Yesterday we unveiled Nextbop's Best Jazz Albums of 2019, which was compiled by our staff as a whole. Today, we continue our Season of Lists with Editor-in-Chief Anthony Dean-Harris' Favorite Jazz Albums of 2019.There's something kind of lovely about the lack of one major cohesive idea present in the genre of jazz at the moment. The idea of what the music can be is larger … [Read more...]
Jeff Ballard – ‘Fairgrounds’ (Album Review)
It's hard not to love Jeff Ballard's solo work. He's a percussionist who isn't afraid to get weird. He's probably best known for his branching out work with the Brad Mehldau Trio, but that's an acoustic group. They're a trio, one Ballard has been a part of for the last fourteen years. But the last time Ballard released an album as a leader was in 2014. Time's Tales was a … [Read more...]
Brad Mehldau Trio – ‘Seymour Reads the Constitution!’
The Brad Mehldau Trio -- Mehldau on piano, Larry Grenadier on bass, and Jeff Ballard on drums -- have not released an album together in four years, 2014's Blues and Ballads. You know how it goes-- artists create, move onto other ideas, take time creating on their own until the time is right to bring something just so to your usual collaborators. Sure, Mehldau spent the last … [Read more...]
Ryan Keberle & Frank Woeste (feat. Jeff Ballard & Vincent Courtois) – ‘Reverso: Suite Ravel’
In 1928 French classical composer Maurice Ravel said: “You Americans take jazz too lightly. You seem to see it as a music of little value, vulgar and ephemeral. In my point of view, it is jazz that will give rise to the national music of the United States.” Fittingly, almost 90 years later, American trombonist and composer Ryan Keberle and French pianist and composer Frank … [Read more...]
“And I Love Her”: A Critical Analysis of Covers
Brad Mehldau has a reputation for building beautiful piano trio versions of pop songs, notably including a lot of Beatles material. His trio release from earlier this year, Blues & Ballads, includes a fantastic version of "And I Love Her" with Larry Grenadier and Jeff Ballard. More recently, Gilad Hekselman, Petros Klampanis, and Ziv Ravitz played a trio concert with that … [Read more...]