by Adorjan Horvát Few formats in jazz are as groove-centered as the organ trio. On Blue Fire – The Van Gelder Session, guitarist Dave Stryker steps into that lineage with confidence. The album captures Stryker alongside Hammond organist Jared Gold and drummer McClenty Hunter in a setting where the trio’s long-standing rapport turns the classic … Read more
by Steph Cosme Donny McCaslin’s Lullaby for the Lost reorganizes instrumental hierarchy. The tenor saxophone is no longer positioned as the dominant narrative voice but as an integrated structural component within a layered electric ensemble. Rather than building around solo escalation, the album constructs form through accumulation, density shifts, and distributed authority. The result is … Read more
by Adorjan Horvát There are jazz albums that announce themselves through velocity, density, or sheer volume of ideas. Then there are records that reveal their ambition through architecture, and those are the ones to latch onto for deep listening. Time Shift, guitarist and composer Tim Jago’s first album under his own name after many years … Read more
by Steph Cosme Lisa Hilton brings a cool jazz meets contemporary jazz narrative with Extended Daydream. Across eleven tracks, Hilton shapes an album where design, compositional pacing, and ensemble communication work together to create a listening experience that is cohesive and persuasive. This is a record that prioritizes emotional clarity with the sound of Hilton’s … Read more
by Adorjan Horvát Margherita Fava is the kind of pianist who builds their musical world from the inside out. She treats form, groove, and texture as interconnected structural elements, and on Murrina, Fava reveals herself as an artist who creates a very engaging world. Each of the nine tracks is architected from this vantage point, with … Read more
by Adorjan Horvát In a career that bridges the bandstand, the conservatory, and the printed page, Bruce Gertz has long stood as one of jazz bass’s clearest thinkers and most quietly powerful architects. On Octopus Dreams, the bassist-composer offers a suite of originals that move fluidly through post-bop, modal lyricism, and Latin-inflected feel, with each … Read more
by Adorjan Horvát When Dr. Geoffrey Dean first emerged on the Washington, DC, jazz scene, his reputation was built on a blend of scholarly rigor and visceral improvisational flair. A prolific composer, author of the well‑received Kenny Kirkland’s Harmonic and Rhythmic Language, and regular contributor to Downbeat’s Masterclass series, Dean has already proven his capacity to translate theory into … Read more
by Steph Cosme LA LOM’s Live At Thalia Hall is a document of a sold-out March 2024 Chicago concert captured on tape and later issued worldwide on Verve. The album is an archival snapshot of a trio translating LA party-floor kinetics into theater acoustics without losing their dancer’s heartbeat. The official digital release lands on … Read more
by Steph Cosme Silvano Monasterios’ The River is a Latin jazz album created as a meditation on identity, culture, and the unbroken current of rhythm that ties one generation to another. Monasterious presents seven compositional structures for ensemble interplay. The result is The River vibrates with cultural resonance, textural storytelling, and the way its sound … Read more
by Adorjan Horvát Art Hirahara’s Peace Unknown is an integrated outing of compositional design with improvisational freedom. Hirahara’s writing has a meticulous concern for voice-leading, sectional interplay, and thematic motifs transformed over time. The pianist’s harmonic vocabulary that is expansive. Across the album, he leverages his septet as a palette, drawing from chamber-like jazz transparency … Read more