Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Chapter Three: River Run Thee [2015]

Matana Roberts is an artist whose work always, in one way or another, demands the listener's attention. Almost nothing that the experimental saxophonist releases is catered to what one might call a casual listen. Since The Chicago Project, which featured tracks that casually shifted between smooth melodic lines and more free and aggressive explorations, she has been slowly constructing a discography of quality avant-garde jazz albums. However, Roberts, like many greats before her in the long African-American tradition of improvisation and creativity, would likely scoff at the idea of categorizing her music as only "jazz". On Coin Coin Chapter Three: River Run Thee, she puts to bed any argument that the word "jazz" alone could be used to describe her latest ambitious series of albums.

Armand Hammer - ROME [2017]

On October 26, 2017, Armand Hammer released “It Was Written” and announced that ROME[/i], their first full length since 2013’s Race Music, was to be released in November. The track broke a long silence of the creative duo releasing music under this moniker. Their most recent project, Furtive Movements was released in 2014. Despite Armand Hammer going through what may seem like a temporary hiatus in the current musical climate of arguably excessive releases, Billy Woods & Elucid have been very busy in recent years. Both rappers have released high-quality solo projects in 2017, in the form of Woods’ varied Known Unknowns and Elucid’s urgent Valley of Grace. A listen to any project by these two shows that, due to the uncompromising nature of their music, marketability and pop-appeal is never the focus. However, based on the evidence of a bigger fanbase than either rapper had in the early 2000s and coverage from large publications like Noisey (Billy Woods, Elucid), Bandcamp, and Pitchfork, it’s clear that with time, Armand Hammer’s stock has been steadily rising.

Tomas Fujiwara - Triple Double [2017]

Published on NextBop

Tomas Fujiwara has been active for well over a decade now, with his first recorded date as a sideman being on Matana Robert’s The Calling in 2006. Just a quick look at his discography shows that Fujiwara has established himself as a respected musician - specifically in the more avant-garde portion of the New York City jazz scene. The drummer has frequently collaborated with fellow adventurers guitarist Mary Halvorson, cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum and bassist Michael Formanek. In the past year, he has shown up on Ho Bynum’s expansive, at times Mingus-esque Enter the Plus-Tet, Formanek’s engaging big-band experiments in The Distance and Halvorson’s inventive interpretations of John Zorn’s Klezmer-influenced compositions on Paimon: Book of Angels Volume 32. Throughout the years, in addition to his releases as leader of Tomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up, Fujiwara, Halvorson and Formanek have toured and recorded together as a trio under the name of Thumbscrew. Although the next Thumbscrew records will not be released until 2018, on Triple Double, Fujiwara has brought Halvorson, Ho Bynum and other talented musicians along for the ride of his latest interesting take on the trio format.