21st Century Modern

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As we move into the new century, jazz artists continue to merge and blend pre-existing genres in ways that make it hard to find easy labels. Today's jazz artist is likely to pull from the avant-garde, post bop, 3rd stream and modern fusion all within the same piece. Yet as these artists draw from all these eclectic sources, we begin to see some similarities in a lot of new jazz in the 21st century.

The 21st Century Modern genre at JMA is for artists who do not easily fit into pre-existing genres such as the aforementioned, Post Bop, Avant-Garde, Fusion, or 3rd Stream, but whose music may contain elements of all those genres, as well as other elements from outside the jazz world.

Despite all these eclectic elements, we do find some things in common with many of the artists listed in our 21st Century Modern genre.

1)Many artists in this genre feature arrangements and composition in their music, along with improvisation based on chord progressions, or entirely freely improvised sections as well. Large scale pieces with multiple sections are often a part of this genre. There is an attempt in modern jazz to blend composition and improvisation in ways that make them hard to tell apart.

2)Larger ensembles (5 to 8 pieces) and 'mini-big bands' play a part in a lot of modern jazz. Instruments like the violin, cello and clarinet have made a comeback.

3)Rhythmically, modern jazz is all over the map, sometimes swinging, sometimes drawing on international fusion, and sometimes totally free, almost any style can happen.

4)Harmonically modern jazz is equally eclectic, ranging from the extended harmonies of post bop, to atonal free jazz, to the simple triad based harmonies of folk songs and hymns, once again, anything can happen.

21st century modern top albums

Showing only albums and live's | Based on members ratings & JMA custom algorithm | 24 hours caching

MATT MITCHELL Vista Accumulation Album Cover Vista Accumulation
MATT MITCHELL
5.00 | 2 ratings
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PAUL BLEY Paul Bley / Gary Peacock / Paul Motian : Not Two, Not One Album Cover Paul Bley / Gary Peacock / Paul Motian : Not Two, Not One
PAUL BLEY
4.67 | 3 ratings
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TIM BERNE Tim Berne's Snakeoil : Incidentals Album Cover Tim Berne's Snakeoil : Incidentals
TIM BERNE
4.75 | 2 ratings
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ENRICO RAVA Enrico Rava / Stefano Bollani : The Third Man Album Cover Enrico Rava / Stefano Bollani : The Third Man
ENRICO RAVA
4.75 | 2 ratings
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CARLA BLEY Carla Bley, Andy Sheppard, Steve Swallow : Life Goes On Album Cover Carla Bley, Andy Sheppard, Steve Swallow : Life Goes On
CARLA BLEY
4.75 | 2 ratings
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JOHN LINDBERG John Lindberg Raptor Trio : Western Edges Album Cover John Lindberg Raptor Trio : Western Edges
JOHN LINDBERG
4.75 | 2 ratings
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HENRY THREADGILL Henry Threadgill & Make A Move ‎: Where's Your Cup? Album Cover Henry Threadgill & Make A Move ‎: Where's Your Cup?
HENRY THREADGILL
4.52 | 3 ratings
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VIJAY IYER Vijay Iyer / Wadada Leo Smith : A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke Album Cover Vijay Iyer / Wadada Leo Smith : A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke
VIJAY IYER
4.46 | 4 ratings
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THE CLAUDIA QUINTET Royal Toast Album Cover Royal Toast
THE CLAUDIA QUINTET
4.40 | 6 ratings
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CRAIG TABORN Chants Album Cover Chants
CRAIG TABORN
4.45 | 3 ratings
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VIJAY IYER Vijay Iyer Sextet ‎: Far From Over Album Cover Vijay Iyer Sextet ‎: Far From Over
VIJAY IYER
4.43 | 3 ratings
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GARY PEACOCK Tangents Album Cover Tangents
GARY PEACOCK
4.50 | 2 ratings
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This list is in progress since the site is new. We invite all logged in members to use the "quick rating" widget (stars bellow album covers) or post full reviews to increase the weight of your rating in the global average value (see FAQ for more details). Enjoy JMA!

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21st century modern New Releases

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Jorden vi ärvde
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Jessica Jones Quartet : Edible Flowers
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21st century modern Music Reviews

DIVR Is This Water

Album · 2024 · 21st Century Modern
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js
Static music, and/or music as a continuum, may be a somewhat experimental idea in the western world, but in other cultures, particularly African culture, music performance that stays more or less the same from beginning to the middle and on to the end, is par for the course. Avant-garde composers such as John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Steve Reich have produced music that has no particular linear development, and in the jazz world, Miles Davis tried out a fusion approach to static music with albums like “On the Corner” and “Get Up With It”. This leads us to a new Swiss trio known as, divr, with band members, Phillipp Eden on piano, Raphael Walser on bass and Jonas Ruther on drums. These guys are taking a very fresh approach to music making that sets them apart from the field. Their improvisations are not ‘static music’ per se, but are similar in that linear development takes a backseat to thoroughly exploring the present moment.

