies, these recordings honor the best of iconic jazz musicians that are still with us.
Aside from being a great improvisational drummer, Paul Motian is perhaps best known for his composing. Motian was the ideal artist for the dream-like ethereal sounds often captured by the ECM label on which this tribute Once Around the Room appears. His melodies seem to drift like shrouds of mist above a foundation, sometimes shifting but more often sturdy. It’s the kind of music that places a premium on listening and group interplay rather than a series of solos.
Time Out Take Five is a regular column comprised of pithy takes on recent jazz releases, spotlighting titles deserving attention that might otherwise go unnoticed. Francois Carrier/Alexander von Schlippenbach/John Edwards/Michel Lambert: Unwalled –
Takua Kuroda follows up 2020’s acclaimed Fly Moon Die Soon with another stew of his soulful jazz, funk, post-bop, fusion, and hip-hop music in Midnight Crisp.
