John Murph
John Murph writes about music and culture and works as a web producer for BETJazz.com. He also contributes regularly to The Washington Post Express, JazzTimes, Down Beat, and JazzWise magazines.
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Often replaced by curt emails and abbreviated text messages, personal letters can seem like lost artifacts. The Swedish electronica duo Koop has noticed this, as its cinematic "Beyond the Sun" celebrates the art of letter writing in a fast-moving world.
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It's funny how the best track on Do the Boomerang, Don Byron's tribute to legendary R&B saxophonist Junior Walker, gives James Brown's "There It Is" a makeover. Byron, arguably his generation's premier jazz clarinetist, covers James Brown on one of the year's zestiest jazz discs.
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For all the song's double-entendres and social politics, Patricia Barber's "Narcissus" doubles as one of those sensual rhapsodies that seem perfect for a late night on some honky-tonk bar's jukebox.
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Maybe it's an indication that the initial weirdness of listening to it has worn off, but pianist Jason Moran's scrupulous practice of using pre-recorded dialogue as a guide for etching melodic statements has never sounded as moving as it does on "Artists Ought to Be Writing."
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Many jazz artists have mined Prince's songbook, but few explore the seedier side of his repertoire. Leave it to slide trumpeter and bandleader Steven Bernstein to offer a jazz take on the infamous "Darling Nikki."
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In the right hands, remixes have tremendous power: Producers can transform mediocrities into masterpieces, and they can recontextualize music outside its original genre. Djinji Brown approaches Kahil El'Zabar's "Running in the Streets" with an appropriately light touch.
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On his transfixing debut, Nik Bartsch creates a five-part song cycle that highlights his immaculate piano playing and keen accord with his band Ronin. The Swiss-born pianist and composer calls Ronin's music "Zen-funk," an apt description for the magnetic "Modul 35."
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Roy Hargrove delivers an evocative narrative that, without words, conjures the spirit of Donny Hathaway or Stevie Wonder. Because the song doesn't contain any verses, it's easy to imagine its exquisite lyricism as a discreet love letter to jazz itself.
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With so much emphasis on virtuosity in jazz, artists who pare their musical arsenals down to the soul-baring essentials usually prove the most alluring. Such is the case with Gretchen Parlato, who taps into Wayne Shorter's adventurism with her thoughtful lyrics, which touch on the joys of inward search.
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If Herbie Hancock, Kraftwerk and Alan Lomax embarked on a field-recording expedition in Senegal, their collaboration might resemble Flügelschlag!'s exhilarating "Mendiani." The song's bluesy phrasing and unpredictable group interaction fit somewhere between hard-bop and early jazz-funk.