In an era when every headline carries some new horror or fresh worry, we need music that can clap back with immediacy, skill, and heart. We need a band so at home in its skin that it can play without ego and lead with love—artists whose very existence…

  If Kandace Springs‘ new album Indigo sounds like something new, that’s because it is. Simple while funky. Classic but contemporary. Straightforward in the way it breaks down complex ideas and genres. And, at the end of the day, undeniably human. That said, it isn’t quite a rebirth for…

Jazz legend and 10-time GRAMMY winner Wayne Shorter is set for the September 14 release of his long-awaited project Emanon, his first release since 2013’s Without A Net, which marked Shorter’s momentous return to Blue Note Records where he began his heralded recording career in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers…

  “Lean on me.” Have three words ever held so much power, warmth and heart in one breath? It’s a sentiment that rang so true in 1972, when the mighty Bill Withers sang it, that the plain-as-day phrase became not only an anthem of its era and the signature…

Plenty of young musicians show promise, but very few enjoy the sort of meteoric rise that pianist, keyboardist and composer James Francies is currently experiencing. At only 23, he’s played with jazz headliners like Pat Metheny, Chris Potter, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Stefon Harris, Eric Harland, and Terrace Martin, and…

Composer and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire‘s fourth studio album Origami Harvest began with a challenge of sorts. It was a commission from curators Judd Greenstein of Manhattan’s Ecstatic Music Festival and Kate Nordstrum of St. Paul’s Liquid Music Series that began with Greenstein asking, “What’s the craziest idea you have?” Considering…

  When last we heard from Brooklyn composer-saxophonist Marcus Strickland, on 2016’s Nihil Novi, he was testing his mettle at hip-hop-inspired production, blending genres with a little help from album producer Meshell Ndegeocello. In the process, something big happened: “I was no longer concerned about what is or isn’t…

Dreams still beckon in a damaged world, and Rosanne Cash renders them with fierce grace on She Remembers Everything, a studio recording arriving November 2 from Blue Note Records. Cash’s album offers shimmering pop—with hints of twang and jazz—that could find a home in almost any year of postwar…