Album Reviews

The jazz landscape has no shortage of inspiring guitarists and Tom Guarna is one of the brightest emerging stars.  We use the term “emerging” rather casually here as Guarna has already made albums with players such as Brian Blade, John Patitucci, Jon Cowherd, Orlando de Fleming, Joel Frahm, and Johnathan Blake, to name a few. […]

The estimable status of drummer Joe Farnsworth is reflected in this stellar quartet consisting of the iconic Wynton Marsalis who is rarely a sideman, legendary pianist Kenny Barron, and top-shelf bassist Peter Washington.  It’s a quartet that boasts two NEA Jazz Masters in Marsalis and Barron, led by one of the premiere straight-ahead drummers of […]

It’s hard to believe that Peanuts is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy and the rest of the gang are older than most everyone that you know. As iconic as the characters created by Charles M. Schultz are, it’s difficult to picture them without also thinking of the music associated […]

On her first LP of all original songs since 2014, Joan Osborne finds herself swimming in familiar waters, singing about a slew of current social and political issues. Just two songs in, “What’s That You Say” tackles immigration in a remarkably relevant song. The track is about a real immigrant, Ana Marie Rea, who came […]

When you learn that there is a band called Killer Whale, you might immediately think that it’s a band that plays loud and aggressive music. In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth with this band from New Orleans. As evidenced by the new album Tastes Like Yesterday, this is a band that delivers […]

Highly respected and prolific Japanese trumpeter Takuya Kuroda blends soulful jazz, funk, post-bop, fusion, and hip-hop music into his sound, making him a contemporary force. His latest, Fly Moon Die Soon, a debut for First Word Records, consists of nine tracks, from four to six minutes in length generally, played by various configurations ranging from […]

We baby boomers grew up with that indelible chorus “’Cause that is no way to get along,” from the tune “Prodigal Son,” written by the Reverend Robert Wilkins and popularized by The Rolling Stones on Beggars Banquet. Heck, that was over a half century ago. They say that things have a way of repeating themselves […]

Gitkin is the alter ego of Brian J. of Pimps of Joytime. That may give you some idea of the sound of the new Gitkin album Safe Passage, or it may not. After all, he calls his music Outernational Psychedelic Twang, which is not only a mouthful, but also hard to envision without hearing it. […]

If there was ever a predestined pairing, this might be it as blues singer-songwriter-guitarist Lloyd Jones, who hails from Portland, OR lands in keyboardist/producer Kevin McKendree’s Rock House studio in Franklin, TN for Tennessee Run, which features Delbert McClinton’s band and a few other Nashville cats. Delbert duets with Jones on “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool,” the […]

The discoveries of unheard performances and unreleased albums have buoyed the jazz landscape in recent years. In fact, two years ago this month, this writer posted a review of MONK, an unissued release of a Thelonious Monk 1963 concert in Copenhagen on the Gearbox label. This past July we brought you Just Coolin’, a 1959 […]

Surely, we all miss live music, especially when you hear the rollicking jump blues on this latest recording, Too Far from the Bar, by the venerable Sugar Ray and the Bluetones.  In fact, due to the virus we cannot say that the New England blues scene is thriving but albums from Anthony Geraci (Daydreams in […]

When Doves announced that they were on an “indefinite hiatus” after playing their last gig in October 2010, many fans were justifiably concerned that we had seen the last of the British indie rockers. After all, while Manchester has many great bands, they aren’t necessarily known for reuniting for much more than a gig or […]

Multi-Grammy award-winners trumpeter/Flugelhornist Randy Brecker and versatile saxophonist Eric Marienthal have long been friends and on-stage collaborators (Jeff Lorber, GRP Big Band) but are teaming for their first co-led album, Double Dealin’. Saxophonist Marienthal is a former member of the Chick Corea Elektric Band and has recorded 13 solo albums and performed with Elton John, […]

Matt Lovell’s debut, Nobody Cries Today, is an album that couldn’t have happened without a fair amount of heartache. The lead single “90 Proof” with the line “I’ve been trying to lose your number, but my fingers won’t forget” is sung with the emotion of someone excising some ghosts. The record itself, a consistently satisfying […]

If you’ve been privileged to see an acoustic piano concert by Chick Corea, you can’t help but be struck not only by his creative improvisations but his playfulness, rapport with the adoring audience, and sheer joy of playing his instrument.  All those attributes are on display in this scintillating, breathtaking performance entitled simply Plays as […]

Sometimes a writer can exhaust the accolades for an artist covered countless times and this writer is beginning to feel that way about today’s premier blues guitarist, Ronnie Earl. So, we’ll begin with this excerpt of mine from the last Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters album, words that are equally applicable to his new effort, […]

To celebrate their twentieth year, the metal behemoths Mastodon have released Medium Rarities, an odds and ends collection of covers, live tracks, instrumentals, and rarely heard originals.   The opening song is an unreleased thundering maelstrom written and recorded in 2019 titled “Fallen Torches”. A pummeling low-end is augmented by expansive guitar work and guest vocals […]

The heralded roots band Delta Spirit took an extended break after supporting their 2014 Into the Wide. It took some time for the originally Southern Californian-based band of five independent, divergent thinkers to find common ground again. On the band-produced What Is There, the acclaimed Tchad Blake (U2, Black Keys, Richard Thompson, Los Lobos) was […]

Artemis, the multi-generational, multi-cultural, all-female jazz aggregation of seven of today’s top modern jazz musicians, is already somewhat known but are making their Blue Note debut with this self-titled effort. The band has been featured in Vanity Fair and on Jazz Night in America; and has performed at Carnegie Hall and at the Newport Jazz […]

Every Monday for the last ten weeks, Bill Callahan has steadily been rolling out the for his new LP Gold Record.  One by one, Bill gave listeners the chance to really connect with each intimate song, many of these songs were recorded in one take. Less than a year ago, Callahan released his 20-song double […]