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Slava Gliožeris
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Favorite Jazz Artists

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867 reviews/ratings
LYUBOMIR DENEV - Lyubomir Denev Jazz Trio And Petko Tomanov Fusion | review permalink
SOFT MACHINE - Third Jazz Related Rock | review permalink
SOFT MACHINE - The Peel Sessions Fusion | review permalink
KRZYSZTOF KOMEDA - Astigmatic Post Bop | review permalink
SOFT HEAP / SOFT HEAD - Rogue Element (as Soft Head) Fusion | review permalink
ROBERT WYATT - Rock Bottom Pop/Art Song/Folk | review permalink
KAZUTOKI UMEZU 梅津和時 - Eclecticism Eclectic Fusion | review permalink
JAN GARBAREK - Afric Pepperbird Avant-Garde Jazz | review permalink
DAVID TORN - Polytown Nu Jazz | review permalink
MASADA - 50⁴ (Electric Masada) Eclectic Fusion | review permalink
ANTHONY BRAXTON - Dortmund (Quartet) 1976 Avant-Garde Jazz | review permalink
MATANA ROBERTS - Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens De Couleur Libres Avant-Garde Jazz | review permalink
FIRE! - Fire! Orchestra : Exit! Avant-Garde Jazz | review permalink
MAL WALDRON - Reminicent Suite (with Terumasa Hino) Post Bop | review permalink
JOE MCPHEE - Nation Time (Live at Vassar College) Fusion | review permalink
WILDFLOWERS - Wildflowers 1: The New York Loft Jazz Sessions Avant-Garde Jazz | review permalink
MAL WALDRON - What It Is Avant-Garde Jazz | review permalink
SEI MIGUEL - Salvation Modes Avant-Garde Jazz | review permalink
WADADA LEO SMITH - Wadada Leo Smith & Bill Laswell ‎: The Stone Avant-Garde Jazz | review permalink
ADAM LANE - Adam Lane's Full Throttle Orchestra ‎: Live In Ljubljana Progressive Big Band | review permalink

See all reviews/ratings

Jazz Genre Nb. Rated Avg. rating
1 Avant-Garde Jazz 272 3.67
2 Post Bop 92 3.56
3 Fusion 78 3.44
4 Eclectic Fusion 67 3.65
5 21st Century Modern 50 3.75
6 Nu Jazz 41 3.65
7 World Fusion 32 3.19
8 Jazz Related Rock 32 3.30
9 RnB 28 3.43
10 Jazz Related Improv/Composition 26 3.60
11 Hard Bop 22 3.45
12 Post-Fusion Contemporary 16 3.34
13 Progressive Big Band 16 3.72
14 Third Stream 15 3.53
15 African Fusion 14 3.64
16 Vocal Jazz 11 3.18
17 Pop/Art Song/Folk 11 2.91
18 Funk 10 3.35
19 Jazz Related Electronica/Hip-Hop 9 3.28
20 Jazz Related Soundtracks 5 3.20
21 Funk Jazz 4 3.38
22 Soul Jazz 4 3.50
23 Exotica 3 2.83
24 Big Band 2 2.75
25 Cool Jazz 2 3.50
26 Blues 1 2.00
27 Afro-Cuban Jazz 1 3.50
28 Acid Jazz 1 3.00
29 Jump Blues 1 3.50
30 Latin Jazz 1 3.50

Latest Albums Reviews

AVISHAI COHEN (TRUMPET) אבישי כהן Ashes To Gold

Album · 2024 · Post-Fusion Contemporary
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Israeli trumpeter Avishai Cohen's newest album to date, "Ashes To Gold", contains his five-piece suite of the same title completed with "Adagio Assai” from Maurice Ravel’s Concerto in G major, and the closer “The Seventh", written by Avishai's daughter Amalia. The music is performed by Cohen (who, unusually, plays not only trumpet but the flugelhorn and a lot of flute as well) and his quartet, containing pianist Yonathan Avishai, bassist Barak Mori, and drummer Ziv Ravitz.

The album opens with an almost ten-minute melancholic chamber piece, quite typical for Cohen's previous works. Still, the rest of the Suite is more complex, more adventurous, and less predictable. Cohen's trumpet soloing often flies over the rest of the music, recalling contemporary Polish great trumpeter Tomasz Stanko's works. Still, Cohen is always a bit more intimate, softer, and melancholic.

