We Dive at Dawn

Jazz albums chronicle the lives of the artists who make them, but they also stand as emblems of a time period. When alto saxophonist Jim Snidero recorded Live at the Deer Head Inn in 2020 - an outing that earned 5 stars from DownBeat for its "spellbinding … incredible prowess and tender musicality throughout" - he connected to listeners and bandmates alike in a time of social distancing and brought them emotionally near, through the healing power of live music. To recall a comparable time of societal rupture, one thinks back to 9/11, on the very morning that Snidero and his colleagues were heading to Systems Two Studios in Brooklyn to record the album that became Strings (released by Milestone in 2003).

Van Morrison never stopped recording during the 1990s, but for a little while it seemed as if he was disconnected from his muse. It wasn't so much his series of jazz cover albums – he'd return to this vein often in subsequent decades – but his songwriting that showed signs bitterness, particularly on 1995's Days Like This, where he seemed dismissive of the very notion of being a songwriter. In that light, it's hard not to see 1997's The Healing Game as a rejuvenation. Indeed, the album's very title suggests that Morrison is in the process of mending fences and reconnecting with a sense of joy, a process that began during his deep dive into Mose Allison and other bluesy jazz artists in the mid-'90s. Morrison retains that sense of swing on The Healing Game – he also retains keyboardist Georgie Fame, who would become a fixture on Morrison's albums over the next two decades – and it invigorates a set of songs that aren't necessarily all that different from what he's been writing as of late; he's still specializing in ballads, blues, and folk-rock colored by R&B.

Oliver Shanti (born Ulrich Schulz 16 November 1948 in Hamburg, Germany), also known as Oliver Serano-Alve, is a New Age musician, best known for his work with the bands "Inkarnation" and "Oliver Shanti & Friends".