Kenosha Kid Set To Self-Release ‘Inside Voices’
In Thomas Pynchon’s novel Gravity’s Rainbow, the Kenosha Kid is a maddeningly ambiguous figure: it might be a cowboy, or a dance, or a Sodium Amytal-induced hallucination (or all of …
In Thomas Pynchon’s novel Gravity’s Rainbow, the Kenosha Kid is a maddeningly ambiguous figure: it might be a cowboy, or a dance, or a Sodium Amytal-induced hallucination (or all of …
The SFJAZZ Collective features some of the most gifted soloists, composers and bandleaders on the contemporary scene: alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón, bassist Matt Penman, tenor saxophonist David Sánchez, trumpeter Avishai …
Here’s the second installment of Ben Wendel’s “The Seasons” project (click link for details), fresh off the press. This time Wendel teams up with saxophonist extraordinaire Joshua Redman for a …
I was just absentmindedly going through my Facebook timeline when I stumbled on this extraordinary gem. Check out Kevin Olusola on cello, loop pedal, beatboxing and vocals cover Sam Smith’s …
Gilad Hekselman’s 2013 album, This Just In, still kills. It’s one of those kinds of albums with sharp compositions and even sharper playing. Though we at Nextbop are constantly in …
Since his groundbreaking entrance on the music scene in the late 90s, jazz pianist Jason Moran has proven more than his share of genius as a performer, even earning him …
Here’s a cute animated short coming out of the Netherlands featuring a beautiful original jazzy soundtrack by Martin Fondse with Eric Vloeimans on trumpet. After a painful heartbreak, the lead …
Tomoko Omura, originally from Shizuoka, Japan, began studying violin at a young age under the tutelage of her mother. She then moved on to jazz while studying at Yokohama National …
BADBADNOTGOOD is going places. When we first heard of them three years ago, they were a relatively unknown band from Toronto doing Odd Future covers. I remember discussing with Anthony …
Bassist Aidan Carroll, originally hailing from Oklahoma City, had a vision when he was 8 years old. “When I was 8 years old, I had a vision and a feeling …
It’s not often that two MacArthur geniuses get together, let alone to give a masterclass. Nonetheless, this is what happened last September at the New England Conservatory. Pianists extraordinaire Jason …
“Sadness for a bird killed. No sadness for a fish killed. Lucky are the ones with voices.” -Saitō Ryokuu This saying by Ryokuu served as inspiration for Lebanese pianist Jad …
Voted Rising Star-Keyboardist in this year’s 62nd Annual DownBeat Critics Poll, Marc Cary is back with a new opus following his critically acclaimed 2013 albums For The Love Of Abbey …
Hailing from Cardiff, Wales, Slowly Rolling Camera is an innovative group comprised of Dionne Bennett (lyrics, vocals), Deri Roberts (sound design, electronics, producer, trombone), Elliot Bennett (drums) and Dave Stapleton …
English guitarist Ant Law is set to release his sophomore album ‘Zero Sum World’ on February 16th by way of Whirlwind Recordings. Law, a scholar of physics at Edinburgh University …
Ben Wendel, saxophonist of famed Kneebody and sideman to Tigran Hamasyan and Taylor Eigsti (just to name a few), has just launched a new project entitled “The Seasons”. For the …
Ever dreamed of assembling the All-Madden team of contemporary jazz musicians? Well Blue Note Records beat you to the punch. Our Point Of View, comprised of Robert Glasper on keys, …
A few weeks ago, Dave King, drummer of the renowned The Bad Plus, broke the jazz Twitterverse (Did you get that Kim Kardashian reference? Did you?) by debuting a series …
Last week, we posted a set from the Felix Pastorius Social Experiment live in New York at APAP. It was a cool set and Felix Pastorius on bass with Chris …
Fresh Cut Orchestra led by trumpeter Josh Lawrence, bassist Jason Fraticelli, and drummer Anwar Marshall are a group whose music is as rife with love and affection as it is …
We’ve been waiting for pianist Tigran Hamasyan’s upcoming album, Mockroot, for a while now ever since he hinted about it last November when we saw him play in Austin with …
Some note hovering between an F and an F# hovered over the Vijay Iyer Trio during their soundcheck before their performance Saturday, January 17th at San Antonio’s Carver Community Cultural …
Sound Prints, the quintet co-led by trumpeter Dave Douglas and saxophonist Joe Lovano, will be releasing its debut album, Live at Monterey Jazz Festival, on April 7. Douglas and Lovano …