The "Ashes To Gold" suite was written by Cohen in Israel right after the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and recorded there as well in November. Without a doubt, the album's music is heavily influenced by that event. Surprisingly, besides sadness, melancholy, and pain, there is no anger in the music.

Almost eight minutes long, "Adagio Assai", opens with solo trumpet, soon joined by the double bassist. Piano and drums enter bringing some light and hope.

The final piece, “The Seventh”, refers to the beginning of the Israeli-Hamas war date. It's a lyrical song, composed by Cohen's teenage daughter.

Released on the ECM label, possibly the most prestigious one in Europe, the album demonstrates the label's return of sorts to it's roots. Decades ago ECM started their glorious way releasing some more ambitious and experimenting artists of the time. With time, they became high-quality comfortable and extremely safe music producers, possibly the times were too safe as well and required this sort of sound.

Suddenly, the whole world jumped into a period of unexpected turbulence, values crisis, bloody wars, and a future that no one can expect or imagine. As always, the musicians react among the very first. Avishai Cohen's "Ashes To Gold" came in time, and is one great evidence of the moment.

SHEMEKIA COPELAND Blame It On Eve

Album · 2024 · RnB
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Shemekia Copeland is one of the better-known representatives of modern American blues-related music around the globe. Surprisingly, she was announced as the nominee of the prestigious British Jazz FM Awards 2025 in the category, "Blues Act of the Year".

"Blame It On Eve", is Shemekia's last album to date, from the very first minutes it sounds exactly as one can expect from her more modern works. Title-track, the opener, is seriously based on some of the Bible's citations. Still, like almost all Copeland songs, it contains her very own sort of feminist urban blues-rock. Song after song, Shemekia tells everyday life's stories, from a woman's perspective. The regular listener, familiar with Shemekia's back-catalog will find a few new themes here. Still, she sounds as energetic as usual, and the band is very good too.

Musically, of the twelve album songs, there are some rockers, some bluesy r'n'b pieces, and a few ballads too. Traditionally, Shemekia is strong on ballads, never too melancholic or sweetly sad. "Only Miss You All the Time" is one of the best songs here for my ear.

Rockers (like "Broken High Heels") or country-rock-n-roll ("Wine O'Clock") are the least successful songs on the album. The pieces with a strong country feel are not very memorable either. Will Kimbrough plays great heavy metal-like electric guitar solos on " Is There Anybody Up There? ".

In all, "Blame It On Eve" offers a few surprises. For Copeland's fans it is one more strong work from their beloved artist.

PAINKILLER Guts of a Virgin

EP · 1991 · Eclectic Fusion
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Thirty-three years after their original founding, John Zorn-led jazz-core trio unexpectedly reunited last year. To date, the reunited collective announced already third new album to be released in April. Two other original members are bassist Bill Laswell and former metal band Napalm Death drummer Brit Mick Harris.

Back in 1991, Painkiller sounded like an extremely radical (at least for the jazz scene) hybrid of free jazz, early punk and death metal with screaming vocals.

"Guts Of A Virgin" is the trio's 24+ minutes long debut, containing twelve songs- two minutes long each in average, very much in punk tradition. All pieces were pure improvisations, just recorded in the studio, with a lot of energy, loud and dirty. Guitarless trio with Zorn's soloing sax instead of expected solo guitar and two vocalists(?) - John himself and Harris screams by its aesthetics is much closer to the punk-rock scene of the late 70s than to any form of jazz. Zorn's interest to Japanese brutal avant-rock is obviously an important influence as well. The songs themselves are quite monotonous, far not memorable, the main attraction here is an unbelievably high level of energy and rage.

It's interesting to notice, that the original band was founded in the turbulent times for the world after the fall of the Soviet Union - and the end of the Cold War, when all the world's political architecture has been destroyed and changed to the new one. The revitalizing of the band happens during the first similar tectonic breaks in today's world architecture, the first such a monumental change from the year 1991. It looks like the free world is becoming smaller, and all the world's dictators are trying to take the whole world under control. "Guts Of A Virgin" was an illustrative soundtrack to the year 1991, probably re-united Painkiller is recording loud and screaming soundtrack of today once again.

JOSÉ JAMES 1978

Album · 2024 · RnB
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New York-based jazz/R'n'B singer José James's newest album, "1978" (his birth year), is a beautiful and elegant tribute to the music of his childhood. Containing all originals, the album can recall RnB sounds from the 60s and 70s, but it also has vibes that place it clearly in 2024.

