December, and the closing of the year; The momentary carolers complete Their Christmas Eves, and quickly disappear Into their houses on each lighted street — from "Christmas Eve in Whitneyville, 1955" by Donald Hall This time of year, I tend to find myself harried and hectic, fretting over one list or another, scrambling to catch up on what I missed. One bright spot in recent years has been the Critics Roundtable, an annual email conversation hosted here at The Gig. Exchanging reflections with my colleagues always feels like the sanest and most enlightened way to bring the year to a... Continue reading

Photo by Jacob Blickenstaff My editor at JazzTimes, the fearless Evan Haga, saw the Joel Harrison 19 on Wednesday night, the night after I did. Seems like he caught more of a homerun set than I did, based on this Facebook squib from yesterday: The Joel Harrison 19 sounded tremendous last night at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola—advanced but accessible modern big-band music performed by some of NYC's best. "Advanced but accessible" is a good way to put it. There was little about Harrison's writing that felt forbidding, aesthetically speaking, or unduly academic. Which is one reason I was slightly bummed by... Continue reading

It’s a small quirk of the JazzTimes publishing model that the glossy print mag reaches subscribers and newsstands weeks before any of its content hits the web. This might suggest a strange perversion of the natural order, but it does have the effect of delivering a premium benefit for paying customers. As a writer, it can be disconcerting mainly because 99% of the feedback I get comes online, and the print readership for JT doesn’t take to the Twitter. Sometimes I can feel, erroneously, like a story falls into some kind of void until it finally gets posted online. And... Continue reading

Yesterday I mentioned that it had been nearly two months since my last post. And I promised to d̶u̶m̶p̶ aggregate some recent highlights from the vault. Some of these pieces maybe warrant further discussion — the photo at left, ahem, is from my table on the Smooth Cruise — but for now I just need to move on. (Follow me on Twitter for more timely repartee.) Anyway, here they are, in chronological order. May 30: Mulgrew Miller Obituary May 31: Spotlight on ShapeShifter Lab June 9: Arts & Leisure Playlist June 14: In Praise of Live Streams June 24: On... Continue reading

Photo by Takashi Yashima If you’ve been watching this space in recent weeks, I’m really sorry. Life has been happening fast. Blog posts have not. Look for a separate item soon that will gather some highlights from the past two months or so. What I want to talk about now, in case the photo here hasn’t tipped you off, is Laurie Frink, whose death on Saturday came a shock, if not exactly a surprise, to a lot of people. I spent a good portion of Monday speaking with musicians who were close to Frink, as background for this Times obituary.... Continue reading

Noah Preminger Quartet Jazz Standard, May 21 Continue reading

New Music, May 21 Mike Pride, "Birthing Days" and "Drummer's Corpse" Continue reading

Ruby Washington/The New York Times Jaimeo Brown Transcendence Drom, May 14 Continue reading

Julie Glassberg for The New York Times The Gil Evans Project Jazz Standard, May 14 Continue reading

New Music, May 14 Talib Kweli, "Prisoner of Conscious" Continue reading

Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times Take 6 Blue Note, May 8 Continue reading

New Music, April 27 Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, "Brooklyn Babylon" Continue reading

Richard Termine for The New York Times Vijay Iyer: Solo, Trio, Sextet Zankel Hall, April 27 Continue reading

As of today, it's official: Michael Bublé has the No. 1 album in America. Last Thursday I hitched a ride with his promotional whirlwind for a few hours, snapping the pic above with my phone. My piece was in Saturday's paper. NYT photo ninja Chad Batka put together a great slideshow online. Continue reading

Jacob Blickenstaff for The New York Times Steve Coleman and Five Elements April 23, The Stone Continue reading

New Music, April 23 Phoenix, "Bankrupt!" and Boney James, "The Beat" Continue reading

John Rogers/ECM Records Playlist, April 21 Craig Taborn Trio, J.D. Allen, Eric Church, Anna Webber, Junip Continue reading

Richard Termine/The New York Times Tyshawn Sorey's Wu Wei Quintet Greenwich House Music School, April 17 Continue reading

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau Bowery Ballroom, April 9 Continue reading

chad batka for the new york times Green Day Barclays Center, April 7 Continue reading

Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times Enrico Pieranunzi, Marc Johnson, Joe La Barbera Village Vanguard, April 3 Continue reading

School of La Roca The Gig, JazzTimes, March 2013 (See also Tears Come From Heaven) Continue reading

Benjamin Lowy for The New York Times A Couple of Pianists Change Key On Gerald Clayton's "Life Forum" and Aaron Diehl's "The Bespoke Man's Narrative" Continue reading

Photo: Seth Rosner Playlist, March 31 Steve Coleman & Five Elements, Charles Bradley, Kendrick Scott Oracle, DJ Koze, Ben Wolfe Continue reading

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times A Voice That Leaps Between Genres On Rebecca Martin, "Twain" and the jazz-folk connection Continue reading