Jonathan Butler
Live In South Africa
(Rendezvous)
With his colorful mix of breezy acoustic guitar instrumentals and powerful, throaty vocal tunes, Jonathan Butler has been a popular force on the smooth jazz circuit for years, most recently touring in 2005 and 2007 as part of Jazz Attack with Peter White, Rick Braun, and [...]

Keith Jarrett/Gary Peacock/Jack DeJohnette
Setting Standards
(ECM)
It’s hard to believe it, but in January, this trio will be 25 years old. To mark the occasion, ECM has issued a box set of the supergroup’s inaugural session – a remarkable two days that produced three albums of superlative music. The albums make a [...]

Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson
Kidney Stew Is Fine
(Delmark)
Jump blues may be the most seamless amalgam of blues and jazz ever conceived, and no jump-bluesman was jazzier than Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson. Recorded in France in 1969, this reissue of a classic album captures the late singer and alto-saxophonist at the peak of his [...]

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, and neither Fleck’s [...]

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 album number six, [...]

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 album for ECM [...]