Makaya McCraven and CJ Brinson & Family at Terminal West, Atlanta, March 3. 2026

Jazz at Terminal West! What a concept, and something I wasn't sure I'd ever see. I've been to TW countless times over the past decade, but it was almost always for indie rock bands. It was heartening to see jazz drummer Makaya McCraven booked there, and as equally heartening to see a good turnout in the venue. As Frank Zappa once said, "Jazz isn't dead, it just smells that way."

For reasons I know I don't understand, Atlanta doesn't have much of a jazz scene, so it was equally heartening to hear local openers, C.J. Brinson & Family, featuring Atlanta sax-man Kebbi Williams, with their feet planted firmly in modern jazz. 

The core band consists of drummer C.J. and cousins Preston and Brandon Stephens on bass and keys. While they're all good, the standout performance last night was Kebbi's tenor workout. The band played high-energy jazz with an emphasis on improv and open vamping, as featured on their excellent debut album, Constellation. Here's a video that was just released last Monday (March 2), the day before last night's show of one track from the album. 

Kebbi Williams is a fixture on Atlanta's improv music scene, such as it is, largely centered around the Eyedrum Art & Music Gallery. Propelled by C.J.'s skittering drums, he led the band through a great 40-minute set that had the audience roaring in approval.

The headliner was also led by a drummer, Makaya McCraven, who presented an all-star trio that also included Marquis Hill on trumpet and percussion and Junius Paul on bass.

 

Makaya is a powerhouse drummer, Hill was masterful with electronic effects on his trumpet playing, and Paul anchored everything together with his steady bass lines. It's easy to imagine how Makaya might overpower a band, especially an ensemble as delicate as a trio, but while there was never any ignoring his playing during the set, the bandleader made sure to let his support players get in their say. 

I've seen Makaya perform a couple of times before at Knoxville's Big Ears Festival, so it was a treat to see him here in the ATL. Here he is in Montreal back in 2022 with vibraphonist Joel Ross in addition to Paul and Hill.

I checked the schedule and, no, Terminal West hasn't become a jazz venue, and Atlanta is still first and foremost a hip-hop city. But last night's show was a real treat, both because of the singularity of this kind of performance and the outstanding quality of both bands. 

R.I.P. Éliane Radigue

Impermanence is swift.

The Things I Come Up With While Meditating

 

New Music Friday

"Phew and Danielle de Picciotto join forces for the first time on Paper Masks, out 20 February 2026. Developed over nearly five years between Tokyo and Berlin, the album fuses Phew's electronics and vocals with de Picciotto's poetry and voice, a collaboration born from experimentation, imagination and transformation."

K-Billy's Super Sounds of the '70s, Part 1

For Trio was released on March 1, 1978. The Trio, in this case, consisted of Anthony Braxton along with Henry Threadgill and Douglas Ewart. 

In March 1978, the U.S. music charts were dominated by the Bee Gees and the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, with Night Fever and Stayin' Alive fighting for the top spot alongside Andy Gibb's (Love Is) Thicker Than Water. Other major hits included Eric Clapton's Lay Down Sally and Billy Joel's Just the Way You Are. I wasn't having any part of that shit back then, and had fully retreated into an alternative music universe of free and avant-garde jazz. My girlfriend, a hardcore folk music/Joni Mitchell fan, threatened to leave me if I ever played Braxton in her presence again. "Literally," she told me, "Anything but the Brax." So this was the sound of freedom and liberation to me.  

Carla Bley

For reasons I don't understand, this simple ballad played by two funny-looking old people brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it. The title supposedly came from a time that pianist Larry Willis was at Bley's home and his mother called asking in her thick Southern accent for "Lawrence" (his birth name), and  Carla mistook her request for "Lawns," and with her characteristic quirky humor, she used that as the title of this composition.

Carla Bley passed at the age of 87 on October 17, 2023, the same year I saw her and Steve Swallow at Big Ears. RIP, Carla, you are missed and we aren't likely to ever see the likes of you again.   

Tapers Choice and Rich Ruth at The Earl, Atlanta, February 5, 2026

It's certainly been a while since I've done one of these show-review posts. Last night, I went to The Earl in East Atlanta Village for the first time in six years. The last time I was there was February 22, 2020, just mere days before the covids shut everything down, so see the singer Mattiel. 

I've been to live shows since then, of course, although mainly just the annual Big Ears festivals. Music's changed and I've changed, but last night I was delighted to see that The Earl hasn't changed. Not one little bit. Okay, I did notice a new light above the stage, but that's more of a I've-just-bought-a-new-lamp kind of change than a honey-I-redecorated-the-whole-house kind of change. Everything else, the corner bar, the merch table in the other corner, the low-rise stage, the gritty but accommodating atmosphere, is exactly the same as it was in the twenty-teens, and I couldn't be happier about that. Don't ever change, Earl, you're perfect the way you are.

Last night's show was the brilliant pairing of Nashville's Rich Ruth with the jam-band supergroup Tapers Choice. Rich Ruth opened.     

I've seen Rich Ruth before at Big Ears 2023 so I knew what to expect. Not that tagging is important and we don't need to put a label on everything, but their music is hard to classify. It's certainly not jazz, even though a saxophone is prominent in their sound. It's not prog or post-rock, either, although it's all instrumental with no vocals. Psychedelic rock? Stoner ambient? Experimental? Frankly, I don't know and I don't care. Judge (or don't) for yourself: 

Last night's set consisted of almost all new material is anticipation of an album they'll be recording soon in Athens, Georgia. They did, however, close their set with Older, But Not Less Confused from 2022's I Survived, It's Over.

The headliners were L.A.'s Taper's Choice, a supergroup of sorts consisting of Dave Harrington (Darkside), Alex Bleeker (Real Estate), Chris Tomson (Vampire Weekend), and Zach Tenorio-Miller (Arc Iris). They are unapologetically a jam band, specializing in long improvisations and often face-melting grooves.  They're a little too attached for my liking to Grateful-Dead style vocals, but the songs are usually just launching pads of bookends for their long, exploratory instrumentals, which is the part I like. Not sure they really need the singing, though - it's not their strong suit and some of their best material is vocal free, like Doner Wrap, below.

As you can see from the photo at the top of this post, they bought saxophonist Sam Que from Rich Ruth on stage for one jam, a clearly improvisational number with some great call-and-response interplay between Sam and keyboardist Zach Tenorio-Miller. 

Minds were blown and faces were melted, people danced, and a good time was had by all. Bonus points: even though Taper's Choice played for 1¾ hours, I was back home just a few minutes after 11:00 pm, despite some overnight, construction-related traffic in downtown Atlanta. 

Double bonus points: Now that I've seen Tapers Choice, my Big Ears 2026 dilemma between them and Medeski, Martin, Metzger & Cline is now resolved.