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SoleilAbsolu • today at 12:37 AM • 0 replies • view on HN

I hadn't heard much Sungazer, though I'm familiar with Adam Neely. Have you heard Knower? Not purely jazz, but superduper tight riffs and the vocals of Genevieve Artadi are ridiculous and catchy, and drummer Louis Cole is outstanding. Sometimes Snarky Puppy is just too damn tight and well-oiled for me to truly appreciate (same with Vulfpeck) but they have some wonderful songs and impressive group interplay.

TBH most of the best jazz/jazz-influenced/-adjacent music coming out in recent years has fully absorbed the "gridification" this thread bemoans, and plays with the tension in the continuum between lockstep and loosey-goosey. TBH what makes ?uestlove unique/influential as a drummer is not his chops or expressiveness, but his ability to sound exactly like a programmed/sampled Dilla beat, and then go on to more human-sounding grooves. Sorry I can't find the link but there are videos of master drummer Nate Smith, whose sense of time is so machine-y tight that he can make a metronome sound like it's off time. Yussef Dayes is another fantastic drummer whose groups have interesting sounds and genuine interplay. Anything involving drummer Chris "Daddy" Dave is worth a listen, too.

I'm impressed with the composition and chops of guitarists Julian Lage and Molly Miller, both of whom know all the fancy theory but prioritize communicating with their fellow musicians and the audience. Not newcomers but guitarists John Scofield, Bill Frisell, and Pat Metheny continually re-invent themselves every few years and have fantastic compositions that aren't just jam vehicles. Everything I've heard from Charlie Hunter since coming out in the '90s, same thing.

TBH I am less impressed by the majority of the latest generation of jazz horn players, can't really say why. Not strictly jazz, but Alabaster dePlume builds on the tradition of "spirit jazz" a la Alice Coltrane or Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra in terms of making sure that everyone in the room, onstage or off, has a real human experience together.