Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey have always been a fun, playful group (even when making music about complicated subjects like race riots in Tulsa). The quartet of Brian Haas on acoustic piano/Fender Rhodes/bass Moog and synth, Chris Combs on electric guitar/lap steel and synth, and Josh Raymer on drums are set to share this playfulness in a new live album, The Battle for Earth, which … [Read more...]
Marco Benevento – “If I Get to See You At All” (Video)
Marco Benevento's latest album, Swift, changes the game up. The keyboardist who always brings the party goes even further, singing all throughout this release, a first for him, and bending the music from a purer jazz direction to one a little more rock-based and a lot more raucous. In the new video for "If I Get to See You At All", the party is on full display, featuring GoPro … [Read more...]
Skerik, John Medeski, and Adam Deitch are DRKWAV
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 drummer Adam Deitch. If any of them announces a project, one should take note, so news of a team-up for the three of them is triply as noteworthy. The trio have joined up as the … [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 Jazz Albums of 2011
I was recently asked to define what trend ran through jazz in the past year and I found I couldn’t think of anything definitive about that other than the fact that I like how definitive that was. This all came about when I was thinking about my picks fo best album of the year. Did my list lean more toward rock influences? European? Electronic? Black-influenced? I realized that … [Read more...]