Some would have you believe jazz peaked as an art form in the late 50s and early 60s, but make no mistake: We re in the midst of another golden era of jazz.
Chris Hoffman (
Henry Threadgill, Morris), Lewis presents his ideas as a jazz suite, incorporating ideas from across the jazz spectrum to convey the power of Carver’s ideas.
The opening title track puts a bluesy melody atop a New Orleans second line rhythm, connecting the dots between the development of early jazz and the way Carver took his mobile laboratory – named after its funder, Morris K. Jesup – to poor Southern farmers to advance his ideas on better ways to work the land. “Experiment Station” touches on more
avant-garde territory, with Hoffman, Knuffle and the bandleader trading lines that seem to ignore standard meter and harmony in their quest to emulate Carver’s trailblazing work in the titular section of the Tuskegee Institute’s agricultural department. “Seer,” by contrast, fields a (slightly) more conventional melody, with the horns harmonizing over Parker’s strict bass groove, emphasizing Carver’s dignity and truth. “Fallen Flowers,” an ac
2 of 5 James Brandon Lewis 3 of 5 Damon Locks 4 of 5 Alexa Tarantino 5 of 5 Roxana Amed
Jen Shyu, Living s a Gift | Part 3: My Unsolved Regrets
Zero Grasses: Ritual For the Losses is the latest artistic statement from Jen Shyu, a vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and composer with the blazing heart of an artist and the curious mind of an ethnographer. It seems unlikely that we ll encounter another album this year with a more striking balance of formal invention and personal revelation.
One of the losses ritualized in Shyu s album title refers to her father, who died in 2019. Another is poignantly realized on Lament for Breonna Taylor. And on a suite in four parts titled Living s a Gift, Shyu incorporates lyrics composed by middle school students, describing the surreal privations of their pandemic experience.