Saxophonist/arranger Skerik is one of those musicians who always seems to be up to something interesting. The same could also be said of the consistently flabbergasting pianist/organist John Medeski and …
I didn’t get the chance to go to the Association of Performing Arts Presenters conference or the Winter Jazz Fest that ran concurrently in New York. I’ve never even been …
Coming after Jose James’ recent albums, While You Were Sleeping, No Beginning, No End, and Black Magic, with explorations into rock, electronic, R&B, soul, and funk in addition to his …
We don’t like to say “best” around here. We’re limited people with limited knowledge, fans with a platform. There’s no way we have heard everything released this year or are …
Like any good lover of music, our tastes at Nextbop are wide. Some overlap, some shape others in regard to genre, but there’s a lot of music released this year …
There is nothing wrong with Jochen Rueckert‘s new album We Make The Rules. Rueckert is on the drums and is joined by a fantastic group of musicians – Mark Turner …
I had reservations at first. Any album that integrates a string section must do so with care. Are the strings the main attraction? An accent? A layer of a greater …
One of the best kept secrets of jazz today is how everyone in Punch Brothers is masquerading as a bluegrass musician. Oh, sure, they claim that they play bluegrass and …
Brad Mehldau is certainly one of the most influential pianists, and probably one of the most influential musicians on any instrument, of his generation. His solo piano and piano trio …
Among pop music writers, Stevie Wonder’s tunes are definitely some of the most often-covered by jazz musicians, and it’s not for nothing – they’re great tunes. I’ve looked at a …
🍞 Home / Jazz Music Artists / Jazz Drummers / Mark Guiliana / Mark Guiliana – ‘Beat Music: The Los Angeles Improvisations’ (Streams) Looking on the other side of the …
As we have reached a little bit past the halfway point of the year, it’s about that time to look back on some of the releases of 2014 and highlight …
Vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson’s 1975 album Montara is named for the town in California where Hutcherson lives just south of San Francisco. That helps to explain the sunny, vibe-y feel of …
I heard a lot about Juan Pastor before I got a chance to finally hear his music. After listening to Chinchano, I can totally understand why he’s a favorite to …
This time around I’ll look at a few different versions of some contemporary tunes, rather than older tunes. The first tune I’ll look at is Daniel Freedman’s “All Brothers,” off …
Recently, a fellow bar patron and photographer friend of mine said on Facebook that photographers should follow the Prime Directive– the guiding principle of Starfleet wherein one should not interfere …
Last weekend, the first ever Art of Cool Festival took Durham, North Carolina, by storm (in addition to an actual storm), marking a first ever event of this kind in …
Some time ago, Howard Mandel of the Jazz Journalists Association asked me to speak on a panel online as part of their ongoing Talking Jazz webinar series to speak about …
Back in the days when I was a teenager1, before I had status and before I had a lovely smartphone with physical keys, keyboardist Dylan Maida was a kid from …
I spent months planning–organizing and promoting the Nextbop/Art of Cool day party, my own schedule of what I’d see, connecting with friends with whom I’d stay & my travel companion, …
Like Stanley Cowell, Joe Henderson is a fantastic musician who is somewhat overshadowed by his peers. The giants of saxophone – Coltrane, Rollins, Shorter – are rightly considered masters of …
There are times when I receive some odd, angular, challenging album and find it so off-putting it’s downright unlikeable. I find it to be some sort of problem with jazz– …
“Gingerbread Boy” is a tune written by saxophone player Jimmy Heath that was played fairly heavily following its first appearance, then underwent some big changes up to the present day. …
Anyone who decides to play the bassoon, I generally either ignore outright (sort of like my bias against the clarinet) or am so impressed that the boldness of the instrument …
Take it back to the early 1970s. Miles Davis has assembled a band of top-notch musicians to record a funky, in-the-pocket groove while he improvised over the top of it. …
🍞 Home / Jazz Music Artists / Jazz Drummers / Mark Guiliana / Mehliana – “Just Call Me Nige (Live)” (Video) The superduo of Brad Mehldau, likely one of the …
