S. Victor Aaron

Norah Jones’ The Fall was a description of what she surmised would happen to her standing among her early fans – rather than referring to the current season.

is the first new release under Remler’s name since 1990’s This Is Me, her last studio recordings before her sudden passing in May of that year. Until now, though, there’s never been any officially-released concert recordings of her.

Ever restless in his pursuit of finding novel ways to collaborate on the creation of highly improvised music, saxophone extraordinaire Ivo Perelman has dreamed up a dandy: a quartet consisting of all-saxophonists. Supernova

Helping him build that bridge is someone uniquely qualified for that job in the 21st century: jazz/hip-hop singer and producer José James. Going back to their days together as students at Berklee College of Music, Kuroda was later instrumental in helping to formulate James’ trailblazing crossover jazz sound in the 2010s with his horn arrangements. James returned the favor in 2014 by producing Rising Son, which put the Japanese-born artist squarely on the map of jazz that’s facilely hybridized with contemporary music forms.

quite good. But like Thelonious Monk’s tunes, there’s no such thing as too many Shorter tributes and one of the latest ones dropped in October, 2024 come from a small combo in Italy, the Luca Gelli Organ Trio.

[Ahmed] is not a singular person, it’s a quartet that pays homage to the music of Ahmed Abdul-Malik, an American jazz bassist and oud player who in the 1950s and ’60s made some of the first recordings that incorporated Middle Eastern influences into jazz decades before that became a thing. That’s him on the cover of [Ahmed]’s 2021’s Nights on Saturn (communication). [Ahmed] is comprised of Pat Thomas on piano, Joel Grip on double bass, Antonin Gerbal on drums and Seymour Wright handling the alto saxophone.

Recorded a month shy of Rushen’s twentieth birthday, Prelusion showcases so much technical prowess, feel and composing sophistication from a teenager, it felt like the beginning of the long and fruitful music career that actually transpired (and continues to the present day).

The first time I listened to Vacate ( Cuneiform Records ) it was without understanding any of the context but it was easy to sense that this latest, 2024 album from Chicago’s quirky rock band Cheer-Accident was different. Then, I read an essay about it from the band’s linchpin Thymme Jones. He explains that it had been the band’s ambition for some twenty-five years to make a Burt Bacharach-styled ‘easy listening’ record. Jones traced his own fondness for the music back to his parents’ Herb Alpert records, revealing what got the composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist Jones to become a trumpet player himself.

One Head Four People is a return to the uncustomary style of group improvisation he’s pioneered in the late 60s as both a leader and as part of the Art Ensemble of Chicago.

Recently, Tim Berne celebrated seventy spins around the sun. That’s roughly fifty years after his eminent career as one of avant-garde jazz’s foremost alto saxophonists, composers and bandleaders got started when Berne arrived in New York City and tracked down the man who mentored him to greatness, Julius Hemphill.