Priscilla Ahn comes from the same singer/songwriter circle that spun off Sara Bareilles and Cary Brothers, having cut her teeth in a dizzying array of L.A. venues before wooing Blue Note Records with her gently confident music. Like the material of many L.A.-based musicians, Ahn’s songs brim with sunshine…
Despite the metaphysical suggestion in Spirit Fiction’s title, this is Ravi Coltrane’s most cerebral, process-oriented recording to date. This does not mean, however, that his debut offering for Blue Note Records is dry or academic. There is an abundance of emotion and sensual detail, most of it expressed gently,…
Pianist James Hurt is a very talented musician, and his solos show a superb ability to improvise in an original style. For this recording, he has assembled a variety of groups, ranging from duo to septet to showcase his talents. He sounds best with rhythm along or with his…
Black Radio, the title of the Robert Glasper Experiment’s proper Blue Note debut, is a double signifier. There’s the dictionary’s definition: “the device in an aircraft that records technical data during a flight, used in case of accident to discover its cause.” And there’s Angelika Beener’s in her liner…
There is a certain hipness in title of Double Booked that reflects the hipness of the music itself. It hints at two voicemail messages by Terrence Blanchard and ?uestlove, respectively, that ask Robert Glasper about apparently being double booked on the same night with two different bands at different…
Pianist Robert Glasper was Blue Note’s big discovery of 2005, a young player whose music fit into jazz’s modern mainstream yet was open to the influences of R&B and hip-hop, both of which he had performed previously. What is particularly impressive about Glasper’s playing on In My Element is…
Canvas is pianist Robert Glasper’s second recording, and his first on Blue Note. He’s joined by bassist Vincente Archer and drummer Damion Reid for the main portion of Canvas, while tenor Mark Turner and vocalist Bilal make two appearances each. Perhaps the first thing a listener might note of…
Recorded at the Village Vanguard on the night of his 67th birthday, Tommy Flanagan celebrated by recording this memorable set. Joined by bassist Peter Washington and drummer Lewis Nash, the brilliant pianist devours two up-tempo bop classics by Thad Jones, “Birdsong” and “Let’s,” plus a trio of tunes by…
Antiguo is different than most Gonzalo Rubalcaba records. The pianist spends a lot of time exploring synthesizers. Some of the music (particularly “Eshun Agwe”) is memorable but at other times the results are merely haunting mood music. Rubalcaba and his longtime quartet (trumpeter Reynaldo Melian, bassist Felipe Cabrera, and…
The virtuoso Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba performs a variety of standards and original compositions on this remarkable stylistic display. While Rubalcaba is obviously capable of jaw-dropping feats of pianistic skill, on SOLO he more frequently opts for an understated approach that creates a nuanced setting for his lyrical flights…