In the hands of people who are truly skilled or creative, the same ingredients can yield very different results. Just ask anyone who’s eaten Mexican food. Or Italian food. Or…well, you get the idea. It’s something I thought of ...CONTINUE
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In May of 1967, jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins went to Holland to do a show, record some tunes, and play live on TV. All of which was lost to time…”was” being the operative word there. All three performances were ...CONTINUE
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Whether it’s together or with other people, saxophonist Ivo Perelman and pianist Matthew Shipp have always displayed an ability to play different forms of acoustic jazz, be it more traditionally structured, free form, or somewhere in between, and often ...CONTINUE
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Having heard plenty of jazz groups that consist of a piano player, a bassist, and a drummer, both with and without some combination of a saxophonist and / a trumpet player, I constantly find myself drawn to jazz that ...CONTINUE
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With a career that spans more than 30 years and nearly 70 albums as a leader (and about as a many as a sideman), jazz pianist Matthew Shipp has more than established himself as a singular talent. So it’s ...CONTINUE
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With a name like Every Dog Has Its Day But It Doesn’t Matter Because Fat Cat Is Getting Fatter, you might expect the new album by the Okuden Quartet — bass clarinetist / soprano clarinet player / alto ...CONTINUE
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On their debut album, Threads (MP3, cassette), the Caterpillar Quartet play jazz both free and traditionally with equal skill. But while they’re clearly good at playing jazz in either style, it’s how this album presents the two ...CONTINUE
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Though he had recorded with them before (albeit always with other people), 2017’s A Rift In Decorum: Live At The Village Vanguard marked the true debut of Ambrose Akinmusire’s impressive jazz quartet, the most interesting new jazz combo since ...CONTINUE
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For some people, this may not be the best time for noisy, loosely structured free jazz. Or, really, anything that isn’t soothing. For the rest of us, though, there’s Whit Dickey’s Morph (CD, digital), an epic ...CONTINUE
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