JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Black History Month and pays tribute to Billie Holiday.
Category: jazz
Throwback: Happy Black History Month!/Happy 93rd Birthday, Nina Simone!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 93rd anniversary of the birth of Nina Simone — and Black History Month.
Throwback: Happy Black History Month!/Happy 45th Birthday, Kamasi Washington!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Black History Month and Kamasi Washington’s 45th birthday.
New Audio: Paris’ OOMA Shares Mesmerizing and Meditative “A Timeless Echo”
Paris-based outfit OOMA — Irish-born singer/songwriter Tansy Greenlee (vocals), Nicolas Bauer (bass), Hélios Mikhaïl (drums), and Florian Berret (piano, synths) — have developed a sound that meshes elements of soul, jazz and trip-hop, featuring ethereal synth laters and intricate grooves paired with mesmerizing moments of improvisation.
Each member of the band leaves their own imprint on the project’s constantly evolving sound, while blurring the lines between structured composition and songwriting and open-ended exploration and improvisation. At the core of their creative process, is the Parisian quartet’s fluid and ever-shifting chemistry, which helps their work be collaborative — and seemingly in perpetual motion.
Lyrically, the band’s material is informed by Greenlee’s existential crises with the music as a refuge, and as an intimate space where she could try to make sense of a world that’s crumbling apart. And in that refuge, raw emotion outweighs certainty.
OOMA’s latest single “A Timeless Echo” is a gorgeous yet meditative track that features Greenlee’s expressive, jazz-like vocal effortlessly dance over a mesmerizing arrangement that blends elements of jazz, trip-hop and pop.
Inspired by a striking image of a bird’s song echoed by others until it outlives the bird that originated it, “A Timeless Echo” thematically explores the passage of time, our own impermanence and mortality. The new single reflects Greenlee’s deep-seated belief in music as a way to leave a trace of one’s existence.
Throwback: Happy Black History Month!/Happy 89th Birthday, Roberta Flack!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Black History Month and the 89th anniversary of the birth of Roberta Flack.
Throwback: Happy Black History Month!/Happy Belated Birthday, 76th Birthday, Natalie Cole!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Black History Month and the belated anniversary of Natalie Cole’s birth.
Throwback: Happy Black History Month: Thundercat
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms continues his annual celebration of Black History Month with Thundercat.
Throwback: Happy 99th Birthday, Stan Getz!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 98th anniversary of the birth of Stan Getz.
Throwback: Happy 88th Birthday, Allen Toussaint!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 88th anniversary of the birth of Allen Toussaint.
Albums of the Year 2025
JOVM turns 16 this year. And for first handful of years, my Best of List was an annual tradition until about 2014 or so. Between 2014 and 2020, it became sporadic and then it stopped. I haven’t done one of these in several years. There was a part of me that wondered if it really mattered much. And then life happened.
So here we are in 2026. And with the year starting in earnest, let’s check out my best of 2025.
- Big Fish Fyra liter stoft
- Tan Cologne Unknown Beyond
- Moondaddy Dove Tapes
- Sessa Pequena Vertigem de Amor
- Preservation Brass & Preservation Hall Jazz Band For Fat Man
- Silk Daisys S/T
- The Circling Sun Orbits
- Gabriel da Rosa Cacofonia
- Yoo Doo Right, Population II & Nolan Potter Yoo II avec Nolan Potter
- bat zoo The Upward Bird EP
- Public Circuit Modern Church
- L’Eclair Cloud Drifter
- Gloin All of your anger is actually shame (and I bet that makes you angry)
- CIVIC Chrome Dipped
- Population II Maintenant Jamais
- White Birches A New Reign
- Anish Kumar and Hagop Tchaparian Kino EP
- Friendship Commanders BEAR
- The Besnard Lakes The Besnard Lakes are the Ghost Nation
- SHOLTO The Sirens
- S.C.A.B. Somebody In New York Loves You!
- Pierpont & Hegeleson Of Time
- RORO and snapir Colors Left
- St. Panther Strange World
- Nation of Language Dance Called Memory
- Quad90 S/T
- Slumbering Sun Starmony
- Tunde Adebimpe Thee Black Boltz
- Quad90 S/T
- Die Spitz Something To Consume
- debdepan LOVERS & OTHERS EP
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Throwback: Happy 118th Birthday, Cab Calloway!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 118th anniversary of the birth of the legendary Cab Calloway.
Throwback: Happy 89th Birthday, Eddie Palmieri!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 89th anniversary of the birth of Eddie Palmieri’s birth.
Throwback: Happy 87th Birthday, McCoy Tyner!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 87th anniversary of the birth of McCoy Tyner.