Will Layman

Jazz fans know the vocalist Gabrielle Cavassa from her work with saxophonist Joshua Redman on his 2023 album Where Are We, his first for the legendary Blue Note label, as well as his first to feature a singer. On that album and on the road with Redman, Cavassa found fresh ways to approach standards like “Stars Fell on Alabama” and “Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans” and pop songs by Jimmy Webb and Sufjan Stevens.

I am a frenetic guy. I don’t nap much, and I prefer my days to be packed with projects, friends, and work. That’s why I was in the Knoxville Airport at 5:00 am on the Monday after the Big Ears Festival had ended. I wanted to get home to start my day after hearing so much great music — including seeing trumpeter Dave Douglas with his latest band playing refractions of the music of Duke Ellington, as well as Douglas playing in a reunion of John Zorn’s first Masada Quartet.

Saturday's Child Irabagast Saxophonist Jon Irabagon is the kind of modern jazz musician who makes hash of boundaries, categories, and debates about “the tradition” being at odds with the vanguard. He is a Juilliard-trained virtuoso with mastery of the jazz tradition dating back a century, and a musician who regularly runs roughshod over the so-called rules.