Gonzalo Rubalcaba/Avatar (Blue Note) ***1/2: The Cuban pianist has ventured into a variety of stylistic realms both contemporary and traditional during the course of his career, but he sounds as
As John Scofield’s career has evolved, he has turned into almost as much of a musicologist as a musician. The transformation has occurred, however, without slighting the latter most and significant role: “Sco” remains one of contemporary jazz’s most distinctive guitar players.
It's little wonder that M Ward has collected so many favorable associations (Bright Eyes, MMJ’s Jim James) and even more au courant accolades. As displayed on his new album Hold Time, he writes sings and plays as if inhabiting his own peculiar universe.
It’s a tribute to U2’s bond as a band that they manage to sidestep their celebrity status and non-musical public persona, at least when they’re in the studio. On the child-like balladry of “White As Snow,” and virtually all the rest of No Line on the Horizon, these four Irishmen sound as human as the rest of us.
Joshua Redman returned to the acoustic realm of modern jazz in 2007 with Back East where his playing carried a definite sense of breaking free from preconceptions, self-imposed and otherwise. The saxophonist’s new album Compass extends that sensation of abandon in no uncertain terms.
Tommy Keene is one of America's two great practitioners of power pop along with Matthew Sweet. Yet while the latter, as befits his name, anticipates the best is yet to come, there's an ironic contrast with Keene’s moniker: his tunes carry an ever so slight but nevertheless palpable air of melancholy.
Through an endless string of personnel shifts in the early to mid-Seventies, the Welsh band Man grafted progressive elements onto their earthy pub-rock roots that, combined with their penchant for extended improvisation, inspired rabid devotion in their fans.
The Collector’s Edition of Warren Zevon's debut album has all the pristine clarity of most 70's California rock. But the shadowy blue tones of the front-cover photograph suggest how deceptively arresting the music is inside.
Time Out Take Five lets Glide contributor Doug Collette takes a pick at five recent jazz releases,
Recorded in the informal atmosphere of a home studio, Already Free effectively extends the sound of The Derek Trucks Band on stage without a conscious attempt to replicate the live experience. While the album doesn't focus on the instrumental aspect of the group’s music like 2003's Soul Serenade, it never for once ignoresTrucks' exquisite guitar work.
