Omer Klein Trio Releases ‘Fearless Friday’ (EPK + Video Clip)
We haven’t received this album yet but we’ve enjoyed Omer Klein’s work in the past so we figured this would be worth mentioning. The Omer Klein trio released its newest …
We haven’t received this album yet but we’ve enjoyed Omer Klein’s work in the past so we figured this would be worth mentioning. The Omer Klein trio released its newest …
The Becca Stevens Band’s newest album Perfect Animal is now slated for an April 7th release on Universal Music Classics. We did cover the album back when we thought it …
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 …
Looking on the other side of the coin, as we announced earlier this week, drummer Mark Guiliana is releasing a pair of albums on September 2– the personal My Life …
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. …
The superduo of Brad Mehldau, likely one of the most influential jazz pianists of our time, and Mark Guiliana, hands down one of the best drummers around, are soon to …
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 …