JazzMatters: The Best New Jazz of Winter 2024
PopMatters presents the best new jazz recordings from the winter of 2024 and reflects on the relationship of the Grammys to jazz.
Will Layman
Will Layman is a writer, teacher and musician living in the Washington, DC area. He has been a contributor to National Public Radio and WNYC's "Soundcheck" as a jazz critic. He plays rock, funk, and jazz in the bars and clubs in and near the nation's capital. His fiction and humor appear in print and online.
James Brandon Lewis Sounds Singular on ‘Transfiguration’
Among the considerable pleasures of the new James Brandon Lewis quartet record is how it insists on expanding how we think about the leader himself.
Ethan Iverson’s ‘Technically Acceptable’ Is a Riveting Journey
Ethan Iverson’s Technically Acceptable feels like a push into his future as an artist, steeped in tradition and breaking with it, too, in his refreshing way.
Ches Smith’s ‘Laugh Ash’ Is Exhilarating Music
Ches Smith has real jazz chops, but he creatively blends tonal jazz, harmonic freedom, electronics, classical “new music”, and traditions from around the world.
JazzMatters: The Best New Jazz of Autumn 2023
Our jazz columnist chooses the best new jazz albums of Autumn 2023 while reflecting on a new documentary, Wayne Shorter: Zero Gravity.
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The 17 Best Jazz Albums of 2023
Some of it is conventionally beautiful and some thrills by rubbing against the edges of tonality. But all of the best jazz of 2023 serves a vision.
Allen Lowe Challenges Ideas About American Music
Allen Lowe solos as if he loves Ben Webster and Ornette Coleman in equal measure. The rhythm section seems like it wants to be Count Basie and Sun Studios.
JazzMatters: The Best New Jazz of Summer 2023
Our jazz columnist chooses the best new jazz albums of the summer while reflecting on the passing of Astrud Gilberto and Tony Bennett.
Meshell Ndegeocello’s ‘The Omnichord Real Book’ Is Stellar Soul Music
Meshell Ndegeocello always creates a mood around the music that puts rhythm, harmony, and melody in delicious orbits. This is a real genre-crossing soul album.
JazzMatters: The Best New Jazz of April and May 2023
Our jazz columnist chooses the best new jazz albums of the past two months while reflecting on the passing of Ahmad Jamal and highlighting Walter Smith III.
That Stank Attitude: Steely Dan’s Final Albums Two Decades Later
The last album by the rock/jazz phenoms Steely Dan was released 20 years ago. This is a look back at why their last two records deserve reconsideration.
JazzMatters: The Best New Jazz of February and March 2023
Our jazz columnist chooses the best new jazz albums of the past two months while reflecting on the passing of Wayne Shorter and the Grammy Awards.
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