Rolling Jazz 2025

JBL's 2/1 release:

Informed by the rhythms and textures of hip-hop and funk while remaining rooted in jazz, ‘Apple Cores’ was recorded with James Brandon Lewis’s longtime collaborators Chad Taylor (drums/mbira) and Josh Werner (bass/guitar). The recording was a collective compositional process that happened over the course of two intense, entirely improvised sessions.

Today from ‘Apple Cores,’ the trio shares “Prince Eugene,” a hazy ballad that combines a dub-reggae bassline and drums with a Zimbabwean mbira as Lewis’ saxophone sings and guides us through the tune’s heavy yet minimal groove. Listen to it below.

The album takes its name and intention from the column that poet and jazz theorist Amiri Baraka wrote for DownBeat in the 1960s. “I was first exposed to Amiri Baraka at Howard University [also Baraka’s alma mater],” says Lewis. “Blues People [Baraka’s groundbreaking 1963 study of Black American music], was required reading. I’m always in constant dialogue with his work.”

In addition to Baraka, the influence of another jazz giant looms mightily over Apple Cores: trumpeter and multi-instrumentalist, Don Cherry. In a testament to Cherry’s influence over the music that the trio is playing, Lewis designed each song title as a cryptogram of sorts, making subtle references to Cherry’s life and music.

“The record itself is a nod to Amiri but mainly a nod to Don Cherry, using Amiri as a branch to really get the conversation going,” Lewis explains. “It’s not a tribute in the sense that we’re playing Don Cherry compositions, but that the music is commenting on his musical curiosity.”

Next month Lewis embarks on a European tour alongside The Messthetics with shows in Dublin and throughout the UK. A hometown album release show has also been announced in Brooklyn, NY at Public Records on March 6 and following that show his trio returns to Europe in April and May with dates in Austria, Spain the Netherlands and more to celebrate the release of ‘Apple Cores’. All upcoming dates are listed below.

TOUR DATES
February 7 – Dublin, Ireland @ Grand Social
February 8 – Belfast, United Kingdom @ The Black Box
February 10 - Glasgow, United Kingdom @ Nice N Sleazy
February 11 – Manchester, United Kingdom @ Yes
February 12 – Birmingham, United Kingdom @ The Hare And Hounds
February 13 – Nottingham, United Kingdom @ Boat Club
February 14 – Bristol, United Kingdom @ The Lantern
February 15 – Lewes, United Kingdom @ Lewes Con Club
February 16 – London, United Kingdom @ 100 Club
March 3 – Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon
March 6 – Brooklyn, NY @ Public Records
March 7 – Chicago, IL @ Constellation
April 26 – Paris, France @ Maison de la Radio Studio 104
April 27 – Cologne, Germany @ Stadtgarten
April 28 – Brno, Czech Republic @ Cabare des Peches
April 29 – Vienna, Austria @ Porgy & Bess
April 30 – San Sebastian, Spain @ Victoria Eugenia Club
May 2 – Barcelona, Spain @ El Molino
May 3 – London, UK @ Vortex
May 7 – Tilburg, Netherlands @ Paradox
May 8 – Liege, Belgium @ Jazz A Liege Festival

Some good stuff coming out in the next couple of months:

Sun & Rain (3/4 of Little Women, minus Darius Jones, plus a new saxophonist) - Waterfall
Isaiah Collier/William Parker/William Hooker - The Ancients
Burnt Sugar - If You Can't Dazzle Them With Your Brilliance Then Baffle Them With Your Blisluth Vol 2 (live album)
James Brandon Lewis - Apple Cores
Sullivan Fortner - Southern Nights
Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner - The Music Of Anthony Braxton
Sylvie Courvoisier/Mary Halvorson - Bone Bells
Jeong Lim Yang - Synchronicity
Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad - Jazz Is Dead 22: Ebo Taylor
Alabaster DePlume - A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole
Billy Hart Quartet (w/Mark Turner, Ethan Iverson) - Just

https://tr.ee/j1i6095ik0

Been seeing jazz musicians post this fundraiser for the Los Angeles based Mauoin family ( including longtime jazz player Bennie Maupin) who have been impacted by the LA fires

Bennie Maupin was already suffering health (and cognitive) issues the last few years, I heard.

I was just about to post the same thing. Nasheet Waits shared the same link, writing: "Please give to Bennie Maupin. A true treasure that has lost his home and instruments. Literally everything. Kindly give so he can feel the love. Peace."

https://hullworks.net/jazzpoll/24/totals-new.php

Francis Davis Tom Hull Jazz critics poll

https://hullworks.net/jazzpoll/24/critics.php

Names and links to each critic's ballot for 2024

did everyone see this? i feel like everyone should see this. its good for you. in a good way. maybe everyone has seen it already.

Baden-Baden Free Jazz Meeting 1970

Isaiah Collier/William Parker/William Hooker - The Ancients, just got my copy this morning, Collier I was not really familiar with aside from hearing the name but he has no problem hanging with Parker & Hooker, who are as you can imagine outstanding, just a really great set

This is a really cool record of live duo improv + electronics, from some folks I know well -
https://shiftingparadigmrecords.bandcamp.com/album/full-potential

My latest Stereogum column just went up. I reviewed the Collier/Parker/Hooker album and nine other equally excellent records covering a wide spectrum of sounds (everything from an Andrew Hill big band to the PainKiller reunion disc), and interviewed trumpeter Jason Palmer:

https://www.stereogum.com/2293704/introducing-jason-palmer/columns/ugly-beauty/

^ I always LOVE your column. Thank you for the great music you've introduced me to (as someone who has little knowledge about jazz)!

https://mapledeathrecords.bandcamp.com/album/flowers-are-blooming-in-antarctica

loving this laura agnusdei album "flowers are blooming in antarctica" - dubby jazz with electronics

Whoever is doing the quality control over at Division 81 records is super sloppy and it's starting to annoy me. Last year I ordered two Isaiah Collier albums (Cosmic Transmissions & The Almighty), but they initially only sent me the first one and I had to email a couple times to get the second one. Then a few months ago, I ordered the new one (The World is On Fire) and they sent me another copy of The Almighty and have yet to respond to my emails.

Love that NA, it fits right in with the dub wormhole I'm currently in.

it's so good. i am not a "jazz guy" but i feel like every year there's one album in this vein that i click with.

The Collier/Hooker/Parker is fantastic. The bit in the final set where Collier plays a megaphone like its the sax, complete with multiphonics and timely blasts of the klaxon, is a trip.

The new Ambrose Akinmusire is out today and it's a stunner. https://daily.bandcamp.com/album-of-the-day/ambrose-akinmusire-honey-from-a-winter-stone-review

I love Akinmusire in more conventional settings (his quartet/quintet, the trio with Bill Frisell and Herlin Riley) but I really didn't like Origami Harvest, and this new one is being linked to that one, so I'll probably pass.

whoa the Agnusdei album is sounding amazing

Oh shit, I was wondering when his next one would be out. Owl Song was probably my AOTY, but his music had never really clicked with me before that.

