Ethan Helm's Geography of Loops
Inspired by the geological scale of Japan and the productive accidents of a standard looping pedal, Ethan Helm's 'Dreamscapes' extends a jazz improviser's instincts into the territory of self-reliance.
Jazz
Starting at Square Twenty-Seven — Nick Fraser's 'Areas'
On 'Areas,' his trio's third album, Nick Fraser brings Messiaen-inflected harmony, electroacoustic interludes shaped by John Kameel Farah, and a compositional vocabulary deepened by eleven years of playing with saxophonist Tony Malaby and pianist Kris Davis.
The Sound of Not Listening — Maria Schneider's 'American Crow'
Schneider discusses 'American Crow,' the Rolf Schock Prize, her collaboration with David Bowie, and her conviction that the jazz ensemble's practice of listening without a fixed agenda remains democracy's most accurate blueprint.
DJ Amir and the Second Life of Strata Records
DJ Amir discusses his acquisition and revival of Strata Records, the defunct Detroit jazz label founded by pianist Kenny Cox, whose six original albums and trove of unreleased recordings have become some of the most sought-after music in jazz.
Tom Skinner's Silhouette Music
The drummer behind Sons of Kemet and The Smile brought his acoustic ensemble to Big Ears, where he discussed 'Kaleidoscopic Visions,' the intentional instrumentation that gives it depth, and the community that makes his music possible.
Ghost Notes from Wyoming — Caroline Davis's 'Fallows'
In conversation about 'Fallows,' an album made alone in a Wyoming cabin, Caroline Davis reflects on the ancestral figures who accompanied her during the residency, the saxophone techniques she invented in solitude, and an advocacy practice devoted to carceral justice and gender equity in jazz.
Tomeka Reid's Low End Theory
The cellist reflects on twelve years with her quartet, the making of their fourth album, 'dance! skip! hop!', a family archive of Black life in Wyoming, and the two figures named CeCe who bookend her path in jazz.
Heaven in a Semicircle — Ben Wendel and the New Mallet Generation
Placing himself in the middle of four distinct mallet improvisers, Wendel discusses how 'BaRcoDe' turned the trance-inducing logic of bars, effects pedals, and extended technique into music he describes as living "in its own little universe."
Bellbird Answer the Wild
Claire Devlin and Eli Davidovici of Montréal jazz combo Bellbird discuss how the quartet turned the loudest bird call on earth into compositional raw material for 'The Call,' with political conviction and collective authorship shaping everything that follows.
Juanma Trujillo — A Cantaclaro in Barcelona
'Música Para Quinteto: Live at Jazz Cava' captures Juanma Trujillo's Barcelona quintet at full burn, following a prolific decade of recordings and a deliberate exit from New York for a life the Venezuelan guitarist believes feeds the music.
Imaginary Space, Real Feeling — Bayeté's Electric Gospel
Reissued more than fifty years after its creation, Bayeté's 'Seeking Other Beauty' finds the Bay Area composer tracing the line between his grandmother's church organ and the electric possibilities that pulled him away from the jazz masters.
Shelf-Worthy — Patrick Smith and His Technicians of Tone
The Toronto saxophonist joins guitarist Dan Pitt and drummer Lowell Whitty on 'Words Underlined,' a live session cut in a beloved Toronto bookstore that became, almost accidentally, one of the year's most assured jazz records.