Posts by Jim Hynes

[rating=8.00] For his fortieth album, six-time Grammy nominee John McCutcheon delivers an album he’s been waiting to make for over fifty years.  He takes a wide swath at the music of his friend and mentor Pete Seeger by enlisting the support of bluegrass band Hot Rize, Cajun unit Beausoleil,  harmonies from Canada’s Finest Kind, Nicaragua’s […]

[rating=9.00] The Delines have an irresistible, compelling sound, due to the weary, soulful vocals of Amy Boone and guitarist/songwriter Willy Vlautin’s desperate noir arrangements centered on his vivid, mostly down and out characters. It may sound like Dusty Springfield in Memphis at 3 AM or an exhausted Rickie Lee Jones finishing a set on fumes. […]

[rating=7.00] This one has building for a while. Atlanta-raised, Nashville-based Ben Cramer, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist performs under the moniker Old Sea Brigade and is releasing is first full-length album, having issued a  few singles and videos to high acclaim this past summer and fall, notably “Hope” and “Feel You.” The song “Tidal Wave” from his […]

[rating=8.00] The first thing you need to understand as a listener is that this is not a cover album. In fact, you may struggle to recognize some of the tunes which are long-time familiar, but that will improve with subsequent listens. Each artist was given the challenge to create a work that would push the […]

[rating=8.00] Singer-songwriter Jay Psaros is proof that hard work pays off.  His fifth studio album, again produced by Lorne Entress, Trees Beyond the Town, was completely fan funded, with Psaros doubling his funding goal. This reward is due to his countless hours playing bars, medieval-themed dinner theaters, small clubs, house concerts, weddings, support slots for […]

[rating=8.00] Self-made and DIY jazz vocalist Lyn Stanley has achieved enough success now through five best-selling albums to have some fun and for the first time pay tribute to another artist. As Stanley says in her notes, “I chose to honor, not mimic, jazz stylist Julie London, as many have noted our similar styles. Julie […]

With his 40th studio release, The Prophet Speaks, and articles galore on the 50th anniversary of Astral Weeks, not to mention frequent touring and a rumored project with Willie Nelson, Van Morrison stories abound these days. His output in the last couple of years has been staggering, reflecting perhaps a newfound energy and a commitment […]

[rating=8.00] The name Gil Evans recalls, among other things, those classic collaborations with Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, Miles Ahead, Sketches of Spain, Porgy and Bess and Quiet Nights, not to mention the fine work he did leading his own projects. In his time, pianist Gil Evans was considered THE big band arranger and […]

[rating=8.00] The Ric and Ron record labels are as indigenous and vital to the music of New Orleans as Stax is to Memphis. It’s where Irma Thomas and Johnny Adams debuted, not to mention their many singles from such Crescent City stars as Eddie Bo, Professor Longhair and others. Craft Recordings, who brought us that […]

[rating=8.00] Multi-Grammy winner Eddie Palmieri is releasing his second salsa album of the year, Mi Luz Mayor. Special guests include salsa iconic vocalists  Gilberto Santa Rosa and Herman Olivera as well as guitarist Carlos Santana. The latter plays on only one track, “Mi Congo.” Including Palmieri and guests, there are 32 musicians credited on the […]

The resurging Impulse label has brought us a 2007 live performance from the double bassist, the late Charlie Haden and pianist Brad Mehldau who performed for the first time as a duo at the Christuskirche in Mannheim, Germany during the Enjoy Jazz Festival. Long Ago and Far Away will add to the impressive catalog of […]

[rating=8.00] Much has been said lately about borders and failed alliances but this collaboration between Iconic trumpeter Randy Brecker, famed Swedish composer/arranger/conductor Mats Holmquist and Finland’s finest big band, the 18-piece UMO Jazz Orchestra from Helsinki, works beautifully to break down any kind of barriers on Together. Of course, we’ve been listening to Randy Brecker’s […]

[rating=10.00] Leveraging the success of the rediscovered “lost album” Both Directions at Once issued by Impulse this past June, the label has collected the iconic tenor saxophonist’s recordings for that pivotal year into one 3-disc package. Coltrane’s name has been very visible lately, not only with the “lost album” but with the successful film documentary […]

[rating=7.00] The prolific songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Beth Wood delivers The Long Road, a studio album recorded mostly live at the Rye Room in Portland, OR. She has a collection on stories on these eleven tracks that embrace several themes, from breaking free of a relationship gone sour  (the opening “Where I Go”) to redemption (“Painted […]

[rating=8.00] Mark Knopfler is not a prolific artist that delivers an album every year.  It’s two or three years between albums and for the most part, we generally know what to expect although he never disappoints. On Down the Road Wherever, his ninth studio album,  he changes up a few things, adding horns, an array […]

[rating=8.00] Making both electric and acoustic versions of the same material often favors one version over the other, but Shawn Mullins delivers excellently on each version of his 1998 classic album Soul’s Core in this two-disc package entitled Soul’s Core Revival. Disc One features a full band of top-notch musicians from his touring band Soul Carnival […]

[rating=9.00] This is clearly the year for rediscovered lost performances for the giants of jazz, first Coltrane in June, then Monk just this past September, and now Charles Mingus – all of them reviewed on this site. What makes this set of Mingus so fascinating are a few things  – the intimacy of the 200 […]

[rating=8.00] Brooklyn-based composer-saxophonist Marcus Strickland is part of the new vanguard of contemporary jazzmen like Robert Glasper and Kamasi Washington, intersecting jazz with contemporary music and production techniques to deliver genre-bending statements. Logan Richardson, Dana Murray, and Christian Scott Atunde Adjuah are among other names too. This movement, or resurgence of jazz, is capturing new […]

Typically the Franklin Music Hall (formerly the Electric Factory) hosts jam bands, heavy metal bands, and cover bands, certainly not jazz artists. Kamasi Washington and his septet are different. They practically filled the venue on November 9th with 2000 or so mostly standing patrons of the most diverse audience this writer has ever seen at […]

This three-CD Ben Sidran set is not only special but it’s a limited edition with only 3,000 sets manufactured.  We start there to head off any procrastination. Co-producer Zev Feldman has done it again, helping Ben Sidran to cull 27 tracks of previously unissued material from 40 years of live performances in six countries, complete […]