Posts by Jim Hynes

If there’s a ‘less is more’ school of trumpeters, the late Ron Miles would be its leading purveyor. He never resorted to, shouting, or pull-you-from-your-seat stratospheric fare. He played like the best of the ballad singers, almost like a Nat King Cole of the instrument, warmly, sensitively, as if narrating a story or poem. He […]

We should expect nothing less than a tongue-in-cheek album title from consistent BMA winners Rick Estrin and the Nightcats. Even the clenched fists from all four band members that grace the album cover may induce a chuckle or smile. This is a band that takes the term show business seriously. They play the blues hard, […]

As the elder on the piano-centric new label Artwork, we would expect another solo or perhaps a trio album from NEA Jazz Master Kenny Barron, who recently turned 80 and garnered a 2023 Grammy nomination for his solo album The Source last year.  Barron’s live shows in recent years have been with his longstanding trio. […]

Green Lights is saxophonist Troy Roberts’ sixteenth album as a leader but the first with this esteemed quartet of acoustic bassist John Patitucci, guitarist Paul Bollenback, and drummer Jimmy Macbride, who had never played together as a unit until now. Macbride, though, has long been Roberts’ beatkeeper. This is the fourth one we’ve covered for […]

There must be something about the water and the environs of Lubbock, TX, that breeds singer-songwriters. That town has given us The Flatlanders (Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock), Delbert McClinton, Terry Allen, Lloyd and Natalie Maines, just to name a few. This generation boasts Noel McKay, who delivers his fourth full-length album with […]

Will Kimbrough wears many hats. He’s a skilled multi-instrumentalist, an in-demand sideman, the ‘secret sauce’ that fueled the late Jimmy Buffet’s hits, a valued producer, most notably garnering two Grammy nominations and multiple BMA Awards for blues powerhouse Shemekia Copeland, and the guitarist of Emmylou Harris’ band, The Red Direct Boys. For the Life of […]

His sound is as comforting as your favorite pair of shoes. And, just as easily we slip into Chris Smither’s world, though often dark and foreboding, the familiarity lures us in immediately, and we look forward to what he has to say.  Approaching 80, he still has plenty in the tank.  Six decades in, he’s […]

At the 2023 Newport Jazz Festival, Christian McBride introduced Charles McPherson by saying, “The last time he was here, he was playing with Charles Mingus.” Listening to McPherson’s energetic performance that followed and then revisiting those Mingus albums from the early ‘60s a week or two later, it was clear the altoist’s lyricism, swing, inherent […]

Albany’s avant-jazz collective Bright Dog Red (BDR) released their sixth and seventh albums since signing with Ropeadope in 2018. Bad Magic and Hegemonitzed will be issued simultaneously. The band prides itself on a singular inclusive mix of many forms. Even with their engaging severe cultural and political themes, their spontaneity leaves an overriding spirit of elation. […]

Suppose you’ve read about singer-songwriter Charley Crockett, a Texas-born descendant of Davy Crockett. In that case, you know his nomadic, scuffling existence in the first three decades of the award-winning, now 40-year-old’s career. Fourteen records in, his keen observations and having-lived-it wisdom give him a seemingly endless well of ideas and experiences to draw from.  […]

Last week we aired Part One of our interview with Zev Feldman, an internationally recognized, GRAMMY-nominated independent record producer and the Co-President of Resonance Records in Los Angeles. He is a driving force for Record Store Day. The first interview focused on the process and his operation, while this, Part Two, addresses the releases that […]

Following a long stint as a sideman in NYC with leading jazz musicians and being mentored by Ben Monder and Arturo O’Farrill, the currently residing Zurich, Switzerland guitarist and composer Travis Reuter returns. He gained notice with his 20212 debut, Rotational Templates, and now, twelve years later, we get his follow-up, Quintet Music. It’s similar […]

Suppose you knew nothing about T-Bone Burnett’s Grammy and Oscar-winning credentials or his gleaming resume as a producer. In that case, you might react to this new effort, The Other Side, thinking it’s the arrival of a new folk-styled singer-songwriter. On first listen, it may not bowl you over. However, it will take on added […]

Record Store Day 2024 is approaching on April 20th, and the Jazz releases are plentiful. Rather than providing detailed reviews of these never-before-released and/or reissued jazz recordings, Glide will summarize each alphabetically by artist, focusing on 18 and listing 11 others we’ve found available. Entries lead this group from the likes of Cannonball Adderley, Mal […]

You’ve likely heard some of their singles already. Still, the funk-fusion outfit Ghost-Note returns with their first album in six years, the expansive Mustard n’ Onions, a double-LP that extends beyond the 10-piece group to include a host of luminary guests.  This is their third album but the first for Artistry Music, part of the […]

Zev Feldman is an internationally recognized, GRAMMY-nominated independent record producer and the Co-President of Resonance Records in Los Angeles. He is also a consulting producer of archival and historical recordings for Blue Note Records. He’s widely known as the “Jazz Detective.” Over the last 25 years, he has worked for PolyGram, Universal Music Group, Rhino/Warner […]

All these years later, the indelible sound of those classic Dire Straits songs remains, and through nine solo albums over the past two decades, almost three now, the first few words or first few guitar notes have one immediately recognizing Mark Knopfler. It’s hard to believe that he now presents his tenth solo album since […]

NYC’s treasured singer-songwriter Willie Nile may well be the hardest rocker on the scene. Tangible proof is this explosive performance, Live at Daryl’s House Club. He and his band roar, pedal to the medal, on these thirteen tracks that form a rousing show that’s akin to Nile’s greatest hits, performed live. The gifted lyricist brings […]

Renowned saxophonist, NEA Jazz Master Kenny Garrett, follows his former bandleader, Miles Davis’s muse into electronic territory for his first album in that vein, Who Killed AI? Collaborating with the acclaimed electronic producer Svoy, the album features just the two of them. In one way it reminds this writer of Pharoah Sanders’ collaboration with Floating […]

Grammy-nominated, Nashville-based singer-songwriter and avowed rebel Will Hoge goes all in, writing, producing, and playing all instruments on his fourteenth album, the mostly autobiographical Tenderhearted Boys. Hoge immediately immerses us in his emotional world with “Deadbolt,” strumming and singing with immense emotion about a significant other that somehow provides comfort to one whose emotions threaten […]