As we reach the end of another season of year-end lists, I still find it just as difficult to find some thread to move through this year as when I …
One major reason why I so enjoy this time at the end of the year is not only to reassess what this past year has looked like musically, not only …
I spent quite a while looking through our staff list to find some sort of theme for the music we liked this year, but try as I might, there was …
The Everything Else lists don’t get nearly as much web traffic as our jazz lists do. Of course, this makes sense– this is a jazz and fringe jazz website. People …
‘Tis the season. You’ve heard it a million times, and damn if it isn’t one of the catchiest jazz melodies out there. Maybe this isn’t the most “sophisticated” or “advanced” …
“Jitterbug Waltz” is a tune from Fats Waller written (I am told by wikipedia) in 1942 and released as a 78 rpm single. On that single, Waller opens the tune …
Like ”I Have a Dream,” Herbie Hancock brought “Speak Like a Child” to the Miles Davis Quintet, unfortunately without ever recording a finished take. The rehearsals of this tune have …
This one probably doesn’t need much of an introduction. “Hey Joe” showed up on Hendrix’s 1966 The Jimi Hendrix Experience, though Wikipedia tells us that the song was registered for …
It had been raining quite a bit in Austin lately. For much of September, really, South Texas had been getting some much needed rain to replenish the Edwards Aquifer and …
Jazz artists covering non-jazz tunes is nothing new – John Coltrane doing “My Favorite Things,” Wes Montgomery, Soulive, Brad Mehldau, and countless others covering the Beatles’ catalog, The Bad Plus …
The Far East Suite, recorded in 1966, is a highlight of the latter part of Duke Ellington’s career, written using the… mid-east… as an inspiration (with the exception of “Ad …
After looking at an early Monk composition, ”Shuffle Boil,” and more recently at Freddie Hubbard’s “Red Clay,” I’ll look at another color-themed song from Monk this time around, Thelonious Monk’s …
Woody Shaw’s “Moontrane” is a great tune by a great composer and musician. Why isn’t this song and this musician more heralded? I suppose because Shaw is a trumpet player …
“Wig Wise” first showed up on the amazing 1963 piano trio album Money Jungle, featuring Duke Ellington on piano, Charles Mingus on bass, and Max Roach on drums. To repeat: …
@JazzIsTheWorst might be the killingest jazz-related thing on the internet since jazz robots. It’s so killing, in fact, it has garnered followers such as Christian McBride, Nate Smith, and NPR’s …
Thelonious Monk is one of the most original pianists to have ever touched the keys. He was capable of making a song his own through his unique approach to the …
The next song I’ll write about is “Countdown,” the shortest song on John Coltrane’s Giant Steps album at just over 2 minutes long. “Countdown” is derived from Miles Davis’ “Tune-Up,” …
For my next essay, I’ll look at John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps.” Certainly not an obscure piece from an unknown performer’s catalog, but interesting in that (so far as I know) …
A recent New York Times article by Andrew Bird described the way that a fragment of a melody that came into his head at an airport developed to become a …
It’s been two years since bassist Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner released his debut album on Steve “Flying Lotus” Ellison’s indie label Brainfeeder, The Golden Age of Apocalypse. In that time, Thundercat’s …
As is customary for me when attending anything really, there are a lot of thoughts going through my head. This year’s South by SouthWest music festival in Austin, Texas, was …
For 2013, I hope not to hear any “jazz is dead” arguments. The past few years have been rife with them, from systemic looks at the decline of the popularity …
Dear Jazz, STOP Ease up some. STOP. Your tendency to wear your heart on your sleeve at every shirk and insult has gotten off-putting. STOP. Every negative comment about you …
No, this essay isn’t going to be another essay about the death of jazz. Rather, my title is meant to show the conflict, seemingly unending, that goes on in the …
When was the last time you heard a record that could barely hold it together? A record made by musicians who hated each other, or hadn’t showed for the rehearsals, …
Somehow stumbled on this Remi Panossian EPK. The young (everything’s relative, lol, he’s about 30) pianist hailing from Montpellier, France, is about to drop his sophomore album with acolytes Maxime …