Listening to a Susan Alcorn/José Lencastre/Hernâni Faustino album from 2023, Manifesto. Really beautiful stuff; steel guitar, alto or tenor sax depending on the track, upright bass. On Clean Feed.

https://cleanfeedrecords.bandcamp.com/album/manifesto

Definitely worth hearing the Akinmusire as it pulls off the jazz/hip-hop/contemporary classical thing with more sophistication and fluidity than Origami Harvest (which was still really interesting). The Mivos String Quartet are very much part of the whole ensemble. There's a lot of fluidity in the arrangements and no sense they're tacked on. The drumming is fantastic - more FlyLo than 90s boom bap.

Saw that Alcorn trio in Lisbon in 2023. Really gorgeous music. There were bits where she made the pedal steel sound like banjo or zither. An amazing artist. Really gutted at the news of her passing.

Aw, that's very sad about Alcorn. An acquaintance of mine wrote a piece for her, he talked a lot about her on a podcast recently.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFgF1gTg_i8/?igsh=YmN2ZG51dm50MGFr

Yeah sad to learn that. I found out about her through a great country album by Zane Campbell that she played on

I love Akinmusire in more conventional settings (his quartet/quintet, the trio with Bill Frisell and Herlin Riley) but I really didn't like Origami Harvest, and this new one is being linked to that one, so I'll probably pass.

Same. Was excited about this until I read the description. Still rooting for this guy, though. He's a great player.

Side note: It's incredible how hard it is to get hands on a physical copy of A Rift In Decorum: Live At The Village Vanguard.

try discogs

it's kind of jarring that Ambrose's pianist collaborator is called Sam Harris

i want to cover the Village Vanguard record and call it A Dilf in Your Rectum

sensational article from ethan iverson that takes the Live At Slugs record as a kind of jumping off point to talk about, frankly the entire history of mid-20th century jazz, and how the Slugs was a kind of ground zero for the evolution of hard swinging jazz that pushed the boundaries but didn't follow the fusion or free jazz trajectories -

https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/slugs-jazz-ethan-iverson/

Nice little sidebar listener's guide here: https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/slugs-jazz-albums-list/

ty, excellent article

I really enjoyed reading that too, but part of my enjoyment was being somewhat bemused by its thesis: that this idiom is overlooked. When I started getting into jazz in the mid-00s, it was through buying reissued CDs and early-mid 60s Blue Notes were so abundant and relatively cheap that the era was wildly over-represented in my knowledge of jazz history for a while. I totally get that my experience is an outlier consequence of the 00s music industry, but it's funny to see a list of "overlooked" records that I own half of (and have close alternates for most of the rest).

Same here.

Same, and it might be my favorite music of all.

Haven't read the article but I liked this post where he talks about omitting Art Blake's Free for All (one of my favorites for the sense of abandon and unexpectedly driving all the meters into the red).

https://iverson.substack.com/p/tt-479-a-night-in-tunisia-and-free

Also love this anecdote from him interviewing 'Tain' Watts about Blakey -

"Art could just do anything. He probably just heard cats doing it and he would just do stuff to show people he could do it. I remember taking a van ride with him to Atlantic City. We were in the van and we’re riding and he’s like, Yes, Jeff. Polyrhythms, you know, it’s no big deal, polyrhythm. You do six over here and you do five with your foot like this. And he was just doing it! You just do that and then you can play in between, you know, playing three over here. He’s just like a natural virtuoso blues musician or whatever. "

I didn't know where to put the new Damon Locks album on International Anthem. This is not jazz but spoken word/poetry although it is jazz in a way. Nevermind don't sleep on it, the first album of the year contestor has arrived. Poetry for our algorithmic times.

"I am late, yet time has lost all meaning"

"the networks create connections and monetize reactions"

"- meaninglessness, it's not concrete; it is ephemeral. at the same time, trackable and traceable"

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/track/click

New percussion trio album from Joe Chambers (82!), Chad Taylor, and Kevin Diehl -
https://eremiterecords.bandcamp.com/album/onilu

That first preview track is beguiling, it's in 13 but sometimes it's in 12 and I haven't yet worked out the cycle, or maybe I'm just not getting it.

I wrote about tenor saxophonist Don Byas in this week's BA newsletter. I found him to be a fascinating transitional figure who bridged the gap between the swing and bebop eras, and who left the US for Europe at the height of his success, never to return.

There's a 4 1/2 hour playlist of tracks from the Strata-East label up on streaming services today. It serves as a preview of a big digital reissue campaign covering almost their whole catalog, which will happen in April. Here's a Tidal link, because fuck Spotify.

https://tidal.com/browse/album/411629336?u

Also, my latest Stereogum column is up. I interviewed pianist Sullivan Fortner.

RIP Larry Appelbaum whom I first met at the University of Maryland radio Station WMUC where Larry was a jazz dj. He moved on to the Library of Congress where he found a previously unavailable Thelonious Monk tape (and got some acclaim for this) , programmed jazz movies and concerts for the Washington dc area public and did so much more there at the LOC. He also dj'd at WPFW for years (his show was called "The Sound of Surprise") and wrote for Jazz Times and others. He programmed concerts with Transparent Productions in DC for awhile too. He had a stroke some years back and did his best since that time. He frequently honored musicians and other artists on Facebook with posts, and also shared photos he had taken himself over the years with jazz musicians and jazz scholars. I knew him and will miss him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilWKTJtn-YM

That YouTube is Larry Appelbaum explaining finding the Monk w/ Coltrane tape and more at the LOc

https://larryappelbaum.wordpress.com/2016/01/26/jazztimes-radio-article-interview/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR36XACrw6RV4yf8m_Rd4Sbt9P5fyCpjtojDAi1gFO-kIFoAVW8HGonoMzw_aem_5pvGXRjVgQd9M4wcjubtjQ

I really like the new Billy Hart ECM album (Ethan Iverson, Mark Turner, Ben Street)

I'm really enjoy Billy Hart's Just too--am going through a bit of a Mark Turner listening phase, on a related note, which started in earnest with the Kurt Rosenwinkel Next Step Live archival release last year, and continues now with Just, as well as the new Steve Lehman on Pi (The Music of Anthony Braxton) and Turner's own new solo album on Jakob Bro's Loveland Music (We Raise Them To Lift Their Heads)

Agree about Turner; the Hart, Lehman, and Rosenwinkel albums are all really good (and I am not a Rosenwinkel fan), as is his playing on Jason Palmer's new one and his own record with the group The Fury (Turner, guitarist Lage Lund, Matt Brewer on bass and Tyshawn Sorey on drums). He's supposedly got a quartet record coming out on ECM later this year, too, with Palmer, Joe Martin on bass and Jonathan Pinson on drums.

https://mapledeathrecords.bandcamp.com/album/flowers-are-blooming-in-antarctica

loving this laura agnusdei album "flowers are blooming in antarctica" - dubby jazz with electronics

this album is awesome.

flowers are blooming is awesome, thank you. It's dense, yet so vibrant. It sparkled for me at 1am last night

I'm posting this here and in the metal thread, for obvious reasons: I interviewed Ray Suhy, who's simultaneously an accomplished jazz guitarist and the lead guitarist in Six Feet Under. It was a really fun conversation, even if the transcription program I use couldn't tell our voices apart (two guys from Jersey yappin').

