By Charles Farrell, eMusic ContributorTenor saxophonist (and occasional clarinetist, pianist, violinist and storyteller) Charles Gayle has a reputation as one of the last keepers of the '60s music once known as free jazz. Streets reinforces this impression, but it… more »
By Charles Farrell, eMusic ContributorThe early 21st century has produced few more intelligent voices in contemporary jazz than saxophonist Mark Turner's. A measured, yet emotionally evocative player, Turner has synthesized some of the structural improvisatory methods provided by Warne… more »
By Kevin Whitehead, eMusic ContributorSaxophonist Tim Berne writes some of the slinkiest lines around, lyrical and dissonant. They slowly unfurl before, between, over and under the lively solo and collective improvisations in his long suites, on the belatedly released… more »
By Charles Farrell, eMusic ContributorA few decades can make a world of difference in how a jazz musician's playing is heard by a general-listening audience. In the 1970s, as a young man getting his first worldwide exposure with pianist… more »
By Britt Robson, eMusic ContributorPatrick Cornelius is in the jazz game for the long haul, making music for the cognoscenti. From the title of his third and thus-far best disc (at once a pun on Coltrane's Giant Steps, a… more »
By Charles Farrell, eMusic ContributorThe late Charlie Mariano, having lived most of the last 40 years of his life in Germany, has never received the kind of acclaim in the U.S. his abilities should have guaranteed. An alto saxophonist… more »
By Kevin Whitehead, eMusic ContributorNo jazz musician inspires flattering imitators and devoted listeners like saxophonist John Coltrane. One reason is because there's a Coltrane for every taste: the yearning balladeer; the hard bop jackrabbit, scaling intricate improvised lines over… more »
By Kevin Whitehead, eMusic ContributorListening to jazz from around the world, one hears so many beautiful regional accents: the sound that results when jazz language and values merge with homegrown cultural attitudes and local growing conditions. Not that cross-cultural… more »