Music and Recording Reviews

Sylvie Courvoisier and Mary Halvorson: Bone Bells
Sylvie Courvoisier, piano; Mary Halvorson, guitar
Pyroclastic PR 40 0199006320662 (CD). 2025. Courvoisier, Halvorson, Ned Rothenberg, prods.; Ryan Streber, Owen Mulholland, Scott Hull, engs.
Performance ****
Sonics ****

Pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and guitarist Mary Halvorson came to New York within four years of each other, on either side of the new millennium. The former arrived from her native Switzerland, the latter from Massachusetts with a three-year stopover in Connecticut to study with experimental composer and alto saxophonist Anthony Braxton at Wesleyan.

Since they both made homes in Brooklyn and work in the same broad avant-garde milieu, it seemed inevitable that they'd get together. Their debut, Crop Circles, was released by Relative Pitch in 2017, followed by 2021's Searching for the Disappeared Hour on the Pyroclastic label.

The similarities between piano and electric guitar can lead easily to a turf war, but for a duo with the right choice of music, the results can be tantalizing, as here.

Bone Bells, made three days after an appearance at the 2024 Long Play Festival, contains four pieces from each player, placed in alternating order. Halvorson's opening title track is an aptly titled lugubrious evocation. At times, her inimitable use of effects is complemented with piano preparations, generating fascinating textures, as on "Folded Secret."

Elsewhere, the music marries memorable lines with playful expositions—especially on Courvoisier's "Nags Head Valse," the shortest piece on the 43-minute album. "Silly Walk" best demonstrates the duo's refreshing whimsy, as an angular unison line is broken up with segments of wild abandon: hacked chords and piano knocks then parries and thrusts of what sounds like knights battling down castle stairs.

Courvoisier and Halvorson have crafted a remarkably accessible album; the strengths of each player combine to form a cohesive, must-listen work.—Andrey Henkin

Branford Marsalis Quartet: Belonging
Marsalis, saxophone; Joey Calderazzo, piano; Eric Revis, bass; Justin Faulkner, drums
Marsalis Music/Blue Note 0602475749165 (LP, CD). 2025. Branford Marsalis, prod.; Rob Hunter, Greg Calbi, Ryan Smith, engs.
Performance ****
Sonics ****

The '70s were a fecund period for pianist Keith Jarrett: trio work in Europe; two years with Miles Davis; the beginning of a decades-long relationship with ECM; his American Quartet; first solo dates, including The Köln Concert; the debut of what would become the standards trio; and his European Quartet.

The latter, with a lineup of saxophonist Jan Garbarek, drummer Jon Christensen, and bassist Palle Danielsson, existed from 1974–1979. The group debuted with Belonging, and it is that album that the Branford Marsalis Quartet honors on the saxophonist's Blue Note debut of the same name.

Belonging was a remarkably varied set of Jarrett compositions, ripe for re-exploration. Oddly, it is rarely played by others.

The original album ran just over 46 minutes. Marsalis, pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Revis, and drummer Justin Faulkner expand it by more than a third. The title track, a little over two minutes in its Jarrett iteration, has more than tripled in length.

What makes this release so interesting is that unlike, say, a tribute to the John Coltrane Quartet, the players don't share a clear lineage, which is especially clear in the contrast between Garbarek and Marsalis. In the mid-1970s, the latter was still at his most expressive before cooling over the subsequent decades.

This quartet has been a working unit since 2011, an eon on the music scene. Belonging is a demonstration of how confidently they transform another group's work into their own. The best examples are the slow boil of "Long as You Know You're Living Yours" and the aforementioned "Belonging"—initially almost just a sketch, but now beautifully fleshed out with long Calderazzo and Marsalis solos.—Andrey Henkin

François Couturier and Dominique Pifarély: Preludes and Songs
Couturier, piano; Pifarély, violin
ECM 2819 (CD). 2025. Manfred Eicher, prod.; Markus Heiland, eng.
Performance ****½
Sonics *****

The only previous duo recording by François Couturier and Dominique Pifarély is Poros, from 1997. The intervening 28 years have seen a jazz violin renaissance; Pifarély has been an important contributor. Both musicians are associated with the European avant-garde, but even their boldest experiments sound disciplined and cultivated. They're grounded in classical and new-music idioms as well as jazz, and their musical erudition is deep.