The new Yazz Ahmed record is very good.

also good: the new Billy Mohler album with Jeff Parker, Damion Reid, and Devin Daniels

Saw the Vijay Iyer Trio last night, playing music based off the Trio ECM albums, albeit the bassist and drummer were two youngsters I hadn’t heard of but were quite impressive. The set favored long improvs on tracks from the recent albums. The drummer, Jeremy Dutton, made me think of Jack DeJohnette.

The recently released Wolf Eyes x Anthony Braxton performance from Pioneer Works in 2023 is fantastic.

Two weeks ago I attended a performance of Braxton’s works at the Library of Congress. And while alas the great man was not there three of his compositions were played by an all-star large group including Ingrid Laubrock, Cory Smyrhe, and Tomeka Reid. They played the US premiere of of his “Thunder Music”, one of his latest systems (they’ve been coming thick and fast in the last decade or two).

The recently released Wolf Eyes x Anthony Braxton performance from Pioneer Works in 2023 is fantastic.

Yeah, I agree; I included it in my last Stereogum column. I've just started working on a pretty big Braxton project for my label. I'll be able to share more information in a few weeks, but it's exciting.

[ahmed] live from Roulette in NYC next week and streaming live on Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vl4v2JVERlg

The Roy Hargrove documentary is on youtube, really good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liK1u6DQQ4M

xp i'm guessing on their way to Big Ears. i doubt they're playing any other shows while they're here, but please post here if you know something!

god listening to RH talk at the beginning of that with all his junkie bullshit. it's real sad man. he was really an asshole

xp i'm guessing on their way to Big Ears. i doubt they're playing any other shows while they're here, but please post here if you know something!

That's it — NYC and Big Ears are the only US shows.

shucks. you shoulda had 'em make a montana pit stop

having a pretty jazz-intensive year...flew up to NY to see Matthew Shipp at the OUTMusic thing...he was great but Andrew Cyrille's solo drum performance blew me away...finally getting around to this Mary Halvorson / Sylvie Courvoisier Bone Bells album and it's very, very deep...lotta "what if I dig in on this note that's not in the scale of the key you're playing in" stuff, disorienting discord that really works because they keep it grounded...big record.

Yeah, that's a good one — I'm including it in this month's Stereogum column, which should go out next week. (I got to talk about Pussy Galore's Exile On Main St. in the context of discussing Branford Marsalis's new one, which is a full-album cover of Keith Jarrett's Belonging.)

Branford Marsalis's new one, which is a full-album cover of Keith Jarrett's Belonging.

!
!!
!!!

I went to a touching memorial service yesterday for Library of Congress employee, jazz radio DJ, jazz critic, & music film & concert booker Larry Appelbaum in Washington DC yesterday. Larry was best known for finding a Coltrane with Thelonius Monk quartet live concert tape , that Blue Note later reissued. He also acquired the archives of a number of jazz legends for the Library of Congress. He had also frequently spoke at jazz events in Japan, Eastern Europe, and Nordic countries. I had first met him when I was a freshman DJ at the U of Md radio station WMUC and he was a senior .

Woah he wasn’t that old was he?

I'm reading Ashley Kahn's book on Impulse Records after hearing him on Pablo Held's podcast. I don't know why its taken me this long to do so (or maybe I did read it 20 years ago and forgot everything, completely possible). Of course I love the music but the look into the old school record business is very interesting so far (it was a different world but just as craven, and it's amazing that they were able to siphon off enough money and creative control to make it happen).

Only 67. He had been hit with health issues in recent years . He survived throat cancer , then had a stroke and recovered from that. But then he had a second stroke which impaired his voice and ability to walk. He recovered enough to start doing writing again. But then in February he got pneumonia and didn’t recover.

A jazz musician and DJ who I had met at U of Md also, told a nice story about he and Larry in the 80s going to Jazz Fest in New Orleans and sticking around for a bit. They went to see a Sun Ra gig at an elementary school, possibly in the 9th ward . They thought it would be in a theatre Lin the school. Instead Sun Ra and the Arkestra played their jazz takes on Disney songs on the playground with the kids watching and running around.

That story tied in nicely for me , as I saw the Sun Ra Arkestra Saturday night opening for Yo La Tengo at the Howard Theatre. Then 6 members of the Arkestra joined Yo Ka Tengo for an hour of their set which included some Sun Ra songs. 100 plus years old Marshall Allen looked and sounded good onstage with the Arkestra in the opening set

Wish I could have seen that

it's a motherfucker
don't you know
when it's your turn on the slide
your ass gotta go

My latest Stereogum column is up; I interviewed Nels Cline, and reviewed albums by Branford Marsalis, Dayna Stephens, Nick Hempton & Cory Weeds, Muriel Grossmann, Alberto Novello & Rob Mazurek, Nicole McCabe, Peter Brötzmann, Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson, Yazz Ahmed, and Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith.

Great interview, didn't know he's married to Yuka Honda!

Looking forward to listening to a few of those, particularly the Branford and Dayna Stephens.

Has anyone seen the Isaiah Collier/William Parker Ancients on CD? I pre-ordered it from Dusty Groove, but they say it is still "delayed". Wondering if I should just cancel that and order it direct from Aguirre instead...

Yeah, I'd reach out to Aguirre to see if they have any first, because I tried importcds.com (a distributor that sells direct) and it's on backorder there.

Hey creative jazz lovers in the Pacific Northwest!

The region should batten down the hatches, as new-fusion pioneer and multi-keyboardist Dave Bryant brings Harmolodic League, with former members of Ornette Coleman’s explosive Prime Time band—including electric bassist and noted producer Jamaaladeen Tacuma—on tour from April 4 through 12 in support of his album manifesto Wire and Bone.

TOUR DATES:
APRIL 4TH 7:30PM @ SEATTLE JAZZ FELLOWSHIP
APRIL 5TH 8:00PM @ ODDFELLOWS IN BELLINGHAM
APRIL 7TH 7:30PM @ THE CHAPEL SPACE AT GOOD SHEPHERD CTR. IN SEATTLE
APRIL 10TH 7:30PM @ THE ROYAL ROOM IN SEATTLE
APRIL 11TH 7:00PM @ KINGSWAY CLUB IN VANCOUVER, BC
APRIL 12TH 8:00PM @ BOXLEY’S IN NORTH BEND, WA

The music on Wire and Bone is based on the Third Thursdays concerts Bryant presents monthly in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Exploring the vast horizons Coleman’s Harmolodics opened, Bryant has become one of the most active proponents of music still thought of as “avant- garde.” His Third Thursdays events have featured Coleman sidemen such as guitarist James “Blood” Ulmer, drummer G. Calvin Weston and bassist Al McDowell.

On tour, Harmolodic League will expand on its program with local several collaborators and special events.

Besides its four core members — Bryant, Ornette Coleman’s longest-associated keyboard player, heard to advantage on Prime Time’s 1995 classic Tone Dialing; Tacuma, who electrified Coleman’s first iteration of Prime Time, founded in 1975; drummer James Kamal Jones, aka Kamal Sabir, from Coleman’s 1985 homecoming celebration in Fort Worth, Texas and saxophonist and live-electronics player Neil Leonard, Artistic Director of the Berklee Interdisciplinary Arts Institute.

The acclaimed rhythm team of bassist King Dahl and drummer Jerry Steinhilber will perform at dates in Bellingham, North Bend, Seattle, and Vancouver.

