The most interesting countries or cities for new jazz in 2024
Whether it be hard bop, soul jazz, spiritual jazz or something more on the edge, where are the brightest spots to find it.
Bored with jazz standards ...
Am I being heretical. Should Grumpy burn me at the stake. When I see a new album that is completely comprised of Standards or stuff from the American Pop songbook, I generally pass. I don't find there's much new to explore anymore
ReplyDeleteOn the ground breaking front - it has to be South London
South London has produced Nubya Garcia, Matthew Halsall and Shabaka Hutchings.
Israel has an amazing stable of great jazz artists who put out incredible hard bop and post bop and more modern forms - the 2 Avishai Cohens (Trumpet for one, bass for the other), Anat Cohen, Gilad Hekselman, B3 genius Sam Yahel and Shai Maestro
Poland also seems to be a place for edgy stuff - Pink Freund is one that first comes to mind.
also on the Israeli front, have to add cross cultural world fusion and moderm jazz bassist Omer Avital
ReplyDeleteSpain is producing a ton of jazz artists these days. The scene in Barcelona is very vibrant, but even the smaller cities, like Seville (where I live) has live performances 7 nights a week, and often several options per night. Style runs from hard bop to trad, to manouche. Jazz/flamenco fusion is even a thing.
ReplyDeleteMontmartre in Copenhagen - seating a little like Smoke in NYC but a bit more space.
ReplyDeleteJazz Cafe Singer, Republic of Georgia. I was amazed by the number of jazz-crossover venues in Tbilisi. The music was infused with Georgian harmonies. Georgia also has a wonderful vocal tradition, often emanating from a religious setting. You don't have to be a believer to dig it (I'm not).
Casa de la Trova, Santiago de Cuba. The place for Son and Nueva de Trova. There are a number of female singers, not younger than late 40s, who sing there, in a song mode not dissimilar to Fado. A fabulous city for hearing music. You walk down the street and there is music pouring out of virtually every open window.
I guess the point is that there's music everywhere if you look for it.