jazz Archive
09 Jul 2018
Fifty-word Reviews for July 2018, Part 2
Here’s ten more quick reviews of new music worth your time. Beth McKee — Dreamwood Acres This lovely clutch of original songs features the sultry, soulful vocals of McKee, and […]
29 Jun 2018
Liner Notes News
I’ve been extraordinarily busy lately. After devoting a large chunk of 2017 to the writing of my first book, Reinventing Pink Floyd: From Syd Barrett to The Dark Side of […]
23 Jun 2018
Album Review: Gideon King & City Blog — Upscale Madhouse
Sophisticated, jazzy pop is the order of the day on Upscale Madhouse, the latest album from Gideon King & City Blog. With a sound that instrumentally recalls Steely Dan, King’s […]
18 Jun 2018
Album Review: Mel Henke — 77 Sunset Strip-per
For a lot of Americans in the late 1950s and ‘60s, jazz wasn’t something they went to clubs to hear. If they heard it at all, jazz was often presented […]
13 Jun 2018
Jazz Great Henry Threadgill on Accessibility, Artistry and Expectations
Henry Threadgill has a well-deserved reputation as a jazz innovator. Working with unusual ensembles that included instrumental combinations not often thought of in a jazz context, Threadgill has made a […]
09 Jun 2018
Album Review: Disaster Relief — s/t
Nominally classified as jazz, the Detroit and Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Disaster Relief occupies a musical space halfway between Leeds and New Orleans. The Leeds connection is the band’s funky like-mindedness […]
23 May 2018
Hundred-word Reviews for May 2018
There’s so much great new music that it’s difficult to keep up with it all. I’m here to help, but it’s tough for me to keep pace as well. To […]
29 Apr 2018
Album Review: Miles Davis & John Coltrane — The Final Tour
Miles Davis’ 1960 tour with John Coltrane ranks among the most historically significant series of concerts by either of those artists. And that’s saying something, in light of each musician’s […]
21 Apr 2018
Album Review: Joan Torres’ All is Fused — Of the Musical
The golden age of jazz-rock fusion was a relatively brief period; arguably it began with Miles Davis’ In a Silent Way, released in 1969. The new form enjoyed a number […]
19 Apr 2018
Album Review: Bunk Johnson — Rare & Unissued Masters Volume One
Bunk Johnson was a New Orleans jazz trumpeter who exemplified the pre-war jazz style closer to Louis Armstrong than, say, Miles Davis. Though the style was well past the apex […]