Steve Treseler will be Harmolodic League’s guest artist on tenor saxophone and electronics at The Chapel Space at The Good Shepherd Center on Monday, April 7, 2025. This particular performance at The Chapel will contain some unique elements such as the U.S. premiere of Clara Gibson Maxwell’s “videodance" “Encuentro-Encuentro” and the addition of Seattle-based Treseler to the ensemble.

On Wednesday, April 9, the band will enrich its presentation with a panel discussion on Ornette Coleman and his Harmolodics approach for the Jazz department at Western Washington University.

From the Northeast to the Northwest, Dave Bryant and Harmolodic League make music never heard before nor likely to be exactly repeated live, although it can be revisited for enjoyment and enlightenment, excitement and emotional immersion on Wire and Bone.

LOCATION: CAMBRIDGE, MA

RIYL: PAT METHENY , KEITH JARRETT, RONALD SHANNON JACKSON, ALBERT AYLER, CECIL TAYLOR, JOHN ZORN, GOLDEN PALOMINO

Please let us know if you want a copy off the CD to experience this explorative, invigorate music in the privacy of your jazz cave or share at the job or in your smooth ride!



xo estey

www.xopublicity.com

PORTLAND / DETROIT / SEATTLE / LOS ANGELES

@xopublicity (twitter, instagram, snapchat)

206.728.0457 office

Fwiw, in case anyone else is curious, I did reach out to Aguirre last week about the Collier/Parker live album on CD, but no response just yet.

Saw the Dave King Trucking Company in trio form last night, truly sublime. It was originally supposed to be a Happy Apple show but it was the next best thing...Erik Fratzke still on bass (not guitar, like he does in the expanded version of this band), all DK tunes and the finest banter in the game. Really one of the best parts about living in the midwest is getting to see these musicians mere blocks from my house.

Interspersing the most intricate and beautifully played music with a bit about what Bruce Springsteen songs would be like if his characters ever actually left their hometown, improvising lyrics and exhorting the sax player to play louder, like the big man Clarence.

RIP jazz critic Francis Davis, someone I admired greatly while often disagreeing with.

Davis also did some nice writing about blues and soul. RIP

Journalist Andy Beta in his substack talked to writer/author Ben Ratliff about his new book about music and running

We had lunch about a year ago and you mentioned the rather obscure pianist Elmo Hope. And then at the reading the other day, he came up again. And in a fascinating stretch of the book, Elmo Hope also figures into a section that’s also about his fellow South Bronx neighbors, Thelonious Monk and Arsenio Rodriguez. What strikes you about Elmo Hope’s music and the specificity of his South Bronx street?

Well, if you run around Morrisania, which is the area east of Yankee Stadium in the mid-south-west Bronx, and make your way to Lyman Place, now known as Elmo Hope Way, you’ll enter a short block lined with houses on both sides, sort of hidden away between 169th and Freeman St. That’s the word: enter. You can imagine feeling very safe and enclosed here, maybe protected, maybe encouraged. I don’t know what the rule of definition is for streets in New York called “Place,” but I think it means a street of limited length. Lyman Place is only one block long. It’s not a Mews--that’s a one-block-long street formerly used as horse stables, usually gated on either side--but it has a similarly enclosed and protected feeling to a mews—it is a place where you might hang out on the stoop with your family, exchanging inside stories.

It’s right by Prospect Avenue, which is a main drag; Hope could easily walk to Club 845, one of the city’s great jazz clubs back then, and maybe a little off the radar for your casual jazz fan, because it’s not 52nd Street and not Harlem–who knows, maybe you could play there without a cabaret license. Elmo Hope spent some young time there, with Antiguan parents, and came back there to live with his wife Bertha. The feeling I get from his records is of a precocious, self-assured young person who developed in encouraging circumstances, in the right time and the right place, and who wasn’t professionalizing himself, flattening himself out. His music is kind of slangy and bumpy. He hung around with Bud Powell, who went to DeWitt Clinton high school in the Bronx. People around them must have thought them young geniuses.

that sounds interesting. i'm not so sure about the running part. but in terms of a hyper-local neighborhood imagination, or this desire to conjure up what life was like block-by-block for Hope or whoever else, and trying to reconstruct the impact it might have had, is cool

I interviewed David Murray for Stereogum. The new Kamasi Washington album, which is nominally a soundtrack to the anime series Lazarus, is very good if you're a fan of his work.

Five more jazz recommendations in my latest newsletter: John Zorn's Chaos Magick, a European improv trio, Adam O'Farrill leading an octet, Finnish tenor saxophonist Timo Lassy, and Texas-based tenor saxophonist Diego Rivera.

DC jazzbos, free NEA Jazz masters concert Saturday night at the Kennedy/Trump Center honoring Marshall Allen, Marilyn Crispell, Chucho Valdes, and Gary Giddens. Undoubtedly this will be the last one ever.

The big man won’t be there, he has publicly stated that he prefers John Gilmore and has fond memories of catching the Arkestra at Sweet Basil in the ‘80s.

My '90s jazz rec for the day - Myron Walden's "Like a Flower Seeking the Sun." New to me, fantastic quartet record with Eric McPherson (also new to me) and prime late '90s Kurt Rosenwinkel.

Re the free with registration show Saturday night at Kennedy Center - it will also be webcast and carried on radio stations (details in press release link). / Marshall Allen will lead the Sun Ra Arkestra. Marilyn Crispell will perform with 2020 NEA Jazz Master and bassist Reggie Workman. Chucho Valdés will perform with his ensemble, Chucho Valdés Royal Quartet, including Horacio Hernandez, José A. Gola, and Roberto Jr. Vizcaino Torre. In honor of Gary Giddins, David Murray will perform, alongside Russell Carter, Emma Dayhuff, and Marta Sánchez.* @ Kenn. Ctr

https://www.arts.gov/news/press-releases/2025/celebrate-2025-nea-jazz-masters-april-24-26-2025

two tickets per person may be reserved for this free concert in person at the Kennedy Center Box Office, at kennedy-center.org

Live webcast details:
The 2025 NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert will also be available to watch live via arts.gov and kennedy-center.org. An archive of the webcast will be available following the event at arts.gov.

Interesting that Luke Stewart won’t be playing bass with Murray that night. I thought he worked at/for the Kennedy Center, at least some of the time.

Interesting that Luke Stewart won’t be playing bass with Murray that night. I thought he worked at/for the Kennedy Center, at least some of the time.

lol unperson Allen Lowe fights back! (I must be the only person who reads both your substacks).

FWIW I’ve enjoyed and purchased Lowe’s CD compilations and books. He can tend to be a crank but I think his theses on the origins of “jazz” and his writing on the odd racial crossovers of the early recording industry to be provocative.

Somebody forwarded me Lowe's article. He totally misses my point, of course. He's obviously very well-read and has heard a million records I'll never hear. I'm just tired of him shit-talking jazz critics and publicists and everyone not him, without being willing to say who he's talking about.

