by Adorjan Horvát Traditionally jazz guitarists occupy a defined place within an ensemble. They state melodies, supply harmony, accompany soloists, or step forward as improvisers. On Ode to the Possible, Tom Lippincott’s eight-string guitar routinely performs combinations of those functions at once. The result is an album whose most distinctive quality is found in the … Read more
by Adorjan Horvát Pat Metheny is a guitarist whose sound is recognizable by tone, vocabulary, and an identifiable musical thought process. That voice sounds strong in his album Side-Eye III+. His guitar language arrives melodically buoyant, rhythmically active, harmonically lucid, and orchestrational in the way it organizes the music around it. What makes Side-Eye III+ … Read more
by Steph Cosme On Bite Your Tongue, Interplay Jazz Orchestra presents an ensemble identity that is collectively formed. Across the album, identity emerges through the interaction of multiple contributors, held together by collective writing, coordinated sectional interplay, and a clear grounding in big band tradition. The result is a band that sounds unified, delivering performances … Read more
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