Review: Dayna Stephens: Right Now! Live At The Village Vanguard AllAboutJazz.com, 12 February, 2021
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I get a lot of music for my consideration, more than 460 new releases in 2020. Almost all of them are notable for something, and I’d like to give them their due. So, every week, more or less, I’ll offer hot takes on the releases of the preceding seven days.
It’s been a minute since I’ve called the roll. Nothing bad, just the usual procrastination and some fairly large-scale work for PostGenre Media and All About Jazz whose scribbling staffs I’ve been fortunate to join. In the midst of that work, holiday madness, some pressing matters of health and the near collapse of the Republic all dampened my enthusiasm for music and for writing. Now I’m back and there’s a lot of catching up to do. Moving backwards from the present . . . .
Vibraphonist Dan McCarthy recorded this 56-minute trio session in Brooklyn February 28, 2019. The following day, he packed his things and returned to Toronto. I guess that makes “A Place Where We Once Lived” (self-released, digital only) a breakup record of sorts, but
Review: Dave Brubeck’s ‘Time OutTakes’ and Bill Evans ‘Live at Ronnie Scott’s,‘ PostGenre, 27 January, 2021
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I get a lot of music for my consideration, more than 460 new releases so far this year. Almost all of them are notable for something, and I’d like to give them their due. So every week, I’ll offer hot takes on the releases of the preceding seven days. Understandably, this week wasn’t a strong one for new releases, but can’t stop won’t stop.
For years, I’ve been touting Toronto as the next jazz hot spot. With its large, diverse and cosmopolitan population, thriving immigrant communities from the Afro-Caribbean diaspora, concentration of media outlets and, like it or not, affluence, Toronto looks a lot like London. The Old Grey Lady is grey no more. Representing the funkier side of this scene, drummer Joe Bowden offers “Roots – Tales Of The Urban Yoda,”
I get a lot of music for my consideration, more than 450 new releases so far this year. Almost all of them are notable for something, and I’d like to give them their due. So every week, I’ll offer hot takes on the releases of the preceding seven days. it’s a great writing exercise, and a lot of fun, too.
Alto saxophonist David Bixler recently emerged from a nearly decade-long recording silence following a family medical emergency. The title of his third post-return release, “Inside the Grief,” points to that experience, but it is a response to the horrific events of the year that is mercifully about to end. Like a lot of new recordings we’re likely to hear in 2021, “Inside the Grief” keeps the instrumental forces lean, but strong.