Musica Jazz International Issue No. 2 is out now: pianist Paul Cornish is the protagonist of our cover story, while the covermount CD, Giant Step Arts’ Live from Brooklyn, showcases some of the finest voices on today’s New York jazz scene. Inside, long-form features on Oscar Alemán and Roy Ayers, interviews with Mark Turner, Joshua Redman, Francesco Bearzatti, Julian Lage and John Scofield, a valuable and still highly relevant conversation with Wadada Leo Smith, Ron Carter revisiting the legendary Plugged Nickel recordings, Barbara Hannigan, and features exploring worlds adjacent to jazz through Nick Drake, Talking Heads and Jackie Paris. Plus reviews, stories and much more!

Ayers died on March 4 in New York. The warm sound of his instrument has fallen silent, leaving an empty void. He was eighty-four years old and had been battling a long illness. His notes, once rays of sunshine in the jazz-funk and soul firmament, now float like precious dust in an endless sunset. The music world is left devastated and suspended, waiting for a final note that will never come. His vibraphone spoke directly to the heart, and every chord he played was a fragment of melancholic light—a thrill we now miss like a lost heartbeat. Roy Ayers leaves behind a bittersweet void—a silence filled with memories in...

The recent death of the Brazilian pianist truly marks the end of an enchanted world: a true la-la land built in the perfect image and likeness of its ingenious creator

ARTIST Yusef Lateef ALBUM TITLE "Alight Upon the Lake: Live at the Jazz Showcase" LABEL Resonance ______________________________________________________________ Three CDs, 170 minutes of intense music that nevertheless retains a keen sense of variety in its structures and atmospheres: this is what we get from the latest Resonance release, thanks in no small part to the three musicians accompanying the Chattanooga-born multi-instrumentalist, who gives them exceptionally generous room to express themselves. There are just nine tracks in all, each of considerable length, as one might expect (two approach the half-hour mark). This allows for the development of remarkably rich, multifaceted and intricately constructed musical architectures, particularly on "Eboness", "Inside Atlantis", "Opus 1 & 2" and "Golden Goddess". Underpinning these...

ARTIST Franco D'Andrea Trio ALBUM TITLE "Live" LABEL Parco della Musica ______________________________________________________________ Just over a year after Something Bluesy and More, and as a direct continuation of that album, D’Andrea’s new trio has released a double live album. This is a particularly enticing prospect, even in the context of the pianist’s remarkable career, as it marks the first club recording by this new group in the trio format. The concert took place at the Torrione in Ferrara, over two sets which, in keeping with the significance of the occasion, featured different setlists and an expanded repertoire. Apparently, the recording was not initially intended for release, but the fact that it has now seen the light of...