What divr does is produce musical ideas and then loop them and slowly alter them while carefully interacting with each other. They describe their music as based around ‘sonic interdependencies framed by the practice of mindfulness and deep listening’. Although there is some obvious repetition at work, the music slowly morphs and changes in unpredictable ways. There is some post-production at work on this album, so it may be hard to tell what is exactly being played and what might be looped, but it really doesn’t matter, even if there is some technology involved, everything sounds organically human.

The music itself has a lot of variety to it, "As of Now", sounds like a mid 90s trip-hop track, while "Upeksha" uses interlocking minimalist piano figures that recall Terry Riley. "Supreme Sweetness" gets into some dissonant and very active free jazz and "Tea High" has pounding piano chords on top of a drumnbass type busy rhythm. The last two tracks don’t quite measure up to the rest of the album as they close with a ballad of sorts and some cliché ambient bits, but the rest of the album is top notch. divr do not sound like anyone else, they represent a different approach to music making, an approach that will be lost on many listeners, but will be welcome to those who prefer deep listening and music that expands on the moment rather than anxiously always moving on.

JOÃO LENCASTRE Free Celebration

Album · 2024 · 21st Century Modern
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js
Is there any jazz subgenre that is more uniquely and purely jazz than bebop, the answer is no. Any other jazz subgenre seems to have an outside comparative, (free jazz - avant-garde composers), (post bop - French composers), (hard bop - blues and RnB), (fusion - rock and funk) etc. When played correctly, bebop stands alone as one of the most singular contributions to the musical world, but very few really play it right anymore. Since bebop got reduced to college classes taught to budding young musicians, there has been a lot of mediocre bop out there, both at the universities and at the clubs. But there are still those that can play bop with the requisite crazy abandon and flippant attitude as created by Charlie Parker and then furthered by Ornette Coleman and Eric Dolphy. This leads us to Portuguese drummer Joao Lencastre and his new album “Free Celebration”, one of the hottest avant-garde neo-bop albums to come out since the last outing by Walking Distance or Anthony Braxton’s superb Parker tribute.

Frantic and crazy bop in the style of Ornette and Dolphy are the backbone of this album, but not in a retro way at all. There are plenty of current modernisms in the mix too, such as jagged Mary Halvorson type guitar from Pedro Branco and plenty of noisy analog electronics from keyboardist Joao Bernardo. Through the course of the album the band veers off into many directions from free fusion to noisy chaos and then into something sentimental such as the track “Kathelyn Gray” or grooving hard bop on “The Third World”. For the correct bebop flavor you need a high flying alto sax player, and that comes from Ricardo Toscano, easily one of the best altoists happening today.

There is an eclectic mix of musical ingredients at work here, but this album never becomes one of those John Zorn style clumsy pastiche things in which incongruent elements are slammed together just for effect. Nope, all of this music grows and changes in very organic ways and with solid musical integrity. The track “Giggin” is a great representation for this band as it opens with blazing fast bop that grows more intense with shifting tempos pushing things towards chaos as a hornet’s nest of electronics enters and multiple soloists push things to the edge. “Free Celebration” is one of the best jazz records to come out this year.

ISAIAH COLLIER Isaiah Collier & the Chosen Few : The Almighty

Album · 2024 · 21st Century Modern
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snobb
Five years ago I noticed a (virtually unknown at the time) young American jazz artist playing a gig during a jazz fest in a small provincial town in Samogitia, where every foreign artist was a real rarity. He sounded like the time machine transferred him there right from late 60s America, and it was quite unusual and interesting. This musician was sax player Isaiah Collier.

Now, after a few albums released and a lot of gigs played all around the globe, Isaiah is not a jazz world's "dark horse" anymore. His just released album, "The Almighty", is obviously noticed by media and listeners. What Isaiah offers on his new release is in fact a continuation of his earliest work. Emotively colored, richly arranged spiritual jazz, more precisely - a jazz suite performed by Collier's quartet with the help of a whole small orchestra on some pieces.

The album's music sounds exactly as one can expect from Collier - strongly influenced by Pharoah Sanders/Alice Coltrane works from the late 60s-early 70s, without even a trace of more current decades influence. To be precise, it is important to mention there is a stronger attention on composition in this album's music.

Just five longish songs, lasting more that one hour, all are tuneful, soulful and well played and arranged. Depending on the listener's taste, one can enjoy almost authentically re-vitalized sound and atmosphere of half-a-century old spiritual jazz, or miss some of nowadays musical elements in it. Same way, for some, the whole album can sound a bit bombastic, but then it fits well under the late 60s genre standards.

