Tomeka Reid's 'Dance! Skip! Hop!' Sets High Bar for Jazz in 2026
US cellist and composer Tomeka Reid has released her fourth quartet album, Dance! Skip! Hop!, featuring guitarist Mary Halvorson, bassist Jason Roebke, and drummer Tomas Fujiwara. This collection of five tracks, spanning nearly 50 minutes, is already being touted as an early contender for jazz album of the year, showcasing boundary-pushing yet accessible music that defies genre constraints.
A Collaboration of Jazz Innovators
Reid and Halvorson, both celebrated for their genre-defying work over the past 15 years, bring a wealth of experience from collaborations with avant-garde legends like Anthony Braxton and involvement with the Chicago-based Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). Their latest effort is described as an entrancing set that could appeal even to those typically hesitant about jazz, blending innovation with a populist touch.
The album opens with the title track, where Fujiwara's hustling brushes create a churning guitar hook reminiscent of highlife bebop. Reid's pizzicato cello solo takes center stage, supported by Halvorson's background comping, leading into a seamless improvisational dance between the two musicians.
Track-by-Track Exploration
A(ways) is a graceful, songlike piece that builds from a faintly sinister guitar line into a Latin-infused improvisation between Reid and Halvorson. Oo Long! features a hypnotic repetition of a cello-guitar hook over a samba-like pulse, escalating into a wailing fuzz-guitar clamour. Under the Aurora Sky offers a lyrical and haunting bowed-cello meditation, weaving around fragile guitar lines before culminating in a storm of abstract sounds. The closing track, Silver Spring Fig Tree, develops a gentle melody against pattering drums, evolving into fast strumming and birdlike chatters before a quietly receding finale.
Wide Appeal and Critical Acclaim
This quartet is praised as a dazzling contemporary band with broad appeal, suggesting that 2026 will need to produce exceptional jazz to surpass this release. The album's blend of jiving swingers, fast brush-shuffles, Latin-jazzy harmonies, hip-hoppish fuzz-guitar burn-ups, and sensuous acoustic-cello reveries demonstrates its versatility and artistic depth.
Other Notable Jazz Releases This Month
In addition to Reid's album, several other jazz works are making waves. Mark Turner's Patternmaster on ECM features undemonstratively symmetrical themes and chamber-musical restraint, drawing comparisons to classic Birth of the Cool jazz with modern polyrhythmic grooves. Marius Neset's On Time to Live on ACT, with the Bergen Big Band and drummer Anton Eger, presents a collage of churchy chordal sounds, frenetic orchestral hooks, and brass fanfares. Tim Garland and Geoffrey Keezer's duo set Mezzo showcases high-speed improvisational conversations, setting a high bar for jazz duets.
Overall, Tomeka Reid's Dance! Skip! Hop! stands out as a masterful contribution to the jazz landscape, combining innovative techniques with engaging melodies that resonate across listener demographics.
