by Nick DeRiso Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, a spirited, bluesy and always fun performer, seemed to burst out from a series of early live recordings during a period when that was rare. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, there were just too many logistical nightmares, from getting good takes in the smoky, raucous atmosphere of a nightclub, to finding a [...]

by Nick DeRisoThough Jimmy Smith is the principal voice of the Hammond B-3 in jazz, finding an entry point in his long discography can be difficult. Some might argue for 1956′s “At the Organ,” featuring Cedar Walton, Pepper Adams and Chick Corea. For me, though, that one doesn’t pop with enough grease. Start with “Back at the Chicken Shack.” Perfectly [...]

“Revolution No. 9,” from the Beatles’ 1968 self-titled release, was for me the complete realization of tape-loop experimentation that began on several earlier songs by John Lennon – including “Tomorrow Never Knows,” from ’66′s “Revolver”; and (more famously) in the outros for “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “I am The Walrus.” Lennon never gave any complete explanation for orchestrating an extended [...]

by Nick DeRiso More musical journey than greatest hits, per se, “Let It Roll” is a primer on George Harrison for those who never got past his time with Beatles — and yet a still-intriguing way to reexperience some of his best solo cuts for those who followed along after the Fabs went pphhft. It didn’t have to meet that [...]

Crosby, Stills & Nash hadn’t produced a new studio record in fifteen years (or ten, if you add Neil Young), but there hadn’t been a more active period of release activity of new/previously unheard material by these three than there have in the last few years. David Crosby and Graham Nash got things started in 2004 with their first album [...]

? and the Mysterians, formed by a group of Texas-born Mexican teenagers who were raised in Saginaw, Mich., lived up to its wackadoo band name. Still, leave aside that singer/ drummer/ purported alien Rudy Martinez, who later legally changed his name to “?,” never appears in public without sunglasses. Or that he has claimed to be a Martian. Who lived [...]

by Nick DeRiso Benny Spellman’s “Fortune Teller,” a witty early-1960s story song, is one of my touchstone party records. Everything about it is perfectly New Orleans, from the pounding piano to this sizzling island-tinged percussion, from a group of yelping, mesmerizingly groovy R&B backup singers to its not one but two gotcha lyrics. Spellman, see, goes to a fortune teller [...]

by Nick DeRiso  To think, we almost never heard Carmen McRae sing these songs. Even though she was an early acolyte of Billie Holiday, McRae was at first better known as a pianist. (In fact, upon meeting her, Holiday was said to be so impressed that she recorded McRae’s “Dream of Life” in 1939 for Vocalion.) Still, McRae initially appeared [...]

NICK DERISO: Recorded live at the club Memory Lane in Los Angeles over a two-night stand on May 25-26, 1967, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie’s five-track “Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac” is sometimes criticized for its brevity. Sure. There have been boxed sets produced with slighter source material. Still, Gillespie, in particular on tracks like the standout Brazilian-tinged “Mas Que Nada,” remained at [...]

This is a whodathunkit moment that nearly went un-thunk. Sarah Vaughan, a singer of dizzying range; and clarinetist Woody Herman (then leader of “The Swingin’est Big Band Ever,” as another 1963 recording trumpeted) were jazz legends, both. But they never released a studio recording together, until these broadcast programs — compiled as part of “On the Radio: The 1963 ‘Live’ [...]