CD Reviews (11563)
Find full CD and individual track reviews of your favorite jazz artists right here, and hopefully you also discover some new artists to add to your collection as well.
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Strange timing, this. Almost 25 years after it was originally recorded comes this medium-length conversation between two titans of American improvised music. Fans of jazz’ farther out shores will need little introduction to either of the participants here. But despite their joint (and lazy) labeling as “outcats,” the initial highpoints…
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Rob Keiter recorded The Glory Of Love during a rough patch in his life. In the midst of the breakup of his 23-year marriage, he found himself putting together a collection of a dozen love songs. The emotion was overwhelming. As he was singing “This Nearly Was Mine,” Keiter couldn’t…
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My local record store is selling this under the Classical Music section, so is it really jazz at all? Perhaps more importantly, does a label matter when the music is so good?The 2 CD set of "Love Songs" is very much a game of 2 halves. CD1 presents 7 original…
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It isn't often I get over-the-top excited about a new CD, but when I received a press release regarding Disney Jazz Volume 1: Everybody Wants to Be a Cat, my heart began to beat wildly. Remembering some very fine Disney interpretations by some of our finest i.e., Bill Evans, Louie…
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It's a bold endeavor to believe you can invoke freshness and vitality into thinly worn standards like "Body and Soul," "All the Things You Are" and "My Funny Valentine." Trumpeter Cuong Vu meets the challenge head-on with imaginative results on Leaps of Faith, a quartet outing with wide-open improvisatory exploration,…
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For those who don’t already own one of the previous versions of this album’s release, now is the perfect time to pick up this incredible recording. The lineup included amazing trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, soulful saxophonists Stanley Turrentine and Hank Crawford, continually underappreciated flutist Hubert Laws, young-at-the-time guitar firebrand George Benson,…
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Koby Hayon’s debut album, Gemini, features a wide-open style of playing that gives the trio plenty of room to fill space and experiment with the pushing and pulling of time to shape the musical space around them. Featuring drummer Jerome Morris and veteran bassist Kermit Driscoll, Hayon's compositions blend traditional…
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Cornetist Eric Boeren leads his Dutch quartet with a crisp, compact and expressive sound through a program that toggles between inventive bop, free-bop and avant expressionism on this live date recorded in 2004. With legendary German drummer Paul Lovens garnering the most out of his sparse kit and generating a…
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New York-based pianist Alon Nechushtan has worked as a sideman with the likes of Frank London and Baya Kouyate and is the founder of the quintet TALAT, a critically acclaimed jazz-meets-klezmer ensemble. Nechushtan makes a bold statement with Words Beyond, his first release as leader of a progressive trio featuring…
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Vocalist Alison Ruble has gathered a strong set of jazz and folk-rock songs for her second Origin Records release. After displaying her diverse musical taste on her 2008 debut, This is a Bird, Ruble drives home the point that she is as comfortable reinterpreting the American songbook as she is…
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Filmed in High Definition, the footage captures eminent and highly-influential guitarist John Scofield with his quartet, largely performing within the progressive-jazz quartet mold, featuring longtime collaborator, drummer Bill Stewart. Captured at a Paris, France venue, Scofield’s animated and poetic delivery is in full form as he perpetuates his expressive bop…
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A girl's gotta have a little pleasure is a fun album full of blues, ballads and even a little humor; all these delivered by the sensual, soulful and powerful voice of Donna Greene. Donna is in good company in this album with veterans musicians with experience in a diversity of…
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Since the 1990s, guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel has been consistently turning heads with a series of releases showcasing his unique playing and compositional voice. Aside from his success as a leader, the Philadelphia native has racked up sideman credits with the likes of Brian Blade, Joshua Redman and Danilo Perez. Since…
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Easy Street is a delightful collection of jazz ballads presented with simple but effective arrangements that allows the listener to appreciate Callie Cardamon beautiful voice and cool delivery.As any good jazz singer Callie imprint every song with a bluesy feeling, singing behind the beat, a vocal technique most female jazz…
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Faced with the prospect of listening to an entire CD of improvised voice-and-percussion duos, I was initially a bit put-off and placed Scarnoduo into the 'back-burner' stack. But the CD's lovely packaging, of all things, made me curious. Once I got it into my CD player, the sheer inventiveness, broad…
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ElectroAcoustic Silence, also known as EASilence, is a collaborative effort involving an Italian jazz quartet and Japanese electronic musician Taketo Gohara. Though Gohara is credited with ‘sound design’ on the CD’s packaging, his contributions to Flatime hearken back to the synthesized swoops, sweeps, boops, and beeps I first heard from…
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Sicilian Opening is an extraordinarily pleasant modern jazz offering from the veteran Italian jazz pianist and his highly capable trio. What I admire most about this CD is the trio’s obvious musical chemistry, and their ability to create jazz that – while not on the cutting edge, stylistically – manages…
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Drummer / composer / arranger Mark Lomax drives a free-leaning tenor sax-fronted power trio with sure hands and graceful instincts on his fifth recording as a leader, The State Of Black America. The Blacksburg, VA native, an active music educator, and drum clinician has also worked with Azar Lawrence, Delfeayo…
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Trumpeter Ron Miles is one of those musicians who is always doing something that is worth paying attention to. This disc – prosaically titled 3ology With Ron Miles - is no exception. 3ology is a Denver-based saxophone – bass – drums trio that performs groove-based improvised music. Clearly, these three…
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Brian Landrus is a talented, young, multi-reedist whose primary horn is the baritone saxophone. Though more attuned to the post-Coltrane sound, his technique and sound on the bari evoke great old school players such as Nick Brignola and Pepper Adams. He's also an extremely capable flutist and clarinetist. I particularly…
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