Bryan Hayes

All good? grooves deep. It’ll have you bobbing your head and tapping your toes. It can help with focus, spark creativity, or catalyze your next profound walk. It is quiet and chill and intense and beautiful and a joy to behold. All good? is a secret too good not to share.

This album is a meteor traveling through space and time, picking up past sounds and textures on its way to 2024. But make no mistake, it’s boldly taking us to the future. Plunge is joyous, energetic, and freaking awesome. My favorite pop-rock record of 2024 It always delivers a smile and motivation when I put it on. Thanks Sam!

Nostalgia captures the Hania Rani live experience during the Ghosts Tour (2023/2024). The string accompaniment enhances this performance/recording. It also makes me long for a tour/live recording with a full band featuring bass and drums.

There are few active musicians whose work always satisfies and has me eagerly anticipating what comes next. Rani is on my list.

Speak to Me is a 21st century jazz album that aims to be beautiful, serious, and profound. It succeeds on all fronts. The album’s greatest accomplishment is the playfulness woven into Lage’s compositions and the band’s performance. Repeated listens are rewarded with in-jokes, punchlines, and other feats of humor that catch me off guard and make me chuckle.

Lage, Roeder (bass), and King (drums) are all playing at their prime (no shocker, this is their fourth album together since 2019). Contributions by Warren (keys), Davis (piano), and Henry (reeds) are equal to the challenge set by the rhythm section.

Speak to Me is a special thing.

One of my favorite and most listened to records of 2024. All Gist is discursive. James and Nathan “speak” to each other throughout; trading licks and ideas. Building songs that tell stories via melody and repetition. More than that, All Gist speaks directly to me. It tickles something deep and awakens a profound connection to something I cannot name, even after countless listens over the last eight months.

My weird feelings for All Gist are best encapsulated in the final song, “Buffalo Stance.” This song always stops me in my tracks. I put down whatever I’m doing, whether I’m at work, doing the dishes, or playing with the kids, and listen. Buffalo Stance makes me want to make… More