Jazz

Fresh Air's jazz critic reviews a new CD box set, Boogie Woogie and Blues Piano, featuring remastered recordings from such greats as Chicago's Jimmy Yancy, Meade Lux Lewis, Pete Johnson and more — all solo or in small ensembles.

Celebrated soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom — a pioneer, among other things, in the use of electronics in live jazz — has an inventively formatted new recording. Fresh Air's jazz critic has a listen.

Fresh Air's jazz critic reviews Mark Miller's High Hat, Trumpet, and Rhythm: The Life and Music of Valaida Snow. It's a biography of jazz singer and musician Valaida Snow, aka "Little Louis."

Fresh Air's jazz critic reviews The Irrational Numbers, the new album from improvisation-oriented bassist Drew Gress. In truth, he says, the numbers the band plays are less "irrational" than pleasantly unpredictable.

The new live album from Andy Bey shows off his extraordinary range as a singer. There's plenty of Ellington, risk-taking, and evidence of his virtuosity—even if he didn't become famous until his ongoing revival in the '90s.

Tenor saxophonist Dewey Redman, who died last year, recorded as a sideman with Ornette Coleman, Keith Jarrett, Pat Metheny and Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra.

He also led and recorded with his own groups — and was the father of another tenor saxophonist, Joshua Redman. Fresh Air's jazz critic says Dewey Redman never quite got the acclaim he deserved — and that a just-reissued album from 1982 shows how good he really was.

Several of Nat King Cole's recordings have been re-issued recently. Kevin Whitehead has a review of a re-issued 1958 recording.

Fresh Air's jazz critic reviews a remastering of trumpeter Lee Morgan's 1956 Lee Morgan, Volume 2: Sextet.

Fresh Air's jazz critic reviews Quartet, a live performance from the McCoy Tyner Quartet, featuring pianist McCoy Tyner, saxophonist Joe Lovano, bassist Christian McBride and drummer Jeff "Tain Watts.

The album, recorded on New Year's Eve 2006, leads off a new series of recordings from McCoy Tyner, and is the first recording on the new McCoy Tyner Music label.

Fresh Air's jazz critic reviews two new CD reissues originally recorded in the fall of 1958.

Everybody Digs Bill Evans, featuring the legendary jazz pianist, includes a track left off the original issue of the recording.

We Three, featuring the Tennessee-born pianist Phineas Newborn, showcases his phenomenal technique alongside the contributions of drummer Roy Haynes and bassman Paul Chambers.