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.
Our jazz columnist chooses the best new jazz albums of Autumn 2023 while reflecting on a new documentary, Wayne Shorter: Zero Gravity.
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.
Will Layman rounds up the best new jazz albums and cocoons with jazz documentaries, Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues and Ron Carter: Finding the Right Notes.
William Parker’s Universal Tonality is a recording he has been holding in his back pocket for just about 20 years now, which is crazy because it’s so good.
PopMatters jazz critic Will Layman rounds up the best new jazz albums of recent vintage, including some thoughts on Paul McCartney and Ron Carter.
Drummer Andrew Cyrille, bassist William Parker, and flugelhornist Enrico Rava pay tribute to the late Cecil Taylor on ‘2 Blues for Cecil’ minus a piano.
Matthew Shipp, Allen Lowe, Gerald Cleaver, and Kevin Ray are East Axis, a free improvising jazz band that never sound harsh or lost on Cool with That.
Codebreaker is the sound of jazz pianist Matthew Shipp gliding on autopilot, letting his subconscious do the talking.
Whit Dickey, William Parker, and Matthew Shipp push, pull, and roll their weight around in equal measure, making Village Mothership as unique as it is difficult.
James Brandon Lewis, a highly expressive young saxophonist, explores the meaning of George Washington Carver through a fresh quintet, earthy and free at once.
Free improvising saxophonist Ivo Perelman, pianist Matthew Shipp, and drummer Whit Dickey spin listenable joy out of thin air. Jazz originality doesn’t have to be forbidding.
Prolific star of New York’s creative jazz scene, William Parker releases ten new albums in a new box set, demonstrating his breadth of composition and association.