Archive for February, 2008

Vinyl

Marco Benevento – Invisible Baby (2008)

by Pico In the wild world of underground instrumental music, Marco Benevento is a newcomer as a leader, but he’s no stranger to the scene. The thirty-year old Berklee School of Music grad studied jazz piano under Joanne Brackeen, Kenny Werner and Brad Mehldau and set up shop in NewRead More

Vinyl

Gerry Mulligan, Shorty Rogers, Miles Davis- Birth of the Cool, Vol. 2 (1992)

NICK DERISO: Volume 2 gives an idea of how considerable a wake the 1940s Miles Davis Nonet left. Taking its name from Davis’ legendary 1950 recording, this welcome, if belated, compilation scoops up all of the Capitol cuts from the early ’50s by two of the nonet’s most important disciples,Read More

Vinyl

Something Else! Featured Artist: George Harrison

George Harrison remains the Beatles’ great unresolved mystery — the guy who might have actually done more had he been in any another band after 1965. Or not. His solo records are a frustrating mix of the sublime, the blatant and the unremarkable. Sometimes within a three-song sweep. Sometimes withinRead More

Vinyl

One Track Mind: New Klezmer Trio "Feedback Doina" (1995)

One of the subgenres of jazz that’s become an underground hit over the last ten years or so is klezmer jazz. Klezmer itself, as described by AllMusic Guide, is “a Yiddish term for musician and refers primarily to a tradition of Jewish folk music with deep German and Eastern EuropeanRead More

Vinyl

Lee Dorsey – Yes We Can (1970)

Decades before it became a catchy rallying cry for an historic presidential campaign, “Yes We Can” was associated with an inspired message of another kind: the essence of New Orleans-styled funk. Crescent City all-world songwriter and producer Allen Toussaint has done more in his behind-the-scenes role to shape New OrleansRead More

Vinyl

Something Else! Featured Artist: Louisiana Music Hall of Fame pianist Doug Duffey

NICK DERISO: The list of Louisiana Music Hall of Fame inductees is predictably recognizable. You’ve got your Dr. Johns and Clarence “Frogman” Henrys, your John Freds and your Blackie Forestiers, your Frankie Fords and your Doug Duffeys. Hold up, Doug Duffey? The northern Louisiana-based globe-trotter may be one of theRead More

Vinyl

Quickies: Akoya Afrobeat, Joe Jackson, Herbie Hancock

Most of this go around of Quickies is about catching up on some of the more recent big name releases. Spending so much time off the main highway of current music, I sometimes need to get back on it to regain a sense of where the mainstream is to beginRead More

Vinyl

Ryan Blotnick – Music Needs You (2008)

The twenty-something jazz guitarist from Maine named Ryan Blotnick is rapidly emerging as a force to be reckoned with. He first got mentioned in this space a few years ago as a member of a really good global party band called Akoya Afrobeat. Right about the same time that P.D.PRead More

Vinyl

One Track Mind: Hal Russell, "Kenny G" (1992)

Exploring the wonderful world of wack jazz can be both frustrating and fun. Frustrating because even some of the more influential artists of this genre lack good publicists—through no fault of their own—and fun because when you finally stumble across one of these important figures it’s like you found aRead More

Vinyl

Freddie Krc and The Shakin' Apostles – Medicine Show (1997)

NICK DERISO: The title cut of “Medicine Show” is a room-clearing-brawl type of song: It forces you to pay close attention from there on out. Freddie “Steady” Krc and the Shakin’ Apostles reaffirm, and right from the start, their neat amalgamation of mop-top whimsy and Hill Country picking. They makeRead More