Anyway, I just got notified that someone who subscribes to his newsletter subscribed to mine. The power of morbid curiosity, I guess...

x-post - Luke Stewart has not worked for/at Kennedy Center in quite awhile. But still surprising it's not Luke, as he will be in DC Sunday I imagine for the Capital Bop website anniversary gig . I think Jason Moran is still the Jazz director at Kennedy Center

https://remembermyjourney.com/memorials/francis-j-davis?id=A6leNXEL

The Francis Davis memorial service will be on zoom Friday at 1 pm et

As an update, I never did hear anything back from the Aguirre people, so I'm not sure what's up with the CD version of that Ancients live record.

That sucks, 'cause I would have considered buying one.

OK, I ordered the 2CD direct from Aguirre's website and they shipped it right away — tracking number and all. I'd reach out to them again if I were you. Or maybe just order one and cancel your Dusty Groove order.

Thanks for the heads up! I'll do that.

https://www.arts.gov/honors/jazz

The NEA Jazz Honors with interviews, honors, video bios, and live performances mentioned above are included in the link. Marshall Allen will lead the Sun Ra Arkestra. Marilyn Crispell will perform with 2020 NEA Jazz Master and bassist Reggie Workman. Chucho Valdés will perform with his ensemble, Chucho Valdés Royal Quartet, including Horacio Hernandez, José A. Gola, and Roberto Jr. Vizcaino Torre. In honor of Gary Giddins, David Murray will perform, alongside Russell Carter, Emma Dayhuff, and Marta Sánchez.* @ Kenn. Ctr

I just exchanged emails with Marilyn Crispell (my label is putting out this live Anthony Braxton set that she plays on) and congratulated her. The whole performance is on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9050UBZ2qk

Fucking hell! I'm gonna be living off this for a while. Not only did Anthony Braxton just become a paying subscriber to my newsletter, but he sent this note:

"Your work is important for listeners of creative music and for the musicians. There is now a need to develop dynamic media structures through out the whole of western civilization - this movement will spread into composite reality everywhere on our planet. Creativity is connected to the health of all people and somehow we must find a way to help the coming generation."

I was at the concert last night, since Crispell, David Murray, and the Arkestra are some of my favorite artists ever. The Sun Ra Arkestra really brought down the house, but the whole concert was great.

Xp Congrats unperson!

I hope I can see him perform live again soon, or at least in the flesh. Hope he’s at the 100 tubas performance this Saturday at Fort Greene Park.

obsessed with/starting a thread for the new emma-jean thackray

Well-deserved. unperson.
"still writing their third album," arrgh. Oh well I'll be here when they get here.

TITAN TO TACHYONS: NYC Metal/Jazz Entity Formed By Members Of Mr. Bungle, John Zorn, Imperial Triumphant Begins Tour With Melvins And Napalm Death Next Week + Tour Dates With Microwaves Follow
New York City experimental/jazz metal quartet TITAN TO TACHYONS begins their US tour supporting the Melvins and Napalm Death next week. Already in progress, TITAN TO TACHYONS join the trek May 6th in Allentown, Pennsylvania and play through the Eastern US into the Midwest through May 20th in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Directly following these dates, the band will tour their way back home with four dates alongside Microwaves, May 21st through 24th. See all confirmed dates and ticket links below.

TITAN TO TACHYONS w/ Melvins, Napalm Death:

5/06/2025 Archer Music Hall – Allentown, PA [tickets]

5/07/2025 Warsaw – Brooklyn, NY [tickets]

5/08/2025 Paradise Rock Club – Boston, MA [tickets]

5/10/2025 Mr. Smalls Theatre – Pittsburgh, PA [tickets]

5/11/2025 Globe Iron – Cleveland, OH [tickets]

5/12/2025 Saint Andrew’s Hall – Detroit, MI [tickets]

5/13/2025 The Intersection – Grand Rapids, MI [tickets]

5/15/2025 Bogart’s – Cincinnati, OH [tickets]

5/16/2025 Mercury Ballroom – Louisville, KY [tickets]

5/17/2025 Brooklyn Bowl Nashville – Nashville, TN [tickets]

5/18/2025 Red Flag – St. Louis, MO [tickets]

5/19/2025 The Metro – Chicago, IL [tickets]

5/20/2025 The Rave II – Milwaukee, WI [tickets]

w/ Microwaves:

5/21/2025 Westside Bowl – Youngstown, OH [tickets]

5/22/2025 Sacred Root Kava Bar – Ithaca, NY [tickets]

5/23/2025 The Avalon Lounge – Catskill, NY [tickets]

5/24/2025 Getties – Providence, RI [tickets]

TITAN TO TACHYONS is led by New Zealand/New York composer and guitarist Sally Gates (ex-Orbweaver), joined by drummer Kenny Grohowski (Secret Chiefs 3, Imperial Triumphant, John Zorn), and dueling bassists Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle, Fantômas, Tomahawk) and Matt Hollenberg (Cleric, John Zorn). The quartet instrumentally depicts the realms of surrealism and science-fiction through eclectic and improvisational passages, juxtaposed by fluid grooves and metallic flurries.
TITAN TO TACHYONS’ second album, Vonals, saw release through John Zorn’s eclectic Tzadik Records in the Summer of 2022, the album recorded and mixed by Colin Marston at Menegroth, the Thousand Caves (Dysrhythmia, Krallice, Imperial Triumphant), mastered by Scott Hull at Masterdisk (Miles Davis, Steely Dan, Herbie Hancock), and completed with band photography by Naeemah Z. Maddox and cover paintings by Sally Gates.

Watch TITAN TO TACHYONS’ live at the Ottobar at THIS LOCATION,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xKZIlx0uXc
and the “Blue Thought Particles” visualizer HERE.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4K51yQclQQ

I love NY: Sitting at Roulette waiting for the Henry Threadgill concert to begin and Marty Ehrlich is sitting right behind me talking about working with Jaki Byard

wish i were there, tho i just saw alfredo rodriguez then joshua redman at new orleans jazzfest

Redman's got a whole new band (he's officially graduated to "old(er) man leading band of youngsters" status), and a new album coming out in I think late June.

wish i were there, tho i just saw alfredo rodriguez then joshua redman at new orleans jazzfest

Old grumbling me is in the I used to go to New Orleans Jazzfest camp as the thousands of attendees who were there to see the big name rock and pop acts on those stages made it hard to maneuver around to see the jazz and zydeco and blues and brass band acts on the smaller stages. But maybe it's not that bad

all the jazz acts are in really easily accessible tents for the most part, idgi

i mean yes it does get swamped with ppl there to see lenny kravitz or whatever but i found it really easy to avoid the crowd

yesterday i saw terence blanchard flow and they were insane. and then kamasi washington right after

Nice. See any brass bands?

damn i missed seeing Blanchard a couple of weeks ago, kicking myself.

It's really weird to me that Blue Note is putting out a Nate Mercereau/Josh Johnson/Carlos Niño album (under the name Openness Trio). Like, Blue Note is over here, and International Anthem is over here, you know?

speaking of jazz/not jazz, anyone hip to berlin's moses yoofee trio. a drummer friend recommended them to me, and i get why he would, it's an interesting mix of jazz and dnb (the drummer is indeed crazy): https://mosesyoofeetrio.bandcamp.com/track/bond

https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/05/07/boston-berklee-school-music-payton-jazz-bam-dismissal

Nicholas Payton, musician and brass department chair dismissed from Berklee.

