59 articles
Wif Stenger
Wif Stenger started out in university radio, then writing a weekly column for New York Press focusing on the downtown improvised music scene. Later he contributed to Rolling Stone, Spin, Billboard, Baltimore City Paper and Miami New Times as well as various music and travel books. After studying music history at the New School and journalism at Harvard, he moved to Helsinki. He works for the Finnish Broadcasting Company alongside freelance gigs for Songlines, Monocle, The Guardian, Deutsche Welle and Finnish Music Quarterly. He has been contributing to JJ since 2013, including profiles of Kamasi Washington, Vijay Iyer and Peter Erskine.
Carlos Niño and Friends: More Energy Fields, Current
Let’s call Carlos Niño a mellower LA counterpart to his Chicago labelmate and sometime collaborator Makaya McCraven. Both are percussionists who invite guests for...
Nubya Garcia: Source = Our Dance
London saxophonist Garcia’s 2020 debut, the Mercury Prize-shortlisted Source hit the sweet spot between accessibility and experimentalism, classic and contemporary jazz, embracing cultures and...
Lovano, Aldana and Helsinki stars at postponed April Jazz
Odd as it was to head to April Jazz on a dark, rainy autumn night – two and a half years since the last...
Billy Cobham and Richard Bona play the first Sicilia Jazz Festival
Plenty of American jazz legends have been of sons of Sicily, including Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett, who’ve both appeared with Palermo’s Orchestra Jazz...
- Advertisement -
Lucia Cadotsch, Verneri Pohjola and Oiro Pena at Odysseus Festival, Helsinki
The albums of singer Lucia Cadotsch and trumpeter Verneri Pohjola draw strength from the dark side, offering sombre, nocturnal meditations. On Helsinki’s Lonna Island,...
Ian Charleton Big Band: A Fresh Perspective
Jazz and the US Navy have been entwined since 1917, when John Philip Sousa founded the first Navy Jazz Band. Four years later, another...
Mathilde Grooss Viddal: Notre Dame – Meditations And Prayers
Thelonious Monk opened Monk’s Music with a brief version of Abide With Me, composed by William Henry Monk a century earlier, and played reverently...
Logan Richardson: Afrofuturism
Kansas City saxophonist Richardson can’t be accused of a lack of ambition or confidence. His sprawling fifth album starts off with a spoken-word rap...
- Advertisement -
Riitta Paakki Quartet: Piste
Pianist Riitta Paakki wrote her doctoral dissertation on Wayne Shorter’s compositions, which she re-imagined on her last studio album in 2015. Like Shorter, she’s...
Sarathy Korwar & UPAJ Collective: Night Dreamer Direct-To-Disc Sessions
Improvisation is the essence of Indian classical music, so it’s natural to fuse it with jazz, as has been done off and on since...
Makaya McCraven: Universal Beings E&F Sides
Two and a half years isn’t enough time to declare something a classic – or is it? Chicago drummer and producer Makaya McCraven’s 2018...
Lucia Cadotsch: Speak Low II
On this year’s strongest vocal jazz album, Swiss singer Lucia Cadotsch and her Swedish trio take apart the standards to see what they’re made...
- Advertisement -