By the time Paul Motian had passed away in November of 2011, he had established a legacy that reaches far beyond a couple of historical evenings at the Village Vanguard in late June of 1961. But becoming known as something much more than Bill Evans’ drummer within arguably jazz’s greatest trio didn’t happen overnight.

Bill Frisell’s appearance last Saturday with Marianne Faithfull at Paris’ New Morning club was another reminder of the jazz guitarist’s often underrated affinity for pop and rock music.

Stuck on a desert island, you’re going to want to rock every once in a while, right? That’s where this string-bending, axe-swinging, fretboard-melting, amp-blowing list comes in.

Brace yourselves for the return of a trio of 1970s-era hitmakers: Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra fame, former Eagles guitarist Don Felder and Kiss

Ron Miles, without making a bunch of loud, weird noises, has become one of the most eloquently unique trumpet players of the last twenty years.

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, enfants terribles describes “one whose startlingly unconventional behavior, work, or thought embarrasses or disturbs others.” Alto saxophonist Lee Konitz has enjoyed a six decade career where he’s been in the thick of unconventional work

Singer/songwriter Shawn Colvin’s eighth studio album is a deeply personal, deeply sustaining experience. All Fall Down was produced by her long-time pal Buddy Miller

A collaboration between jazz guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Matt Chamberlain, it must have seemed pretty straight-forward upon first inspection

Bonnie Raitt uses her first album in seven years to move fluidly between expected slide-guitar swagger and these deeply intriguing moments featuring impressionistic asides from Bill Frisell.

Here’s a brand new disc by Bill Frisell’s fiddle player. The music contained within, is well within Fris’ playing field, but there’s some adventurous circuit bent noises courtesy of Nels Cline with his bag of trick effects. Jim Black and Todd Sickafoose are on board, too, so the entire backing band is wicked good, and Scheinman wrote some nice, diversified [...]