Chick Corea & Béla Fleck The Enchantment (Concord) An album of piano/banjo duos might not initially seem like the most logical project, but Chick Corea and Béla Fleck are in fact highly complementary musical spirits. Each man uses relentless displays of virtuosity to suck all the fun out of music, [...]

Bill Charlap Trio Live at the Village Vanguard (Blue Note) For his first five albums as a Blue Note artist, this calm yet commanding pianist headed into the studio with concepts in tow – creating, among other things, tributes to songwriting titans Hoagy Carmichael and Leonard Bernstein. For Blue Note [...]

David Torn Prezens (ECM) In jazz, recording is generally about documenting performances, not creating something new from the ensuing notes. But David Torn, a forward-looking guitarist and composer who’s worked with artists as disparate as Jan Garbarek and David Bowie, refuses to be bound by such restrictions. Prezens, his first [...]

Lizz Wright The Orchard (Verve) Lizz Wright is one of those old souls in a young body. Her music blends blues, R&B, and unvarnished folk music into a musical jambalaya. Influences from Billie Holiday to ’70s soul and rootsy jazz make The Orchard a consistently interesting listen, with Wright’s smoky [...]

Charles Lloyd Quartet Rabo De Nube (ECM) Multi-reedist Charles Lloyd’s first live album in more than 20 years features his new working group: pianist Jason Moran, double-bassist Reuben Rogers, and drummer Eric Harland. At 70 years old, Lloyd has shared the stage with many introspective musicians, and the extent to [...]

Bobby Few Lights And Shadows (Boxholder) Bobby Few and his pumpin’ piano have been heard on a fistful of classic or underrated free-jazz albums, from Albert Ayler’s Music Is The Healing Force Of The Universe to Frank Wright’s Church Number Nine and Uhuru Na Umoja. His two-fisted, keyboard-sweeping style blends [...]