The Five Corners Quintet: Trading Eights

by Ludovico Granvassu
August 31, 2025

The Five Corners Quintet was a Finnish combo that doubled as both launchpad and meeting point--bringing together up-and-coming players and established figures alike, with veteran Eero Koivistoinen as well as younger musicians including Timo Lassy (saxophones), Jukka Eskola (trumpet and flugelhorn), Kim Rantala and Mikael Jakobsson (piano), Antti Lötjönen and Tapani Nevalainen (bass), and Teppo Mäkynen ...

Joey Waronker & Pete Min: Parrots

by Ludovico Granvassu
August 31, 2025

King King (Colorfield Records) was recorded at LA's Lucy's Meat Market studio by drummer Joey Waronker and bassist/engineer Pete Min--the creative force behind both that sonic laboratory and the Colorfield Records label. For these sessions, Waronker and Min played a multitude of instruments with a multitude of guests, including Mark Guiliana, Larry Goldings, Josh ...

Fergus Quill: Up Down

by Ludovico Granvassu
August 29, 2025

A few years back, British bassist Fergus Quill discovered the music of Xero Slingsby, the larger-than-life saxophonist who passed away in 1988 at the age of 30. Though his career was short, Slingsby left an indelible mark on anyone fortunate enough to hear him and continues to enjoy cult status among a devoted few.

Kneebody: Everywhere From There To There

by Mike Jacobs
August 28, 2025

Pat Metheny & Brad Mehldau: Summer Day

by Geno Thackara
August 28, 2025

"Summer" is a frequent shorthand for “loud and bright," but the span of the day can include a whole lot of tones more subtle and colorful. This is the scene Pat Metheny and Brad Mehldau paint on this highlight of their mostly-duo debut recording (Nonesuch Records, 2006), weaving a broad palette of tones like a sky ...

James Brandon Lewis: Ware

by Ludovico Granvassu
August 27, 2025

Here is a track from one of the year's most acclaimed musicians, James Brandon Lewis, who, as of late, doesn't just land in the best-of lists--he takes up multiple slots. From Abstraction Is Deliverance (Intakt Records) --featuring Lewis' tightly-knit quartet with Aruán Ortiz on piano, Brad Jones on bass and Chad Taylor on drums ...

Remembering Sheila Jordan: Sheila's Blues

by Ian Patterson
August 26, 2025

NEA Jazz Master Sheila Jordan, who passed away on August 11, 2025, at the age of 96, will be remembered as one of the great improvising jazz vocalists--imitated by many, bettered by none. Born in Detroit in 1928, Jordan's life-long love affair with jazz began in the 1940s when she heard Charlie Parker. “After ...

Olga Amelchenko: Walking Shadows

by Ludovico Granvassu
August 24, 2025

Howling Silence is Olga Amelchenko's new album, a project that explores the tension between the urge to speak out and the weight of silence... “howling silence" indeed. That may be the reason why even though her saxophone shimmers throughout the album, it a shimmering that comes with gravitas, as you can hear here in the compelling ...

Victor Bailey: Sweet Tooth

by Mike Jacobs
August 24, 2025

Jimmy Herring: Hope

by Mike Jacobs
August 23, 2025

Some bands' repertoire is so iconic that it rarely gets covered in any meaningful, updated way. Though it falls squarely into this category, Jimmy Herring's expanded 2013 revamp of the Mahavishnu Orchestra's stalwart piece, “Hope" was said to have moved composer John McLaughlin himself and planted the seeds for their subsequent collaborative “Meeting of the Spirits" ...