There's a fullness in ten years. A lot of work, if rather relentlessly done, can really make a discernible impact. Ten years ago, folks were making all the talk as rather cyclically that jazz was dead. It was such an exhausting conversation. Folks were around making this music, obviously. It couldn't be that dead. The problem was in the awareness and the tweaking of the … [Read more...]
Ben Allison & Think Free – ‘Layers of the City’
Bassist Ben Allison knows how to build. Over the course of 12 albums, Allison has made really fun, flowing music while maintaining more and more control over his artistry. His last album, 2013's The Stars Look Very Different Today, began Allison's building of his own record label, Sonic Camera Records. Now Allison is releasing his second album on his own label, changing up his … [Read more...]
Nextbop/The Art of Cool Project’s Favorite Jazz Albums of 2013, #20-12
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 to be able to look at a multitude of truly great works from great artists and say stuff like "oh, wow, Darcy James Argue gave us another album this year" or "hey, Wayne Shorter came back to Blue Note" and "how do David Weiss and Point … [Read more...]
Nextbop’s Best Albums of 2011: Anthony Dean-Harris’ Jazz Picks
The Nextbop staff is compiling its lists of the best albums of 2011 in jazz and all other genres. We’ll release our mass lists during the last week of December but we want to make sure everyone’s individual lists have the chance to shine.10) Terri Lyne Carrington - The Mosaic Project (Concord Jazz)I think of drummer Terri Lyne Carrington’s The Mosaic Project like a … [Read more...]