Jazz is doing well. In fact, jazz is doing fantastically well, at least from the listener’s perspective. There’s hardly any other genre where great new albums appear with such regularity and magnitude as within the favourite genre of your former boring German teacher. By 2024, it should be clear to everyone that jazz is alive and kicking in the land of anxiety and seriousness. It’s not elitist, but collaborative and puts on great nights in lots of clubs across the country. When you talk about jazz in 2024, you can say a lot of things. But there’s one name you shouldn’t leave unspoken, and that’s Brahja’s. New Yorker Devin Brahja Waldman is one of the most important contemporary jazz musicians. He’s been putting out top albums for about half a decade now. His self-titled album from 2019 is one of the best jazz albums of recent times. His new one is just as good. »EEG Coherence« is different from »Brahja,« but just as good. The new album, »EEG Coherence«, is different from »Brahja« because it features two pieces composed by the talented guitarist and composer Sam Shalabi. »Brahja« was beat-loving spiritual jazz, but the latest record is less introspective and much more driven. When it’s not teeming, it threatens to teem. Brahja sees jazz as an invocation, and his sound has the urgency of great predecessors. Each track wants to go somewhere else, and they all go beyond the realm of the worldly. Sam Shalabi’s psyched-out Middle Eastern vibe elevates »EEG Coherence« to a whole new level. This album is a great example of what jazz is all about. It’s an album we’ll definitely be talking about at the end of the year and beyond.
EEG Coherence
