Adrian Belew, at work these days a classical reformulation of his well-received 2009 trio project e, admits that he’s unsure when King Crimson will reform. “No word right now,” he says of the group, led since its late 1960s inception by Robert Fripp.

An underappreciated Dizzy Gillespie record on Verve, includes some s-s-smokin’ thoughts of “Con Alma” — two, in fact.

You might say that top-notch jazz pianist Orrin Evans has become a fixture here at SER. It all got started four years ago when we noted his participation in Robin Eubanks’ EB3 unit that made the phenomenal double-CD Live, Vol. 1 of 2007. Early last year we salivated over Evans’ Bobby Watson tribute Faith In Action, a Best of 2010 [...]

Opening with the old-world charm of an accordian and trumpet, at once lonesome and timeless, Brooklyn-based Katie Costello’s “Isn’t It Lovely” slips into your head like a thief. The whole song has a similar cunning, never going too far yet always beckoning

Early on, you never heard much piano from Duke Ellington, a grievous thing. It was only in the twilight of his career that this American jazz master regularly consented to taping some shows where his impish wit at the instrument could be heard front and center.

by Mark Saleski There was a time when the purchase of a new album resulted in yours truly spending an insane amount of time locked into his bedroom, pouring over liner notes while rattling the walls with that most recent vinyl object of my affection. It’s records like this one that remind me of those days. Anderson plays straight ahead [...]