Posts by Jim Hynes

Throughout his career, Jimmy Vivino has worn several hats – as Conan O’Brien’s musical director, stints in the Levon Helm Band, leading the Beatles tribute band Fab Faux, and recently as a member of Canned Heat, not to mention films, Broadway, and countless other endeavors. At heart, though, he’s always favored blues and soul, so it’s not […]

The Portland, Oregon-based The Delines return with their fourth record, Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom, in their well-established aesthetic, as consistent as four records as any band has made, incrementally better each time. This is due to acclaimed novelist and songwriter  Willy Vlautin’s gripping tales of those that have fallen through the cracks, the unique, world-worn […]

Even the most knowledgeable jazz fans might be surprised to learn that saxophonist James Brandon Lewis (JBL) has issued 16 albums. Yet, since his widely lauded 2021 Jesup Wagon, most of us approach his albums with great expectations. The beauty of JBL is that each of his albums is very different, though linked by his […]

When first viewing this title, “Hopium,” it seemed appropriate in today’s climate. While half the country, the side that lost the election, tries to be hopeful, most are just so disillusioned that it’s as if they are in a drug-induced stupor with silenced voices. Saxophonist and composer Dayna Stephens plies this emotional pendulum of hope […]

For the past several albums since the pandemic, Joe Ely has pored over the material in his hefty archives for hours on end, and now we have the fourth album from that effort, Love and Freedom. This one is bit different in a few ways. Ely found these rough track demos, but the multi-track aspect disappeared. No […]

The duo of Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad have done it again – revived the music of a long-forgotten legend. Their 22nd installment is a truly special one, featuring the music of Ghanaian Highlife pioneer Ebo Taylor. While artists such as Fela Kuti and King Sunny Ade were highly recognized here in the States […]

The cliché says what’s old is new again. It’s not often that we see a gap of 51 years between albums, but the legendary British funk and R&B band does just that, following up 1974’s Promised Heights with 2025’s Renascence. Chances are, however, unless you’re among those in the know from the Baby Boomer generation, you’ve never heard of […]

Following up their 2024 Grammy-winning Blood Harmony, the southern rock/blues/roots sister duo Larkin Poe brings us, Bloom, with all songs a collaboration between Megan and Rebecca Lowell and their co-producer Tyler Bryant. The duo, backed again by their touring bassist and drummer, Tarka Layman and Caleb Crosby, respectively, have Bryant (bass, electric guitar, 12-string guitar), Michael Webb (B3), and Eleonore Denig (strings) joining them in the studio. It’s an […]

Trumpeter and composer Ambrose Akinmusire’s imagination and vision transcends any concept of boundaries and structures. He seems almost ego-less. Some of his pieces have very little trumpet, almost like the basketball point guard that savors assists more than points. The end goal and vision are most important.  The music is compelling, abstract, discordant, gorgeous, and […]

On their third album, 2020’s Optimisme, we described the Songhoy Blues sound this way,  ”… an activist rock & punk band, not just a “world music” act… Some have referred to them as ‘The African Clash’.” Their latest offering and fourth album, Heritage, defies that description almost entirely as the band turns acoustic, re-imagining the […]

Given the buzz about the film Complete Unknown and the many younger people turning to Dylan’s music, folk music may become more vital again. As the newbies seek out the likes of Dylan, Joan Baez, and Pete Seeger, they should realize that folk music is still being played, and there is no finer example than […]

In 2024, Blue Note celebrated its 85th birthday with a touring quintet of its leading contemporary musicians. At some point during the grueling tour, the members found time to enter a Hollywood studio to capture the magic of their collective sound. Remember that most anniversary celebrations delve into the past in a ‘greatest hits’ or […]

This guide is shorter than our usual article on archival releases. Still, it summarizes ten never-before-released jazz and blues recordings that will be available on Black Friday, November 29.  While Sun Ra and Bill Evans have appeared either on Black Friday or Record Store Day in April, we feature Al Jarreau, Emily Remler, Charles Tolliver, […]

Blue Note, in conjunction with the Jazz Detective Zev Feldman, Jack, and Lydia DeJohnette, have unearthed one of the most explosive jazz recordings heard in recent years with Forces of Nature: Live at Slugs. Four icons of jazz, tenorist Joe Henderson, pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Henry Grimes, and a very young and most impressive drummer, Jack […]

No other 100-year-old musician is leading a band, and no bandleader has remained in the same band for 67 years. NEA Jazz Master and alto saxophonist/EWI player Marshall Allen joined the Sun Ra Arkestra in 1957 (or 1958, depending on the source) and has been leading the venerable institution since Sun Ra’s passing in 1993 for thirty years and […]

Guitarist Jeff Parker built his reputation in Chicago with Tortoise, The Chicago Underground Trio, and Isotope 217  and as a member of the AACM as well as other wide ranging endeavors. Yet his home base has been Los Angeles since 2016. He and his band, the ETA IVtet, held a Monday residency at the since-shuttered […]

In recent years around this same time, Kelly Peterson, the wife of the late, iconic pianist, Oscar Peterson, released live performances from her archives. This is the fifth. Up until now, those records featured Oscar in his prime with both hands blazing.  City Lights; The Oscar Peterson Quartet – Live in Munich, 1994 is different […]

Seldom has a band so radically reformed itself as did The Bad Plus in 2022.  The piano trio format was replaced by adding saxophonist Chris Speed and guitarist Ben Monder to the co-founding bass-drum tandem of Reid Anderson and Dave King. While the press materials and the co-founders argue that the core principles of the […]

The Deer Head Inn, in the unlikely locale of the Delaware Water Gap in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, is America’s oldest continuously running jazz club, presenting live music since 1950.  It’s a relatively easy destination from New York City, straight out on Interstate 80. One can see national acts in the intimate room that […]

The semi-annual Exit Zero Jazz Festival, held October 25-27, 2024, in the nation’s oldest ocean resort, Cape May, NJ, featured the usual loyal, enthusiastic jazz audiences and its famed eclectic lineup. The mild temperatures made it conducive to taking in acts on the sunny deck or at the nearby clubs, which were overflowing the entire weekend. We attended […]