Jonathan Finlayson

Big Ears Festival 2025

by Mark Sullivan
April 8, 2025

Big Ears Festival Knoxville, TN March 27-30, 2025 This year's festival again featured several spotlighted events (but none of them required special ticketing, as was tried last year). “Across the Horizon" was a series of concerts combining Americana and ambient music, curated by Bob Holmes and the band SUSS. “Age ...

Ex Machina

By Steve Lehman

Label: Pi Recodings
Released: 2024
Track listing: 39: Los Angeles Imaginary; Camera; Alchimie; Ode To Aklaff; Jeux D'Anches; Les Treize Soleils; Speed--Freeze (Part 1); Speed--Freeze (Part 2); Le Seuil (Part 1); Le Seuil (Part 2).

What Times Are These

By Jamie Baum

Label: Sunnyside Records
Released: 2024
Track listing: In The Light of Day (feat. Keita Ogawa); To Be of Use; An Old Story (feat. Aubrey Johnson & Keita Ogawa); In Those Years (feat. Theo Bleckmann); What Kind of Times Are These (feat. Sara Serpa); Sorrow Song (feat. KOKAYI & Aubrey Johnson; My Grandmother In The Stars (feat. Sara Serpa); I Am Wrestling with Despair (feat. Sara Serpa); Dreams (feat. Aubrey Johnson); In The Day of Light (feat. Keita Ogawa).

PolyTropos / Of Many Turns

By Steve Coleman

Label: Pi Recordings
Released: 2024
Track listing: (CD 1): Spontaneous Pi; Spontaneous One; Spontaneous All; Mdw Ntr; Spontaneous Drum; Multiplicity of Approaches; 9 to 5; Of Many Turns; (CD 2): Lush Life cadenza / Pi; Spontaneous One; Mdw Ntr; Round Midnight; Pad Thai / Of Many Turns; Wheel of Nature / Fire Revisited.

Angelo Leonardi's Best Jazz Albums of 2024

by Angelo Leonardi
December 28, 2024

What follows is the list of the albums, both Italian and international, that I most appreciated and, above all, loved in 2024. These are the ones that enriched and inspired me the most, the ones I found myself returning to repeatedly. They are listed in alphabetical order, not by order of preference. In preparing this list ...

Joy To The World... Samara!

by Hobart Taylor
December 25, 2024

Joy to the world! Samara Joy that is! As well as newly released music from Keith Jarrett, Renee Rosnes and John Hollenbeck with the NDR Bigband. Playlist Anne Sajdera “It's Here" from It's Here (Bijuri Records) 0:00 Aaron Rimbui “Ndugu Ll" from Imani (Ropeadope) 7:17 Host Speaks 15:26 </li> <li>{{m: Renee Rosnes “ Estorias ...

Steve Coleman and Five Elements: PolyTropos / Of Many Turns

by Troy Dostert
December 10, 2024

Perpetually churning rhythms, telepathic detours, unexpected juxtapositions: these are the stock-in-trade of Steve Coleman's Five Elements. And once again the intrepid alto saxophonist's inimitable approach surfaces on PolyTropos / Of Many Turns, a generous, two-disc helping of music that manages to be both intricately complex and fundamentally accessible at the same time. With two live dates ...

Paying Tribute: Jamie Baum and Kris Davis

by Jerome Wilson
November 16, 2024

These two albums present prominent female musicians paying tribute to other women in the arts who have inspired them. Jamie Baum draws her inspiration from the work of several poets while Kris Davis tips her cap to other jazz pianists. The Jamie Baum Septet + What Times Are These Sunnyside Records ...

Revenge of the Son of Rule of 3

by Patrick Burnette
October 31, 2024

Podcast 301 picks up where 300 left off, looking at albums from 1993, 2003, 2013, and 2023. Jazz trends get a little harder to pick out once the new millennium begins, but at least our 1990's selection is REALLY 1990's, right down to the haircut and clothes colors. In Pop Matters, Pat discusses seeing Ben Wendel ...