Their joint venture is based on close, intuitive listening to each other and a shared interest in celebrating their instruments' rich, disparate sonorities. On Couturier's "Le Surcroît," isolated piano notes chime and hover in the air of a large space, the Reitstadel concert hall in Neumarkt, Germany. Across Couturier's open piano framework, Pifarély's violin—sometimes sweetly singing, sometimes scraping—creates elusive, fragmentary melodies. Pifarély's "Vague" and "What Us" illustrate the pair's collaborative commitment that underlies this collaboration. The players rarely occupy roles of soloist and accompanist. Instead, they juxtapose their spontaneous inventions and produce a third creation that transcends the individual parts.

For Preludes and Songs, these two hard-core improvisers made an unexpected decision: they selected several standards, including "Solitude," one of Duke Ellington's tenderest melodies. The 1934 song is given jagged edges by Pifarély's fiercely sawing violin and becomes newly, strangely poignant. Manning Sherwin's "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" is reimagined into something dark and solemn. "I Loves You, Porgy" is stunning in its passion. There are thousands of versions of Gershwin's timeless song; this one, clearly motivated by love, is among the permanent ones.—Thomas Conrad

Noah Preminger: Ballads
Preminger, tenor saxophone; Julian Shore, piano; Kim Cass, bass; Allan Mednard, drums
Chill Tone CT0003LP (CD, available as LP). 2025. Preminger, prod.; Chris Leon, eng.
Performance ****
Sonics ****½

John Coltrane's 1963 album Ballads has become the archetype for how an aggressive, take-no-prisoners tenor saxophone player can abandon the barricades and get mellow. Noah Preminger, in his new record of the same name, has joined this tradition.

Such ballad projects derive their fascination from a certain dynamic tension: The listener is always aware of power held in reserve. When Coltrane played standards like "All or Nothing at All," you knew he could've knocked you down and run you over at any moment but chose not to. When Preminger plays Gershwin's "Someone to Watch Over Me," you get a similar sense of suspense even though his version is rapt, lush, romantic, and wholesomely pretty.

Preminger makes two more inspired song choices. "Stan's Mood" is a lovely, long-forgotten melody, composed by tenor player Al Cohn for a greater tenor player, Stan Getz. An undertaking like Ballads inevitably draws upon history. Preminger's version of "Stan's Mood" reveals how much he loves Getz's velvet tone and yearning mindset. "Carry Me Ohio" is a dark, haunting cult song by indie singer/songwriter Mark Kozelek. Preminger's interpretation is even darker.

This album would've been stronger if Preminger had kept going with such interesting material. Instead, like so many current jazz musicians (but unlike Coltrane in 1963), he succumbs to the temptation to play his own originals. There are four; all are merely nice. Still, Ballads is an impressive recital that solidifies Preminger's position as one of our most creative and complete tenors. This music never feels nostalgic. For all its lavish lyricism, it is deep in fresh ideas and surprises. And the sound, as engineered by Chris Leon for the promising new Chill Tone label, is downright beautiful.—Thomas Conrad

Jim Snidero: Bird Feathers
Jim Snidero, alto saxophone; Peter Washington, bass; Joe Farnsworth, drums
Savant SCD 2224 (CD). 2025. Jim Snidero, prod.; Kent Heckman, eng.
Performance ****½
Sonics ****

Jim Snidero was on a roll last year. For All We Know, his first-ever recording with a saxophone trio, got some of the best reviews of his 40-year career. He also finished in the top 5 of alto saxophonists in the DownBeat Critics Poll.

2025 may be another great year for the longtime New Yorker. Snidero made smart decisions for his new album, Bird Feathers. He stays with the sax trio format and the same lithe, tight rhythm section that played on For All We Know: bassist Peter Washington and drummer Joe Farnsworth. The set list contains only tunes composed by or associated with Charlie Parker.

It comes with challenges. In an ensemble with no chordal instrument, a horn player stands naked. And inviting comparisons with Parker, merely the greatest alto saxophone player who ever lived, is high-risk.

Snidero doesn't just survive in Parker's world; he thrives. He adds an introductory fanfare to "Scrapple from the Apple" and intensifies the spiky syncopations of "Bird Feathers." He allows Washington and Farnsworth to stamp their quick-witted personalities on "Confirmation." Snidero's trio arrangements, distinctive phrasing, and subtle harmonic departures provide fresh perspectives on Parker's songs.

But the best moments come on four standard ballads from Parker's repertoire. On "These Foolish Things," Snidero's long, far-flung lines all eventually tie. The groove of "Embraceable You" is so wicked, it may be wrong to call it a ballad. "The Nearness of You" dwells in the saxophonist's pure, piercing, passionate upper register. Parker's "Lover Man" is famous and infamous: he was intoxicated when he recorded it in 1946, yet its flaws are heartbreakingly beautiful. Snidero offers an interpretation of the song that's soaring, personal, and triumphant.—Thomas Conrad