Payton’s dismissal came the same month he reposted a racist and misogynistic Facebook screed by a former bandmate against up-and-coming New Haven jazz keyboardist Connie Han. It was one of several posts Payton shared during an online dispute between the two musicians, in which she wrote Payton “does not deserve his position at Berklee.” Payton said she also has called him misogynistic. Han did not respond to a request for comment.

In the wake of their digital spat, two conservative websites revealed that Payton had repeatedly shared or amplified antisemitic tropes and other hateful remarks against Jewish people for years.

His history of anti-Semitic posts (these are old-school debunked ugly stereotypes about Jews btw, not complaints about Israel in Gaza)

Payton can play the hell out of the horn but has always struck me as a gaping asshole in almost every other respect.

A shame he's doubling down on some stupid stuff

New world description

That's a real shame, I'm still a fan though.

Watched this Buster Williams doc on youtube, it's very sweet and has some good old footage interspersed -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eo5t93H_gs

My copy of the Ancients CD arrived today. Two weeks from Belgium to Montana. I can officially endorse ordering direct from Aguirre Records.

I've put out a previously unreleased Cecil Taylor/Tony Oxley live recording on my label (official street date is July 11, but you can buy it and download the whole thing now):

https://ceciltaylor-bam.bandcamp.com/album/flashing-spirits

xp - Mine was shipped on the 29th, but I haven't seen it yet. The tracking just still says "the shipment is registered in our system".

In today's BA newsletter, I did a 10th anniversary look back at Kamasi Washington's The Epic, comparing him to Charles Lloyd and Grover Washington, Jr.

Sounds like Al Foster has passed, truly one of my favorites.

So many great underrated records, but Joe Henderson 'So Near, So Far' is the one for me (aside from '70s Miles of course, but that's a different thing...it's amazing how authentic and committed he is when playing rock and funk, but his swing playing is so beautiful and deep).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZmiMVdkIPw

RIP Al Foster. Nice groove on that Henderson cut. Quite a discography over the decades. I should check out his playing on Hugh Masekela, Reconstruction(Uni, 1970) ; Abbey Lincoln, People in Me (Philips, 1973); and re-listen to him on Shirley Horn, I Remember Miles (Verve, 1998)

Currently listening to him on Bobby Hutcherson 'In the Vanguard' ('86), it's sick. Lots of marimba, Kenny Barron on piano.

Buster Williams gets pretty metal by the end of Well You Needn't

Belated xps unperson but I liked that essay on Kamari Washington — the context and reference points all make sense, and I like the case for populist jazz.

I wrote another long essay this week, this one about the James Brandon Lewis Quartet. Shots fired at the end:

David Murray seemed like the heir apparent for a moment in the Seventies, but by the time he seemed interested in seriously grappling with the saxophone quartet as a thing, on the 1988 albums Lovers, Deep River, Ballads, Spirituals, and Tenors with pianist Dave Burrell, bassist Fred Hopkins, and drummer Ralph Peterson Jr., he was already established as a man in his own lane. (One day I’ll write an essay about those five albums, though.) Wayne Shorter led a quartet — pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci, drummer Brian Blade — for almost 20 years, and he wrote plenty of new music for the group during that time, but they never made a studio album. (The full quartet only appears on three tracks from Shorter’s 2003 album Alegría, and the studio disc of 2018’s half-studio/half-live Emanon adds a chamber orchestra.) Branford Marsalis has been leading his current group for many years, too, but be honest: have they made a genuinely great album yet?

i've definitely been conflating David Murray and David S. Ware my whole life. one of these days i will take the time to get it straight

I have definitely done that.

Ha, bold claim about Branford, but it reminded me to listen to their new Keith Jarrett reimagining album, which is excellent so far.

Ever since Murray moved back to NYC I've been catching a lot of his shows. When the pandemic was still keeping many people away, it wasn't unusual to get a two-for-one deal as Murray would invite people to stay for the otherwise half-filled late set. Since then he's really ratcheted it up, playing with a wide variety of groups, most notably his great quartet (which may have changed over already, but him, Marta Sanchez, Luke Stewart and Russell Carter were amazing). I wasn't sure if I'd ever get to see him play with an octet, but I got that chance earlier this year, and it was technically a nonet due to an additional guest. (Not sure who as half the ensemble changed over from the previous show, but it was wonderful seeing Immanuel Wilkins - he played in both shows.)

I haven't heard enough of Branford's own records to confidently agree, but I like Wynton's Black Codes (From the Underground) a lot. That might've been the last one Branford recorded with Wynton before he joined Sting in his first post-Police ensemble.

Branford's made some great records with previous bands (Crazy People Music is probably his best), but his current band — pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Revis, drummer Justin Faulkner — has only made a few: Metamorphosen, Four MFs Playin' Tunes, Upward Spiral with vocalist Kurt Elling on all tunes, The Secret Between The Shadow And The Soul, and Belonging. Of those, Belonging is a re-recording of the Keith Jarrett album of the same name, and the others are all fine, with a few really good tracks each, but none of them are front-to-back great or even particularly cohesive.

Murray's quartet with Sanchez, Stewart and Carter is appearing at the Vision Festival this week.

Nice! I saw him post a photo recently where he mentioned his quartet in the text, but it was three other people in the photo, so I wasn't sure if he formed a new group again.

The building that houses the Green Mill in Chicago is now for sale. Love that club, hope the building's next owners won't get rid of it...

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/chicago-building-home-to-iconic-jazz-club-up-for-sale/3761695/

Ugh

Oh no. Enjoyed my 2 visits to Green Mill over the years

I heard some inside track gossip that the current owner will keep running it as is, just doesn't want to be the landlord anymore, hope that's the case.

Can he make that stipulation in the building sale, that the club stays (and the rent presumably doesn't get jacked up)? I'm not sure how that can work, I imagine the new landlord could still be ruthless if they wanted to be.

I assume/hope it could be a contingency...

I talked to Matt Shipp about his solo work; he's got a new solo album coming out next Friday.

Louis Moholo-Moholo's death has sent me down one of my periodic Blue Notes-and-company rabbitholes, every time I dig into those guys I find great stuff I haven't heard. I love this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhQAVxadbqU

This one's great. Confusingly, there is another Dyani album from two years earlier with the same title, featuring Okay Temiz rather than Moholo-Moholo and no Tchnicai, that is also great, but quite different:

https://www.discogs.com/master/1242710-Okay-Temiz-Johnny-Dyani-Witchdoctors-Son

Agreed that everything in the Blue Notes / Brotherhood of Breath / Ogun axis is worth hearing. I'm assuming everyone knows this sublime work of genius featuring Cherry:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tns5F45RQFQ

Yes! Was just listening to that yesterday as well.

both top tier records

That Temiz one looks hard to find is it on You Tube?

