SPIN Magazine - Best of 2026 (So Far)
'dance! skip! hop!' included in the top 50 best albums thus far of 2026
Jazz cellist Tomeka Reid has appeared on at least two other excellent albums this year as a co-leader or side player—Dream Archives with pianist Craig Taborn and drummer Ches Smith, and trumpeter Dave Douglas’s Transcend. But it’s at the helm of her long-running quartet that she really cuts loose. Playing percussive pizzicato as often as the traditional bow, Reid gives her long, rhythmic compositions plenty of spin, pop, and sizzle, focusing on syncopated action over textural brooding. She allows her players plenty of room as well, especially guitarist Mary Halvorson, whose relentless pointillism matches Reid’s nimble determination, while drummer Tomas Fujiwara and bassist Jason Roebke summon antic grooves that somehow manage to hold everything together. Noisy, ebullient, ferocious and free, Dance! Skip! Hop! has all the right moves. — Reed Jackson