Nick Vayenas: Some Other Time

Dan Kaufman | Michael Janisch | Joe Saylor | Patrick Cornelius | Nick Vayenas | Rudy Royston | Peter Slavov | Doug Wamble

This is a real pendulum swing of an album, metronomically shifting between self-penned, funky instrumentals and more low-key, laidback sung...

Reviewed by Robert Shore in issue: April/2014

George Cables: Icons And Influences

Dezron Douglas | Victor Lewis | George Cables

Cables, who turns 70 later this year, has long been a valued sideman, notably in quartets with Dexter Gordon and...

Reviewed by Brian Priestle in issue: April/2014

Sketches: Volume 1

This young Brooklyn-based collective, featuring saxophonist Jeremy Udden and drummer Ziv Ravitz, have a workshop-like approach to composition as well...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: April/2014

Neal Richardson: Better Than The Blues

George Trebar | Neal Richardson | Andy Drudy | Alex Aberhard

Known to many as the producer of several first-rate jazz albums for the likes of Liane Carroll and Ian Shaw...

Reviewed by Peter Quinn in issue: April/2014

Mike Westbrook: Glad Day Live

Billy Thompson | Phil Minton | Kate Westbrook | Steve Berry | Mike Westbrook | Karen Street

A wiser man than I cited Westbrook's setting of Blake's poems as one of Brit jazz's greatest works. Originally developed...

Reviewed by Andy Robson in issue: April/2014

Chaos Orchestra: Island Mentality

Leo Richardson | Alex Roth | Emma Bassett | Laura Jurd | Rosie Turton | Mark Lockheart | Greg Sinclair | Will Scott | Corrie Dick | Tom Dennis

If there's one thing the trumpeter Laura Jurd's Chaos Orchestra doesn't have, it's an island mentality, the title she's given...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: April/2014

Tom Rainey: Obbligato

Ralph Alessi | Tom Rainey | Ingrid Laubrock | Kris Davis | Drew Gress

You wouldn't normally associate the drummer Tom Rainey – and the kind of left-field New York-based improvisers with whom he...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: April/2014

Shirazette Tinnin: Humility: Purity of My Soul

Tinnin, the saxophonist Tia Fuller's current drummer, performs a set fi lled with cosmic fusion and Brazilian influences with McCoy...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: April/2014

Jass

The inspirational Claudia Quintet drummer John Hollenbeck and the trombonist Samuel Blaser are the better-known names that make up this...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: April/2014

Matt Wilson Quartet: Gathering Call

John Medeski | Jeff Lederer | Kirk Knuffke | Chris Lightcap | Matt Wilson

Wilson met Medeski on his first night out, after moving to Boston in 1987, the pair subsequently working together in...

Reviewed by Martin Longley in issue: March/2014