Album Reviews

Ace of Blues, Angela Strehli’s first album in over 17 years is a momentous event by any standard, made even more vital as it marks the relaunch of Antone’s Records, in partnership with New West Records.

The recording is of the high-octane variety, fitting for what Douglas dubs, “The Black Lion rocket ship.” One can’t help but hear the echoes of Coltrane’s Classic Quartet or Mingus’ small combos.

Healing Time represents the most writing Ruthie Foster has ever done for a record, as she aims for a live sounding atmosphere that leans toward the vinyl era. 

Brooklyn reggae band SunDub keep it positive with their sunny new album ‘Spirits Eat Music’.

The newest effort from multi-talented artist Franz Nicolay is an engaging mix of poetic songwriting and overly dramatic staging that rambles like its title, New River. 

The Jazz Detective Zev Feldman has unearthed another gem as Blue Note Records issues the sleuth’s latest discovery, the emergence of the iconic drummer, Elvin Jones, as bandleader on Revival: Live at Pookie’s Pub.

Willie Nelson, Rodney Crowell, George Strait, Margo Price, Nathaniel Rateliff and more pay tribute to Billy Joe Shaver on New West Records’ Live Forever.

Truth and Honesty by NEA Jazz master, saxophonist Dave Liebman, is the third installment of the four-part Renewal Series from Newvelle Records.  Liebman, who plays the soprano saxophone on all compositions, leads a drumless trio featuring guitarist Ben Monder (The Bad Plus, Maria Schneider Orchestra) and progressive bassist John Hébert, who is also a bandleader.

Guitarist Bill Frisell, on his third recording for Blue Note, expands the quiet, explorative music he delivered on 2020’s Valentine through a much different instrumental configuration

Blank Canvas is the fourth album from composer and vocalist Sarah Elizabeth Charles and her band SCOPE. This one comes via Chief Xian Atunde Adjuah’s (aka Christian Scott) Stretch Music label in partnership with Ropeadope. It’s her first release since 2017’s Free of Form, also on the same label.

Andrew Browning and The 9 Pound Hammers features members from places as varied as Oklahoma and Moscow (Russia, not Idaho) but calls Los Angeles home. The band began as a honky-tonk cover band, but has grown into a sound that is a blend of alt-country and soul. The band’s first album Blood on the Door […]

Not only does Olli Hirvonen fuse jazz with Americana, but he adds slide guitar, and fashions an airier, lighter overall sonic due to both his own playing and that of bassist Kenney, who plays a Fender Bass VI.

Though no stranger to delicate Americana heart-tugging music, on Love Songs For Losers, The Lone Bellow’s fifth LP and second in two years, the band once again traces scars of loneliness and hurt, but also offers some reflection on love and joy throughout making for one of their most eclectic albums yet, both musically and thematically.

The first solo release from Dean Fertita as Tropical Gothclub is a mix of all the dark and somewhat exotic bands he has played in and supported over the years: Queens of the Stone Age, The Dead Weather, and The Raconteurs.

The new SmallsLIVE Living Masters Series has issued Kirk Lightsey Live at Smalls Jazz Club, their second offering, following this past August’s release of vocalist Sheila Jordan’s Live at Mezzrow. As the series name implies, these recordings honor the best of iconic jazz musicians that are still with us.

Aside from being a great improvisational drummer, Paul Motian is perhaps best known for his composing. Motian was the ideal artist for the dream-like ethereal sounds often captured by the ECM label on which this tribute Once Around the Room appears. His melodies seem to drift like shrouds of mist above a foundation, sometimes shifting but more often sturdy. It’s the kind of music that places a premium on listening and group interplay rather than a series of solos.

Bird Streets’ new album Lagoon is an emotional tour de force that covers self-pity, regret, anger, depression and ultimately peace.

On Changes, King Gizzard’s fifth and final record of 2022, the band proves that they also know when to let one of those ideas marinate.

There have been five studio albums with some iteration of Headhunters since 1975, the latest being 2011’s Platinum, which was essentially a gathering of superstars including Azar Lawrence, Patrice Rushen, Georg Clinton, original member Maupin and a host of rappers including Snoop Dogg.  This new offering, Speakers in the House, coming eleven years later, pairs down into a slimmer jazz-funk ensemble.

Tommy Alexander’s new album Feelings on Fluff & Gravy Records is quite possibly his most satisfying record yet.