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.
Vancouver guitarist and oud player Gordon Grdina joins forces with two stellar New York jazz players to create a snapping blend of free improvisation, sharp fusion, and jabbering polyrhythm.
Composer and jazz collaborator Patrick Zimmerli has written a set of themes for string quartet and jazz saxophone trio—and some of the time it all takes off flying.
New Jazz guitarist Miles Okazaki brings back his brilliant quartet for a follow-up to and transformation of 2017's Trickster, daring some new challenges and sometimes coming through with answers on The Sky Below.
Versatile drummer Terri Lyne Carrington leads a date that sums up the jazz of the decade, from hip-hop influenced political songs to freely improvised instrumental music supplemented by orchestral composition.
New Jazz pianist and composer Kris Davis makes a recording that presses with excitement into hip-hop and groove music without sacrificing any daring or compromising her vision.
Saxophonist and composer Steve Lehman merges jazz tradition with New Jazz exploration in a format that enjoys a connection to the past even as it pushes forward.
Our jazz critics create four quartets of great creative music, demonstrating four trends that keep "jazz" relevant in a new century.
Composer and clarinetist Ben Goldberg writes tunes inspired by the poetry of Dean Young for a shimmering trio, which in turn inspired new poems.
Veteran drummer from New York's creative music scene, Whit Dickey combines two quartets that pose so many of the key questions about purely improvised music.
Two old friends from high school and from decades of playing together, George Coleman and pianist Harold Mabern make a final date as part of the saxophonist's quartet.
Come Back is another heartbreaking and beautiful collection of songs on the heels of Emma Frank's 2018 stunner, Ocean Av, again featuring the lighter-than-air yet potent contributions of pianist Aaron Parks.
On Live/Shapeshifter, William Parker goes way back to Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus in muscular swing and melodic grace while still seeming to play out on the edge.
Producer and pianist Jamie Saft convenes a band designed to create a current take on the "spiritual jazz" of the 1960s and 1970s, and the result is Hidden Corners.
A quartet of frequent collaborators creates a most ideal format for Jenny Scheinman's eclectic violin and Allison Miller's propulsive drums on Parlour Game.
An increasing compelling and mature composer and pianist, Fabian Almazan is showing how the piano trio format can be renewed with an orchestral approach using texture and layers of compelling elements, including field recordings, intelligently utilized electronics, and strings.
Drummer and composer Mark Guiliana carries an acoustic jazz quartet and an electronic music collective with equal passion. In this interview Guiliana explains how varied influences coexist in his mind and his music.
Stephan Crump's Outliers sounds like a great ECM record that forgot to lull you into too much easy beauty. It earns its loveliness from thrilling interaction.
Chilean guitarist and singer Camila Meza makes her eclectic major label debut and creates an ambitious recording that includes string quartet writing, original songs, and riveting covers from David Bowie to Elliot Smith to Milton Nascimento.
The most versatile pianist in jazz, Matt Mitchell makes a fiery album of new music that definitively rocks even in its intricacy.
Jazz bassist Linda May Han Oh adds a string quartet to her group to produce something wholly integrated on Aventurine.
Ryan Keberle and Catharsis' The Hope I Hold further expands the group's reach, orchestrally and creatively, with voices, guitar, and horns mixing in the studio.
Jazz pianist Brad Mehldau creates another hybrid project built on a layering of keyboards, drums, woodwinds, voices, and strings—with a gloss of politics and religion along the edges. Occasionally brilliant.
Tenor saxophone phenom Melissa Aldana makes her most mature, cooperative recording to date with Visions, evoking the great outside-in Blue Note records of the 1960s.
Chilean jazz singer and guitarist Camila Meza has a new recording on Sony Masterworks that defies category. Hear her new single "Kallfu".
© 1999-2020 PopMatters.com. All rights reserved.
PopMatters is wholly independent, women-owned and operated.