Really digging Traces from Cosmic Ear, the debut featuring Mats Gustafsson, Christer Bothén, Goran Kajfeš, Juan Romero and Kansan Zetterberg. They "trace" threads out of Don Cherry's music, it's really great.

https://matsgustafsson.bandcamp.com/album/traces

xo yup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZKcR9k2LJ8

xp ... but also xo, love ya

Just saw Matthew Shipp post this a few days ago - glad I bought this CD at one of his shows this year:

ESP Records no longer has any copies of 2024's New Concepts In Piano Trio Jazz'' --so if someone wanted a physical cd it is no longer available on Bandcamp in that form --of course you can get a digital download from Bandcamp . I am temped to say it is now out of print -- but the distributor ''Forced Exposure '' still has some copies but not many --so if someone wanted a physical copy they could still get one from Forced Exposure -while they last-- of course i assume there are still some floating around some record stores --there are no plans to reprint physical cds as we speak --i would assume it might be a few years but have not talked to ESP about that--thank you to everyone who supported this cd

Here's my latest Stereogum column. I interviewed Joshua Redman about being old (yes, Joshua Redman is old now, and that means you're old too, just like me) and reviewed Mary Halvorson, Brandee Younger, Theon Cross, Theo Croker and a bunch of other new records.

oh nice didn’t know there was new theon cross

Enjoyed the Redman interview.

I'm contractually obligated out that the tuba/sousaphone wasn't just used in 'early jazz' before being replaced by the upright bass, it's still the main instrument for any brass band. Theon Cross told me he picked up the instrument because of these players (even though he plays tuba, not sousaphone).

Hmm, Nate Wooley + Chris Corsano + Ches Smith here next week, a bit free for my tastes this days but I should probably go huh

i'm going when they come to mpls!

I would like to go tonight in DC but it’s a pain to get to the venue from where I am

ahmed are coming to Philly in September— tix are pricey and i will be coming down from a weekend of raving at the Making Time festival here in Philly, but i am going to go for it and buy a ticket anyway.

ahmed are coming to Philly in September— tix are pricey and i will be coming down from a weekend of raving at the Making Time festival here in Philly, but i am going to go for it and buy a ticket anyway.

Making Time Festival looks pretty interesting!

we had never gone, but our friend was performing last year and in exchange for helping her load in and out, she got us passes for the whole weekend— it was so fun, i bought tickets this year.

wow. wonder if they will play any other usa dates. probably not. tempting to fly to philly. i can stay with you right?

I know I’m frantically looking if ahmed will be playing nearer to DC or of if I can Amtrak up to Phillly and back the same night (I cannot)

I see Mary Halvorson’s Amaryllis will be playing the same venue two days earlier.

I…kind of am not into her, plus that night Moodymann is spinning at the techno fest, so…

I love Mary Halvorson but I would also choose Moodyman too.

my post above was a joke btw, i feel the need to point out that i am not an insane person

Sure but I once traveled up to New York and back in less than 18 hours to see Meredith Monk’s latest event last fall and others on this here borad have flown halfway across the country to see a band they like so at least for me going to Philly from DC to see one of the top Jazz groups of our age is something I’m giving serious thought to.

I think we all got you were joking about inviting yourself to crash at tables’ place.

oh yes, i got that, btw. maybe if i had known you since wayyyyy back in my early years on ILX, we could talk.

Jazz pianist Jason Moran just announced on Instagram on Tuesday that he quit as director of Jazz for the Kennedy Center on Juneteenth. While the Kennedy Center has announced fall schedules of theatre and some other genres like opera, there is no fall jazz schedule, and no new jazz director. Also no fall hiphop schedule announced either (and yes they had one in recent previous years).

https://artsfuse.org/313711/the-annual-francis-davis-jazz-critics-poll-sharing-what-we-know-at-mid-year/?fbclid=IwQ0xDSwLfTatleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHsvGi_sHwqIizl8CaSOdZ0XM9_5HH2qo9atced1rnz048YpJPYe7mWYxrJ9k_aem_rc2_jegKT9pA6tcHwg7JYQ

Mid-year Jazz poll

113 critics responded (177 had responded to the 2024 end of year poll). Link above includes much more than below top 10

. Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner, The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi) 61.8 (35)
2. Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts (Nonesuch) 52.4 (28)
3. Nels Cline, Consentrik Quartet (Blue Note) 38.1 (25)
4. Ambrose Akinmusire, Honey From a Winter Stone (Nonesuch) 46.1 (24)
5. James Brandon Lewis Quartet, Abstraction Is Deliverance (Intakt) 45.9 (24)
6. Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson, Bone Bells (Pyroclastic) 37 (24)
7. Branford Marsalis Quartet, Belonging (Blue Note) 42.4 (21)
8. Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith, Defiant Life (ECM) 34.2 (20)
9. Amina Claudine Myers, Solace of the Mind (Red Hook) 30.7 (18)
10. Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio, Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms) 29.7 (18)

I'm going through Al Foster's 00's albums as a leader, and they are all absolute bangers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx0ULnrBBLs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv40lSekioU

This was posted from Mary Halvorson's social media accounts:

Please join us on Wednesday, July 30th for a memorial celebrating the life and memory of Susan Alcorn, a wonderful human and truly one of the great improvisers and players I've had the pleasure of working with.
This event will be at the Zürcher Gallery, Susan's favorite venue in NYC, and feature many of her friends and collaborators.

We miss you, Susan.

Info here.

And I just noticed that Alcorn actually played at that very same venue on January 21 of this year, just ten days before she passed away.

That's a nice place. I saw Nduduzo Makhathini play there a few years ago.

ahmed show cancelled, can’t find an announcement anywhere except in the ticket app

but no reason :(

Shit. Hope it’s not health issues or our fascist government.

I mean, the group's name is Ahmed, best to play it safe and not come.

My new Stereogum column is up; I interviewed saxophonist Nicole Glover and reviewed a bunch of new records, and if you want to hear Pat Thomas, Luke Stewart and Trae Crudup covering Eddie Murphy's "Party All The Time," that's included, too!

Hey I person so glad to see the Soviet Jazz stuff get listed. Are you going to release the Sergey Kuryokhin box set as well?

Down the road, definitely. I've got an assload of Russian Leo titles loaded up for the next several months.

Trae Crudup is a great drummer both with Luke Stewart and I bet doing Eddie Murphy too ( I haven’t read the Stereogum column yet). There was a period when he was living in DC that he used to show Instagram lives of himself playing drums alongside a hiphop DJ spinning records. His playing was so funky .

Luke and Trae used to be James Brandon Lewis's rhythm section; I saw them with Anthony Pirog on guitar, on the same bill with Harriet Tubman, back in 2017 or so. Hung out with Greg Tate at that gig, actually.

My friend briefly played drums for Janel and Anthony

TIL that Wynton Marsalis, who is 63, is married to a 38-year-old Scottish violinist and they have a one-year-old daughter.

"Benedetti initially met Marsalis when she was 17"

oof

Sheila Jordan is in hospice care and in dire need of financial help to continue her care due to the limits of Medicare coverage.

Did not know, scary:

Medicare only provides 10 hours of Home Hospice Care Aide services per week. Per WEEK!

Sadly not a surprise. The late Leon Lederman, a Nobel prize winning physicist, sold his Nobel Prize in anticipation of this outcome should he be short on funds. Like Jordan, he worked into his old age and yet if hadn't won a Nobel Prize (or had something of equivalent and immense monetary value to sell), he probably would've resorted to a similar GoFundMe campaign.

Fixed link.

I know from family and personal experience that Medicare Advantage plans, at least ours, incl. visiting nurses, though limited in no. of visits per week---you can hire a sitter via related services, worth it to get a break---and it covered extra for my Mom's hospice nurse---but Original Medicare has much more limited---sounds like what Jordan has, shudder.