All in all, it's an interesting work of a rising artist who continues going his own way.

CONNOR O'NEILL The Same Changes, Vol II

Album · 2023 · 21st Century Modern
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Carmel
Ah, the task at hand beckons us to delve into the soulful and intricate world of Connor O'Neill's latest offering, "The Same Changes, Vol. II." This album will interest jazz fans and those with an affinity for the six-stringed instrument, especially those with an ear for a melodic performer with a gift for well-penned compositions.

O'Neill, a beacon in Philadelphia's creative music scene, brings his virtuosic guitar skills honed through years of academia, performance, and production. His educational background, with accolades from the University of the Arts, sets a sturdy foundation for his artistic endeavors. However, it is his life experiences, particularly those challenging moments of doubt and introspection, that breathe life into "The Same Changes, Vol. II."

The album is a journey of contemporary jazz, with each track acting as a vignette into O'Neill's musical dialect. The ensemble accompanying him—Alex Delcourt on bass, Steven Perry on drums, Morgan Walbridge on vibraphone, Mervin Toussaint on alto saxophone, Jessica Cantone with her voice, and Micah Graves on piano—creates a cohesive ensemble that excels at collaboration.

"Disordinance" kicks off the album, setting a mysterious aurora with its harmonious blend of counterpoint between the guitar and vibes. Walbridge's vibraphone keeps the sense of suspense while Delcourt solos. Walbridge's solo is melodic and well-paced. O'Neill's guitar, ethereal in its tone, speaks within the chords, spinning motifs that resonate with today's jazz sounds.

"Another Moment Reconciled" shifts gears, presenting a contemporary jazz ballad that weaves through fusion and modern rhythmic structures. Here, O'Neill's guitar sings with a warm clarity, supported by the translucent vibes of Walbridge and the rhythmic backbone of Perry and Delcourt. The track embodies the ensemble's dynamic synergy and shows their collective artistry and collaboration.

In "Gears," the addition of Toussaint's alto saxophone builds a new color and energy. The track's gentle swing and post-bop influences showcase O'Neill's ability to easily compose a memorable melody through complex time changes and harmonic landscapes, painting a sonic picture that's modern and rooted in the jazz tradition. O'Neill's soloing is expressive as he digs into the swing feel, painting with a balance of legato and staccato articulations. Toussaint's solo is imaginative, blending modern, gospel, and avant-garde textures that bring out the expressive qualities of O'Neill's composition.

"Singularity" features Micah Graves, whose piano interplay with O'Neill's guitar creates a plane of cool modal jazz that exemplifies the album's thematic focus on introspection and evolution. O'Neill's guitar solo is lyrical and rhythmically centered, with each note and rhythm painting a larger picture of personal expression. Graves' solo brings in soulful elements of the blues, modal jazz, and contemporary jazz. He is an excellent player, and his interactions with Perry's drumming add a new dimension to the creative expression of the composition.

“The Same Changes, Vol. II” is a six-song narrative woven through the strings of O'Neill's guitar and the collective voice of his ensemble. As a listener, one can't help but feel a part of O'Neill's journey, invited to find solace and understanding within the notes. This contemporary jazz album showcases O'Neill's technical skill as a player and composer of emotional depth and artistic integrity.

ANGELIKA NIESCIER Angelika Niescier - Tomeka Reid - Savannah Harris : Beyond Dragons

Album · 2023 · 21st Century Modern
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snobb
On ancient maps there were unknown territories signed as "Hic Svnt Dracones"(here are dragons). Polish-born Germany raised sax player Angelika Niescier leads her all-female non-convential sax / cello / drums trio towards "beyond dragons" territories.

There is not much of Polish cultural influence in Angelika's music - no beautiful tunes, no melancholy, no spiritual atmosphere at all. Having grown up in Germany from the tender age of 11, Niescier sounds much more like Peter Brötzmann than Adam Pieronczyk (or Tomasz Stanko, if you want). The trio's other member, American cellist Tomeka Reid, is a significant figure on the international contemporary jazz scene, she adds a lot of creative vibes to the album's music. Third member, lesser known NYC-based drummer Savannah Harris, holds her own and does not descend below her better known collaborater's musicianship.

The album's music, which sounds free from first touch, actually contains Angelika's compositions mixed with improvisation, all under strict Niescier control. Quite heavyweight and teutonically-brutal by nature, "Beyond Dragons" is still not a radical assault attack in Brötzmann's fashion, more a well calculated, but creative product of German engineering. Not really often such music is produced by young female trio hands.

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Artists with 21st Century Modern release(s)

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