Ah, the year’s end approaches and I’m sitting here thinking about coming up with some cohesive statement about the 365 days gone by. Or rather, I’m actually at a remove…thinking about the person in his chair who’s struggling to figure out what goes in box. The truth is, that person is very, very tired. By the events of the year? [...]

California Transit Authority, which boasts a throwback sound to leader Danny Seraphine’s co-founding stint in Chicago, didn’t feature horns at first. But all of that is about to change with its forthcoming new studio effort.

Peaking at the No. 40 slot on the national charts in the summer of 1968, “Naturally Stoned” ropes together a spate of different elements, piercing the song with a relatively odd but undeniably catchy sound.

For his second album, New York guitarist, composer and educator David Ullman was determined to challenge himself.

The source material here speaks to the essential versatility of these two Georgia-based music industry vets. Blues Say Goodbye includes two blues tracks, a quartet of jazz standards, three smartly reworked rock songs and two originals.

We’ve each already had our say, individually. Said our piece. Then came time to meet over the remnants of the egg nog and hammer out a consensus — before we go over the disc-al cliff into 2013.

If you don’t know anything else about the Montreal-born flautist Sylvain LeRoux and his music, just two things are instructive: he has a passion for Thelonious Monk and a passion for West African music.

Anthony Phillips has taken a series of interesting paths since leaving Genesis after the legendary prog-rock group’s eclectic first two albums.

Frontman is a first-time book from the Bongos’ leader and (well, what else?) frontman Richard Barone, part rock star guide, part autobiography — and a completely entertaining and fascinating read.

According to Wikipedia, the modern holiday standard “This Christmas” has been covered on record no less than thirty times, and it’s getting ever more popular: five of those recordings are from this Christmas season.