The opener "Let's Get It" contains a string quartet and is a hypnotic aerial and percussive piece with a groove and vibe that may remind some of Al Green's laid back work for Stax. “Isis & Osiris” is a repetitive soul piece, sensitive and of fragile atmosphere. “Planet Nine” is funky, but still elegant, with a catchy tune. “Saturday Night (Need You Now)” is danceable and sexy,

"Black Orpheus (Don't Look Back)" is another in the Al Green direction and contains background vocals and beautiful guitar solos. "Dark Side Of The Sun" is a song with a more contemporary sound, it combines organically soul from the 70s with synth arrangements and Belgium-based poet Baloji rapping. "Place Of Worship" is a standalone piece based on international beats and containing Brazilian singer Xênia França vocals, besides José James' own.

"For Trayvon" is a ballade tribute to Trayvon Martin, with sensitive James' vocals over piano and strings. It is a beautiful and memorable melody as well. The closer, "38th & Chicago", contains Afro-Cuban percussion (from Pedrito Martinez) and another guitarist, Marcus Machado, with a lengthy solo.

The music, which connects past and present imperceptibly, may not be the most innovative, but probably the most beautiful album of this genre in the year 2024.

ERIC JACOBSON / WE SIX Heading Home

Album · 2024 · Post Bop
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Chicago-based trumpeter Eric Jacobson's third album as a leader, "Heading Home," sounds right out of the 1970s mainstream jazz scene, the nineties post-bop revival scene, or, simpler, it just sounds like one timeless classic album of mainstream jazz.

Eric leads an acoustic quintet of high-probe musicians, playing quite conservative, but extremely professional post-bop, with a lot of swing. Cross-generation band combines seasoned pianist Bruce Barth, veteran drummer George Fludas, mid-generation tenor Geof Bradfield, and session bassist Dennis Carroll.

Eight pieces, all Jacobson's originals, sound as if they come from inventive and enthusiastic post-bop times of the early 70s. There is a lot of light, optimism, and elegance in the album's music. Each composition has a different rhythm, from the up-tempo opener "Survival" to the lyrical ballade "My Love for Amy" to the swinging danceable "Heading Home".

Listeners usually expect quality mainstream jazz from Origin label's recordings. Still Eric Jacobson's "Heading Home" is a bit special one - very well played and edited, it is an example of how once great traditional post-bop can sound actual and really attractive today. Can be recommended for jazz purists and modern jazz haters, as well as for everyone who simply loves Jazz.

