The true jazz experience happens onstage in front of an audience—our concert and festival reviewers take you there.
Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding’s opera …(Iphigenia) begins with a woman dropping dead. Even in opera’s greatest tragedies the bodies don’t usually start piling up … Read More “Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding’s …(Iphigenia) in Washington”
John Gilbreath, executive director of Earshot Jazz, walked to the microphone on opening night to introduce the first concert of the 33rd Earshot Jazz Festival. … Read More “The 33rd Earshot Jazz Festival in Seattle”
The year 2020 tarnished the Monterey Jazz Festival’s revered reputation as the world’s longest continuously running jazz festival (since 1958). Due to the pandemic, the … Read More “The 64th Monterey Jazz Festival”
“It brought us all pure joy to get together and play as a group post-COVID lockdown,” saxophonist and composer Christine Jensen told JazzTimes after playing … Read More “2021 Montreal Jazz Festival: Back to Business, Slightly Abridged”
I had hoped to report on the 2021 edition of the DC Jazz Festival without using the word “pivot,” a term that was already overused … Read More “Review: The DC Jazz Festival Keeps On Adapting”
On March 10, 2020, I stood shoulder to shoulder in a crowded Philadelphia bar to hear a blistering set by guitarist Jeff Parker’s band. I … Read More “Vision Festival 25 in New York City”
Traditionalists would probably have considered the third and final day of Newport Jazz 2021 its “jazziest”—more swinging, more traditional instruments, fewer straight-four beats, less stylistic … Read More “Newport Jazz 2021: Day 3”
The weather gods must have been in favor of Newport Jazz’s 2021 return. A superb first day of the festival was followed by an even … Read More “Newport Jazz 2021: Day 2”
Two years ago around this time, they had a jazz festival in Newport, R.I., the same way they have for decades. One year ago, as … Read More “Newport Jazz 2021: Day 1”
This writer has always disliked first-person criticism. Readers don’t care about a writer’s subjective experience of art. The Leopolis Jazz Fest, however, has put me … Read More “The Leopolis Jazz Fest: Back in the (Ex)-U.S.S.R.”
