Pink Floyd‘s A Momentary Lapse of Reason, alas, was no Dark Side of the Moon. Criticized then as now for being transitional and samey, though, it was far from the worst thing foisted on unsuspecting fans during the 1980s. You May Also Like: The Song That Made Pink Floyd’s ‘MomentaryRead More

NICK DERISO: “I’m Having Fun” arrives as advertised. That is to say, it’s a bubbly, rollicking party record, featuring King Curtis — the Fort Worth native was one of the last of the great R&B saxists — shaking a bandstand to its foundations while keyboardist Champion Jack Dupree lays inRead More

photo: Cryptogramophone by Pico The hermitic but acclaimed multi-reedist Bennie Maupin is suddenly prolific. As a sideman for Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock during fusion’s formative years, Maupin’s versatility and sensitivity across a wide variety of wind instruments garnered him work on important documents of the genre live Bitches BrewRead More

Seems writing a tragi-comedy about small town eccentrics — some on the very brink of despair, all of them building powerful dreams inside their heads — comes easy for someone who spent time in Louisiana. It has for John Dufresne, the former professor at Northeast Louisiana University turned accomplished author.Read More

Scott LaFaro, Bill Evans and Paul Motian (photo: Steve Schapiro)What can be said about Bill Evans’ classic Sunday At The Village Vanguard that hadn’t already been said so many times over? If you’re new to jazz, here’s what you need to know: it is the beginning and the end ofRead More

When Ringo Starr recently announced that he wouldn’t be responding to any more fan mail, it occurred to me that he must be completely unaware of the disastrous foibles he’s unleashed on a loving but ultimately unwitting fanbase. Certainly likeable (at one time, anyway), Starr was and is a drive-byRead More

I remember Azymuth back in the eighties as this funky little jazz fusion trio from Brazil whose sound approximated Weather Report but with some hot samba thrown in for local flavoring. The Cascades LP I had back then got a fair amount of spins and these guys were all better-than-averageRead More

by S. Victor Aaron There seems to be this wonderful trend of late, where a newer generation of bass players are following the example of Charles Mingus and presenting themselves as serious composers and bandleaders. In the last year on this space we’ve profiled the latest releases of such luminariesRead More