Thana Alexa: Ode To Heroes
There is something enchanting about the vocalastic melismas of this album that open it up to a wider circle of listeners that simply want...
Dafnis Prieto Sextet: Triangles and Circles
It is rare indeed to find drummers who can think like pianists; even rarer to find one that thinks like a saxophonist, a trumpeter,...
Cristina Morrison: Baronesa
Part biographical, perhaps even part autobiographical and all adventure, Baronesa by the ineffable chanteuse Cristina Morrison is an amorous masterpiece. Ms. Morrison’s dark and...
Oscar Perez: Prepare A Place For Me
Oscar Perez is a perfectly attired pianist, whose own life story makes this achievement all the more striking. But looking at a photograph is...
Michel Nirenberg: Retrato/Portrait
Hard on the heels of the carioca, Leo Gandelman comes the infinitely younger carioca, Michel Nirenberg, a musician steeped in choro and samba. A...
Theo Croker: Afro-Physicist
Theo Croker is the epitome of the sound of surprise. He comes suddenly from behind and sideways - never from the front - seizing...
Carlos Averhoff Jr.: iRESI
This recording is one of the most visceral and heartfelt that Carlos Averhoff Jr. may have made. You would think that its audacity had something to do with making a leap of faith into an unknown...
Gretchen Parlato: Live in NYC
It is hard to listen to Gretchen Parlato without hearing something celestial in her singing. To be sure, she sings in a jazz idiom...
Music for Peter Gunn: Harmonie Ensemble New York and Steven Richman
As I jazz lover it will always be a pleasure and a privilege to write about Henry Mancini´s music, the ingenious composer and arranger...
Manuel Valera Trio: Live at Firehouse 12
This recording is a fascinating, satisfying live programme which brings together three of the most active, finest musicians in New York whose work...
Lisa Engelken: Little Warrior
Lisa Engelken is a fearless, versatile singer as she demonstrates once again on her new release, Little Warrior. Her song selection and interpretations reveal...
Brigitte Zarie: L’amour
Beautiful strings arrangements give way to the sensual voice of Brigitte Zarie on “Where there is love”, the first track of her new release...
Aimée Allen: Matter of Time
This is a slow burner of a disc. Honestly, I was not won at first hearing, Romero Lubambo notwithstanding. But listening is believing...
Dion Parson and 21st Century Band: St. Thomas
What comes across immediately and irresistibly in this new (2015) recording by Dion Parson and his 21st Century Band is the sheer physical pleasure...
Etienne Charles: Creole Soul
“In the world that we live in today, it’s impossible not to be a creole, it’s impossible not to have a blend of ideas, a blend of traditions and a blend of sound or shape that determines who we are. There is a little bit of a creole...
John Basile: Penny Lane
This is a vivid, provocative Beatles album from John Basile, a New Yorker who has a pianist’s approach to the guitar. Let there be...
John Patitucci Electric Guitar Quartet: Brooklyn
Having already given us an excellent account of himself as both a virtuoso acoustic bassist as well as on electric bass, with scores of...
Paolo Fresu Devil Quartet – Desertico
If Paolo Fresu is quickly becoming one of the most sought after trumpet players it might easily be because he calls to mind a...
Avishai Cohen Trio: From Darkness
Like Duende that came a few years before it, nothing illustrates the mastery of bassist Avishai Cohen better than From Darkness...
Monty Alexander: The Harlem-Kingston Express Comes Alive
There might be a gentleman’s argument as to whom the pianist Monty Alexander belongs to; Jamaica, where he was born, or New York where...