Original Medicare is much more limited when it comes to that kind of option, I meant (and if she's on Medicaid, oh man). But looks like the gofundme is going pretty well so far.

Sorry to hear about your mother dow. These situations can be really tough.

Thanks, all that was several years ago---but yeah, even with benefits, it's tough.

Been listening to some of Charnett Moffett's (RIP) albums - his final solo upright album is absolutely incredible. Prior albums (like the Art of Improvisation and Music from Our Soul) are often a mix of really cool 4th world material (lots of Indian and middle-eastern influences?), sick uptempo burnout swing, and fusion with semi-cheesy textures.

It's now reported that Sheila Jordan has passed:

"I’ve had disappointments in life like anyone else but if things didn’t turn out the way I wanted them to I feel they still turned out for the best. I try to have a positive attitude. You know I didn’t start singing full time until I was 58 years old. I had a day job for years to support my daughter but when I was let go, that’s when I decided I would try to work full time as a singer and teacher." The great "vocal shaman" Sheila Jordan has left us. She didn't try to sing full-time, she did it, and lived to the grand age of 96. Requiescat in pace.

Ugh. RIP.

She had such a great attitude, such great energy. I used to think to myself "I'll have what she's having."

Remembering standing there talking briefly to her at Mezzrow once but not wanting to say too much for various reasons, partly since she was older and I didn't want her to catch anything from me in case I had a cold or something.

I never saw her perform until very late in life, and it was very moving how she'd completely acknowledge that this could be the last time we'd all be seeing her. I was able to catch one more show at Jazz at Lincoln Center back in October when she was inducted into the Hall of Fame, and when I talked to her briefly afterwards, she couldn't have been more humble. IIRC, she said she was shocked when she heard she was getting inducted. When I said, "really?" she explained there were a lot of deserving people that hadn't been inducted yet, implying they should've come first, and she proceeded to name a dozen artists in quick succession. She then winked and gave me a smile when I said goodbye and headed towards the doors. A genuinely sweet woman, and of course a great jazz vocalist, I'm very happy she was able to experience that recognition and live out a pretty full career with the extra mileage she got over most mortals.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/12/arts/music/sheila-jordan-dead.html

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19m8pyq17N/

And from Nate Chinen after talking with Harvie S:

Earlier this evening I called bassist Harvie S, who has been a key Sheila Jordan compatriot for some 50 years, to secure confirmation for the NPR obit. “She was living at the Actors Home for two months, because it was paid for by insurance,” he told me. “She had to go back to her apartment, because then it got very expensive to stay there.” But as he hastened to add, the return to her home, on West 18th Street in Chelsea, was in the end a welcome development for Jordan. “She really wanted to be in her apartment,” he said. “She had that apartment since the ‘50s. Charlie Parker was in that apartment. Clifford Brown, Paul Chambers, Charles Mingus were all there.”

Last gig was apparently six months ago on Valentine's Day at the Green Mill. (The venue was also the biggest donor in her GoFundMe campaign.)

Great about the apartment! It was a great thing too for my Mom to be at home all that time, what a difference it can make. Also that she was gigging that late! And always pointing out that it might be the last time, no doubt making it as good as she could. Thanks for all those posts yall.

My latest Stereogum column is up. I interviewed Rob Mazurek (via Zoom) and Chad Taylor (via email) of Chicago Underground Duo, still called that even though Rob lives in Marfa, Texas and Chad in Pittsburgh. Also wrote up a bunch of excellent records.

Just got the Mosaic box Pharoah Sanders: The Complete Theresa Recordings in the mail; will be writing about that for Burning Ambulance in a couple of weeks.

Seeing Nicole Mitchell right now on a panel of Virginia-based composers.

a strange and sometimes unpleasantly written article, but nevertheless may be of interest. includes links to various Pat Thomas-involved recordings around Bandcamp

https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/pat-thomas-albums-guide

xxxxxpost speaking of Sheila, quite a splendid hour with her in 2023, recently re-broadcast--Christian McBride picked all the best tracks (that I can think of), given time limits:
https://www.npr.org/2025/08/14/nx-s1-5502396/remembering-sheila-jordan-a-voice-that-defined-bebops-spirit

Not the writer's fault, but the headline is unfortunate. Nothing chaotic about Pat Thomas. He's an extremely disciplined musician and while he has wide ranging interests, there's a logic and rigour to it all. Really great to see him getting some wider coverage though. Sufi Women, the latest of his IRCAM Timestretch albums, is fantastic.
Good selection, to which I'd add X-Ray Hex Tet, Shifa, Bley School and the glorious live recording of Black Top with Elaine Mitchener, William Parker and Hamid Drake.

xp Excellent playlist - a good curated compilation would've been an excellent idea back in the day but I imagine the numerous labels involved discouraged anyone from considering it.

I went to see the John Patitucci Trio the other night, mostly because of Brian Blade, and they had a tenor player I had never heard of before, Nicole Glover. Holy fuck, I was blown away. Have been listening to her two most recent records since then and both are incredible. I think she's a generational type player.

Would love to see that band, and will check out her trio records. Also Jon Cowherd has a trio record with Patitucci & Blade from 2022, can't remember if I've listened to that before but I'm going to now.

My recent intro to Nicole Glover (a fantastic interview podcast in general IMO): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hre9i9-VK8w

Three hours????

I know it seems crazy (haven't listened to that one) but I'm currently listening to PH's 3.5 hour interview with drummer Kush Abadey and it flies by, really thoughtful & chill musician talk.

Haha, I listened to a bit of that - pretty heady/technical but interesting. I've been thinking about the whole tone scale a lot since then, maybe I'll finish it later.

Need to check out that Cowherd record too, Blade is one of my guys. Also need to listen to the Spirit Fall record that they were promoting (but which has Potter instead of Glover).

I interviewed Nicole Glover for Stereogum last month. Her most recent album really is great, and I'm thinking about trying to rope her into a project for my label next year (concept: "bebop over blast beats").

"concept: "bebop over blast beats""

I'm sold.

From Washington post - Kevin Struthers who handled administrative work for Kennedy Center jazz programming since the 90s was just fired. Jason Moran had quit on Juneteenth.

The Kennedy Center has fired the administrator overseeing its jazz offerings, the latest in a string of staff shake-ups since President Donald Trump took control of the institution in February. Kevin Struthers — whose title was senior director, music programming — confirmed to The Washington Post he was terminated Wednesday, as did a representative for the arts center, who did not offer an explanation for the dismissal.
The center also fired Malka Lasky, its last remaining social impact staffer and a coordinator of its free Millennium Stage shows, according to a person familiar with the termination who was not authorized to speak publicly.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/2025/09/11/kennedy-center-fires-jazz-director/

Just a big empty box on the Potomac now

Future jazz offerings I see under the new regime include the Glenn Miller Band lol

I saw Tarbaby last night, amazing set (Nasheet Waits in particular, and Eric Revis).

There is one semi-good thing about all this, which is that the lines are being drawn nice and bright and unmissable. We have government-approved culture now, and although I'm sure some ilxor will pop up to defend it, if an artist crosses over and accepts accolades from this regime, you can write them off forever with a clear conscience.