Jason Palmer - Live At Wally's Volume 2 [2018]

Published on NextBop

When one thinks of music in Boston, "jazz" may not be the first word that comes to mind. This is understandable - the amount of venues where one can frequently see jazz pales in comparison to New York City, which is only a little over 4 hours away via bus. That being said, there are still quality series and venues in Boston that regularly feature jazz, such as Mandorla Music, the Lilypad, the Regattabar, and most frequently, Wally's. 

Noname - Room 25 [2018]

Years after a stellar feature (Chance the Rapper - "Lost") put her on the radar of many hip-hop fans, Fatima Warner, who raps as Noname, dropped a phenomenal debut project. Telefone featured the Chicago wordsmith delving into innocence, love, youth, and frequently, death. The mixtape was blessed with beautiful hooks, courtesy of other Chi-Town based artists such as Cam O'bi and Ravyn Lenae, and extremely well produced beats with influences from jazz, neo-soul and gospel, but Noname herself was always the highlight. Her intricately constructed and thoughtful lyrics, delivered with a beat-poetry-like flow that fits her soft voice perfectly, made Telefone a standout project of 2016. 

Binker and Moses - Alive in the East? [2018]

Published on NextBop

Tenor Saxophonist Binker Golding and drummer Moses Boyd are part of the exciting young London jazz scene that has been taking the genre by storm lately with projects by artists such as Nubya Garcia, Yazz Ahmed and Shabaka Hutchings. Alive in the East?, which was recorded live in June 2017, is the duo's third album together. Binker and Moses are joined by fellow members of the London scene Yussef Dayes (drums), Tori Handsley (harp), Byron Wallen (trumpet) and free-jazz stalwart Evan Parker (tenor and soprano sax). The result of this combination is 47 minutes of enthralling, vigorous jazz.