By Evan Haga For as long as she’s been a recording artist, the Chilean-born tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana has wanted to make a ballads record. With archetypes like John Coltrane’s classic 1963 LP Ballads as her North Star, Aldana saw a slow-tempo project as a way to advance her lifelong... read more

By Joshua Myers In describing the Black music tradition, Pharoah Sanders once remarked to Bernice Johnson Reagon “to me, it’s all spiritual music.” The musical journey from blues to gospel and “jazz” and back is more natural than these categorical separations can ever be. Like the... read more

By Grayson Haver Currin In the waning days of 2024, Julian Lage began what he calls a writing sprint. Lage has long been prolific: In the three decades since the documentary Jules at Eight identified him as a prodigy, Lage has made a dozen records with his own bands and duos, and three times... read more

In the jazz world, 1959 was a year where titans reigned, where nearly every name you could think of put out recordings that would define their eras, their careers, or in a few lucky cases, their entire field. Along with the likes of alto saxophonist Jackie McLean, pianist Horace Silver and... read more

By John Murph I LOVE LIFE even when I’m hurting, the title of the new album from saxophonist and composer Dave McMurray, is an affirmation of his indomitable spirit. It’s also a celebration of the love that he has for his hometown of Detroit, and for the many musicians with which he’s... read more

By Lauren Du Graf In the spring of 2023, while on tour in Portugal, Aaron Parks had a dream. It concerned an upcoming week of shows at the Village Vanguard, where he was scheduled that July to play alongside the bassist Ben Street and drummer Billy Hart. The trio had been intermittently active... read more

By Evan Haga Converse with the saxophonist and flutist Charles Lloyd — a titan of an improviser, still digging deep onstage at age 87 — and you will inevitably arrive at this subject: gratitude. He generously bestows his gratitude in multiple directions: upon his musical heroes, his... read more

By Shannon J. Effinger For Johnathan Blake, music has always been a family affair. The drummer and bandleader’s previous Blue Note album, Passage (2023), was an homage to his father and chief mentor, the late jazz violinist John Blake Jr. The album cover features a sepia-toned snapshot of... read more