Julian Lage Trio

“His music appears to be a revelation unfolding in real time—a genuine portrayal of an interior state...Lage has a radiant quality, both in his playing and in his temperament.

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The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra began its life as the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra in 1966.The world-famous Village Vanguard jazz club in New York City booked the newly formed band for three Monday nights that February. Those performances were wildly successful and the engagement was extended indefinitely. The Village Vanguard’s owner, Max Gordon, told Mel Lewis, “We’ll keep it going until it tapers off.” Over half a century and more than 2700 Monday nights later, it still hasn’t. The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra stands apart from all other modern ensembles of its kind and is still as strong and vital as ever.

“In the quest to describe the music of Fred Hersch in a word — a preposterous task, but not a pointless one — you could do a lot worse than “refinement.” Mr. Hersch is a pianist of cultivated taste and erudition; he’s also the sort of jazz musician who brings a lissome elegance to his playing, disinclined to accentuate the effort behind it all. But there’s another definition of refinement that has to do with painstaking progress, the incremental stretch toward an elusive ideal.  

“He bears the name of jazz royalty, and he's spent many hours curating, archiving and producing his parents' recordings. But when he picks up his own saxophones, Ravi Coltrane blows an original and distinctly modern strain of jazz, distilling but never seeking to imitate his family's adventurous improvising spirits. Now one of today's top saxophonists

“Studious and self-assured, with a casually debonair style and a warm but faraway air, the Chicago-born Mr. Ross, became ubiquitous on the scene over the last few years without forcing himself in, by virtue of his rhythmic distinction and his adaptive spirit.

“Artists who captivate listeners time and again are the ones who make themselves vulnerable and uncomfortable. They disrupt themselves intentionally. Melissa Aldana’s expression is rare and wildly evolving as she continues to reach for more.

“Pianist/composer Jon Cowherd is known for employing a fluid language and sincere approach to the keyboard

“Valued for his deep tone, quick ears, harmonic elasticity, and beautifully clear solos...

“He radiates such facility and generosity from behind that piano. With his eloquence flooding our ears, we were suddenly invited to listen for a private friction in his brain...We’ll never be able to hear those firing synapses, only the decisions that they create. That’s fine. That’s music. Instead of settling into the center of his expanding soundworld, Moran decides to keep moving. We can learn something about who he is by where he decides to go, how he decides to get there, and what he decides to do once he arrives

“Changes come and go in Manhattan’s West Village neighborhood, but the basement club occupying 178 Seventh Avenue South since 1935 remains a stable and revered New York City landmark.