Jazz Album Reviews – Discover all the reviews of the latest jazz albums released – Contemporary, avant-garde, free, bop, experimental:
For Mahalia, With Love is a Mahalia Jackson tribute album by saxophonist James Brandon Lewis and his Red Lily Quintet with Kirk Knuffke on cornet, William Parker on bass, Chad Taylor on drums, and Chris Hoffman on cello. For Mahalia, With Love was recorded at Skyline Studios, New Jersey, and will be released on September 8, 2023, by TAO Forms.
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The Other One is an album by Pulitzer Prize winner Henry Threadgill. It was a multimedia piece involving film, paintings, photographs, electronics, voice loops, and both noted and improvised orchestral music, performed and recorded live at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn, New York, in May 2022. Two performances were held on two different evenings: “The One,” and “The Other One.” This album is the recording of the second evening, hence its name. It was released on May 26, 2023, by Pi Recordings.
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Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens De Couleur Libres was the first installment of an ongoing musical project that would explore the history and legacy of Black Americans. Drawing on a diverse range of musical traditions, including jazz, gospel, folk, and experimental music, American composer and saxophonist Matana Roberts created a powerful and deeply personal work that spoke to the struggles and triumphs of her ancestors.
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Breath Of Air is a trio formed by guitarist Brandon Ross, violinist Charles Burnham, and drummer Warren Benbow. Their first album, Breath Of Air, was recorded in 2019 and 2020 and it was released on August 5, 2022, by Burning Ambulance Music.
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When Miles Davis began recording Birth of the Cool he was only twenty-one years old. Recorded in the sacred period between the post-hard bebop era and the ‘cool jazz’ movement, the album is a listening necessity. Yet, the record was actually recorded eight years before its timely release. Seen as a key piece of recorded music at the end of the 1940s, the seminal record actually had a massive influence on the period of jazz music that followed its release in 1957.
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Breezin’ by George Benson – Song by Song Album Review
Breezin’ is George Benson’s fifteenth studio album released in 1976 and produced by Tommy Lipuma. Here you will find the complete song-by-song album review of Breezin’.
Breezin’ is one of the best albums for Benson and his group’s career. This 70’s masterpiece gave George Benson true popularity: he combined his softer focused R&B, funk, and jazz-flavored work for some kind of amazing smooth jazz.
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It is an instantly recognizable album cover; Davis in a blue suit, lips puffed, about to blow his trumpet; the black backdrop, the Columbia logo, and the album’s title typed in blue. Not only is Kind of Blue considered Miles Davis’s magnum opus and masterpiece, but it is also regularly billed as one of the best albums of all time, not to mention the greatest-ever jazz album.
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There is a well-known Latin phrase Omne trium perfectum which put simply, means “everything that comes in threes is perfect”. Nobody knows where the principle of the perfect set of three originally came from but it is a philosophy the Ancient Greeks recognized and carried into the future. It is a phrase still used today, albeit heavily paraphrased.
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Sometimes the most extraordinary things occur in the most ordinary of places. If you should drive past an unassuming health centre on a quiet residential street in New Jersey – or 25 Prospect Avenue, Hackensack, to be more exact – you would be forgiven for disbelieving the site’s place in jazz music legend.
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It is one of the most iconic openings in musical history. Those first few seconds of A Love Supreme are infinitely recognisable to jazz music aficionados and instantly alluring to those hearing it for the first time.
From the first few seconds of the record, Coltrane hints at something magic. With the opening Asian gong and cymbal washes, the listener is plunged straight into a curious album with many musical meanderings, missing meanings and the feel of a smoky late-night underground jazz club.
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