instrumental Archive
15 Jul 2013
A Quick Jazz Vinyl Update
Three titles released on the Jazzhaus label last fall are now available on vinyl as well: Legends Live: Dizzy Gillespie Quintet – Liederhalle Stuttgart November 29, 1961 Legends Live: Albert […]
12 Jul 2013
Album Review: Bill Frisell — Big Sur
Avant-jazz. Atonal no-wave. Country. Noise rock. Americana. Those are just a few of the musical idioms within which guitarist Bill Frisell has worked in his thirty-plus years as a recording […]
26 Jun 2013
Album Review: Pulp and Pop Culture Box Vol. 1
You know what’s cool? When the compiler of a collection of music makes no outsized claims of cultural import about the music. Sometimes it’s art, for sure, but sometime, it’s […]
18 Jun 2013
Album Review: Iasos – Celestial Soul Portrait
Near the tail-end of the 20th century, I played piano in the “house band” for a monthly coffeehouse in the suburbs of Atlanta. Since my bandmates often played acoustic twelve-string […]
11 Jun 2013
You Can Be Who You Are: The John McLaughlin Interview, Part 4
Continued from Part Three… Bill Kopp: Speaking of playing onstage, how do the live pieces differ from the studio versions? Do you open them up for improvisation, or are they […]
10 Jun 2013
You Can Be Who You Are: The John McLaughlin Interview, Part 3
Continued from Part Two… Bill Kopp: This is an obvious thing to say, but since instrumental music has to convey its messages without the benefit of lyrics, it has to […]
07 Jun 2013
You Can Be Who You Are: The John McLaughlin Interview, Part 2
Continued from Part One… Bill Kopp: A Tribute to Jack Johnson is among the most underrated of all Miles’ works, I think. John McLaughlin: A lot of people don’t underrate […]
06 Jun 2013
You Can Be Who You Are: The John McLaughlin Interview, Part 1
Far be it from me to attempt to introduce John McLaughlin. One of the world’s greatest guitarists, his career has spanned five decades. His latest album Now Here This is […]
31 May 2013
Album Review: Redtenbacher’s Funkestra – The Cooker
A very good friend of mine – a drummer and a serious student of music – has, in the last several years, become quite wary – cynical, almost – about […]
30 May 2013
Album Review: Man or Astro-Man? – Defcon 5…4…3…2…1
I often enjoy what one might call “high concept bands.” Our friends at open-source Wikipedia define the term this way: “…a term used to refer to an artistic work that […]