Latest Forum Topic Posts

  • Posted 16 hours ago in Blues Reviews: Shakin’ Hard Times Loose
    Blues Reviews: Shakin’ Hard Times LooseReview, From the Magazine, Tommy Castro & The Painkillers, Dennis Spencer Group, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Various Artists, Corky Siegel, Anthony Paule Soul OrchestraBy Frank-John Hadley   I  Apr. 1, 2025Tommy Castro & The Painkillers(Photo: Dragan Tasic)Tommy Castro & The Painkillers: Closer To The Bone (Alligator; ★★★★ 50:25)A bandleader for 30-plus years, Tommy Castro has collected accolades for performing a personal type of blues heavily seasoned with soul and rock. On his 17th and most straight-blues-oriented album, he rollicks through a surprising, well-picked cluster of tunes that he’s rescued from the deep shadows. Several connect to legends like Magic Sam, Johnny “Guitar” Watson and Eddie Taylor; others date back to the 1980s when he was on the Bay Area blues scene with songwriting guitarists such as Johnny Nitro and Ron Thompson. Castro’s fretwork — at times in the spirit if not letter of Albert Collins, Elmore James and Stevie Ray Vaughn — counterpoints his confident, characterful soul man voice. Along with his tight, non-narcotic Painkillers, the youthful 69-year-old gets assistance from 13 guests including saxophonist Deanna Bogart and Chicago harmonica maestro Billy Branch.Ordering info: alligator.comDennis Spencer Group: Bluesman From Jupiter (Independent Release; ★★★½ 32:58)Not related to Sun Ra despite the album title, Dennis Spencer has been a fixture on the South L.A. blues scene for about a decade now. His consistently fine guitar playing, in a measuredly intense style derived from Chuck Berry’s and B.B. and Freddie King’s, sounds like the product of a lifetime spent careening between extreme highs and lows. Spencer’s vocals, on a set of self-written tunes whose lyrics put a good-humored spin on his roller coaster past, are acceptable. Far more than that, almost sensational, is the lead singing of Tracy Hart, who’s trained in gospel, classical and opera but fluent in the blues.Ordering info: [email protected] Mayall’s Bluesbreakers: The Power Of The Blues, Pt. II (MIG-Music; ★★★½ 55:39)The value of any Bluesbreakers album depends on the caliber of musicians recruited by supreme talent scout John Mayall. This 1987 concert, recorded in Germany, features one of the best editions of his band. Principal honors go to guitarist Coco Montoya. He raises the venue’s rafters whenever he unleashes lead volleys and holds concertgoers in thrall every time he quiets down to wring nuanced emotion out of notes. He means business in the vocals department too. The clincher is Montoya’s startlingly good transformation of Albert Collins’ “Cold, Cold Feeling.”Ordering info: mvdshop.comVarious Artists: Down Home Blues–Chicago–The Beautiful Stuff (Wienerworld; ★★★½ 44:00)For their collection of 1950s Chicago blues tracks, Britain-based blues historians Mike Rowe and Chris Bentley went with 15 of their favorites. Among the beatified practitioners heard taking their timeless music with masterly ease to the core of human experience are Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Little Walton and Memphis Minnie. Also appearing are little-remembered guitarist Blue Smitty and lady boogie pianist Mata Roy. Specially recommended to Chicago blues beginners.Ordering info: mvdshop.comCorky Siegel: Corky Siegel’s Symphonic Blues No. 6 (Dawnserly; ★★★★ 58:23)For those unfamiliar with him, Corky Siegel is a longtime Chicago harmonica player of virtuosic technique who possesses a creative vision that interlaces blues and classical. With his first symphonic album since the 1970s, the onetime co-leader of the Siegel-Schwall Band presents a self-composed three-movement concerto that he and the Lancaster (PA) Symphony Orchestra performed in concert in 2007. Now, he adds solos by members of the Chicago Symphony, other symphonies,and his own Chamber Blues strings-and-tabla group. Siegel’s earthy, wailing harmonica engages the status quo friendlily; a tone of optimism informs No. 6 and two more tracks: “CODA For Tabla and Harmonica” and “Wrecking Ball Sonata,” which has Siegel’s singing creakily but charmingly with Chamber Blues. The album concludes with Siegel giving a 19-minute audiobook-type reading of the liner notes.Ordering info: corkymusic.comAnthony Paule Soul Orchestra: What Are You Waiting For? (Blue Dot; ★★★★ 45:19)Guitarist Anthony Paule and songwriter Christine Vitale have a knack for finding exceptional singers for their 12-piece horn band in San Francisco. These days ex-Elvin Bishop sidekick Willy Jordan is enlisted. Notwithstanding periodic lapses of overemoting, Jordan has a signature style that lends itself to dramatic performances with the ring of genuineness. High marks to the soul-blues band for strong musicianship and grooves, perfect arrangements, ample enthusiasm and built-to-last originals carrying adult and knowing lyrics. DBOrdering info: anthonypaule.comfrom https://downbeat.com
  • Posted 12 days ago in What are You Listening II
    [TUBE]/Xqr9c6K7b58[/TUBE]
  • Posted 20 days ago in Grateful Dead Releasing 60-CD Box Set
    Grateful Dead Releasing 60-CD Box Set for 60th Anniversary, Share Live Songs Unreleased performances from shows between 1969 and 1994 make up the mammoth Enjoying the RideBy Jazz MonroeMarch 12, 2025Grateful Dead, August 1979 (James R. Anderson) In typical Grateful Dead fashion, Grateful Dead have compiled 60 hours’ worth of live albums to celebrate their 60th anniversary with a 60xCD box set. Out May 30, Enjoying the Ride comprises recordings of sets played between 1969 and 1994, including at Winterland Ballroom and Madison Square Garden; “virtually” all of the music is previously unreleased, according to a press release. Among the 20 shows, amounting to some 450 songs, are 17 concerts presented in full. An abridged version, The Music Never Stopped, compiles at least one song from each venue across three CDs or six LPs. That’s out via Rhino on May 30. Find three newly released live songs below.Grateful Dead archivist and legacy manager David Lemieux, who curated the set, said in the press release, “Going to see the Grateful Dead, following them from city to city, was likened to the modern equivalent of running away and joining the circus. These 20 venues are where the circus took us, and the show was something we never wanted to miss.”from https://pitchfork.com[TUBE]/XolZT2QhCjQ[/TUBE][TUBE]/6Gv30A6AKZA[/TUBE][TUBE]/Uy86qScvX3A[/TUBE] snobb2025-03-13 01:28:56

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JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

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