|

Click here to expand and collapse the player

Jazz Browse All

0

Interview: Craig Taborn

By Kevin Whitehead, eMusic Contributor

Craig Taborn is a famously voracious listener, equally at home with 19th-century piano literature and glitchy techno. He's covered so much ground in 20 years of recording it's impossible to get a fix on him. He emerged as saxophone hotdog James Carter's henchman in the '90s, on albums including Conversin' with the Elders (Taborn meets swing giants Sweets Edison and Buddy Tate) and In Carterian Fashion (Taborn on organ). In the same period he began… more »

0

Interview: Ben Goldberg

By Kevin Whitehead, eMusic Contributor

The adventurous, lyrical, soulful San Francisco clarinet improviser Ben Goldberg made his reputation 20 years ago with the New Klezmer Trio. That band played what klezmer might have sounded like if it had kept evolving parallel to jazz. Since then, Goldberg has been involved in diverse bands and recording projects, playing original combo music, reimagined Americana (on the quartet Junk Genius's 1999 Ghost of Electricity), a tribute to his early hero Steve Lacy (the door,… more »

New + Noteworthy

Editors’ Picks

eMusic Reviews View All

Joshua Redman, Walking Shadows

2013 | Label: Nonesuch

This is Joshua Redman’s “ballads with strings” record, a venerable tradition that most includes such torrid beboppers as Charlie Parker and Clifford Brown. It continues Redman’s recent penchant for putting himself in new settings — his membership in the egalitarian ensemble James Farm and the knotty skronk he’s delivered guesting with The Bad Plus are other examples — but on Walking Shadows he allows himself the security blanket of deploying sidemen. It isn’t easy to come up with three more acutely creative jazz balladeers than the other members of his… more »

The Byron Allen Trio, The Byron Allen Trio

2002 | Label: ESP'Disk

During the 1960s, Bernard Stollman’s ESP label worked a side of the street that was largely left untouched by any other labels. The jazz end of their roster was dedicated almost entirely to obscure (at the time) avant-gardists, and although Stollman claimed to know little about the music he was presenting, his historical track record has turned out to be remarkably good. Some of the musicians represented by ESP have acquired legendary status: among them, Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, Archie Shepp, Paul Bley, Sunny Murray and Gary Peacock. But even… more »

Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Brooklyn Babylon

Label: New Amsterdam

With Infernal Machines, Darcy James Argue seemed to come out of nowhere: Who was this guy who wrote tunes drawing equally from the big band tradition as well as post-rock and classical minimalism? Why did he call his music “steampunk-jazz?” The reality was that this composer-bandleader came from the practice hall, where he’d been drilling his band for several years. Infernal Machines bowled us over with a fully formed, highly unique vision.

Brooklyn Babylon is his follow-up and, after a Grammy nod as well as three of DownBeat’s “rising… more »

Kendrick Scott Oracle, Conviction

2013 | Label: Concord Jazz

“Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred let us so love; where there is doubt let us so faith; where there is despair let us so hope; where there is darkness let us so light.” So Kendrick Scott prays over “Pendulum,” which starts off his third album Conviction with all the anticipation of an impending thunderstorm, all brisk rhythmic winds and enveloping atmospheres. Here the 32-year-old drummer/composer goes for broad themes, big idealism and a wide musical palette. Like the Bruce Lee sample that graces… more »

eMusic Radio

4

Bop ’til you stop: Bebop, Hard Bop and Post Bop

By Britt Robson, eMusic Contributor

Bebop is the fundamental vehicle by which the carbohydrates of modern jazz—harmony, melody and rhythm (starch, sugar and fiber) — are churned and burned into the fuel of life. Since it first emerged nearly 70 years ago, bop has become pervasive, spouting various hybrids that include West Coast jazz, hard bop, and soul jazz. All of this is wrapped up in Bop 'til you stop, our celebration of bebop in all its permutations and splendor. We'll keep… more »

Recommended Radio

View All