By the circumstances of our calendar, we culturally use the transition into the new year as a time to reflect. We reflect on how we have grown as people, about …
This has been a particularly strong year for music. I feel like I’ve been saying it more and more but do you remember how you felt at the beginning of …
To be honest, these are the top ten non-jazz albums as voted by our staff, but since ties are a habit with this year’s lists, we’re going to start things …
I’ve always loved the collective of voices we have here at Nextbop. This international group of talents has always been a sort of inspiration to me, shining a light on …
I’ve been a fan of up-and-coming trumpet player John Raymond for a while now, pretty much ever since he became a Nextbop artist. Recently, I had the opportunity to interview …
Kurt Rosenwinkel doesn’t raise much of a ruckus. In fact, the last ruckus I remember him raising was a Facebook plea with musicians to stop raising ruckuses and get on …
The Label Love compilations always seem to come correct but their latest one is so squarely in the pocket. The collective made up of various music labels like Tru Thoughts, …
Take a moment and get a piano lesson from Yaron Herman in the format where everyone seems to be learning stuff lately, TED Talks. Herman addressed the TEDxHelvetia Conference recently, …
It is with great honor that I wrote the biography for this project. Please take a moment to read about it and support. We can make a difference. — Angelika …
Houston-native drummer Jamire Williams gets around a lot. He’s part of Christian Scott’s quintet. He’s part of legendary organist Dr. Lonnie Smith’s current trio. He’s head of his own group, …
As Marcus Miller catches me up on a major project he’d been working on over the last couple years, he stops mid-sentence to give me some background, humbly explaining, “I …
Kassa Overall stays busy. When the both of us could finally find the time to interview over the phone (mostly my fault over the past few months 1, but the …
At an impressive nineteen albums in, pianist Orrin Evans sets out to do exactly as the title of his latest suggests. Flip The Script (Posi-Tone), out this month, refers not …
In a stop in Aalborg, Denmark, this past May, here’s video of an intimate performance of Gilad Hekselman’s yet unreleased compositon, “March of the Sad Ones”, and “The Bucket Kicker” …
Stanley Clarke is able to bring out an interesting cross section of folks. I personally attended the Stanley Clarke Band’s June 2 performance at the Jo Long Theater of San …
Inspired by spring’s indecisiveness a couple weeks ago, I decided not to brave the wind and rain this particular day, but to do some season-inspired cleaning instead. Thumbing through my …
A couple of weeks back I wrote up a capsule review for the San Antonio Current–the prototypical alternative weekly in town –on Esperanza Spalding’s latest record Radio Music Society. You …
“One of the things that was evident to me way back when I’d gotten into John Coltrane’s music was that you had to keep reaching. I think when you stop …
Most times when you see me, I will be wearing a hat. I don’t have nearly as many as I’d like, but I certainly have quite a few. Lately, I’ve …
Author’s Note: This is my last feature-length piece as a staff writer for Nextbop before taking an extended break from jazz. Payton’s Black American Music, or BAM, has been a …
I’ve always had a tendency to try to tether myself to crazy, inspired people. I always have a eye for these sorts of things. That’s the draw of the artisans …
Sean Bell. Amadou Diallo. Danroy Henry. Ramarley Graham. Orlando Barlow. Aaron Campbell. Timothy Stansbury. Oscar Grant. In the land of freedom and opportunity, the possibilities for these names to become …
I’m going to wander for a while. You’ll get it eventually. In developmental psychology, there’s a concept called “nature vs. nurture” that always seems to rear its head. The generally …
With the sudden and astounding success of singer Gregory Porter’s Grammy-nominated debut album, Water, just fifteen months ago, there’s presumable pressure for his follow up, out this month, to do …
Simply put, there are bassists, and then there’s Christian McBride. With a career as a musician, composer, arranger, and producer, which began two decades ago, McBride has since set the …
After digesting the phenomenon which is Jason Moran, his eminence in music is even more mind-blowing once you consider the fact that he is just 37 years old. In addition …