by Nick DeRiso The Orb’s signature sound — gorgeous but not quite ambient, hypnotic but typically not much more rhythmic than a chill-out room — always seemed to cry out for the guitar stylings of Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour. The band copped to the underlying influence on its debut album,Read More

by Nick DeRiso I always chuckle when I pull out this Columbia-Legacy compilation, a CD of pre-war tracks that boasts one of those blocky black PARENTAL ADVISORY stickers for explicit lyrics. It’s an album of steadfastly dirty blues songs — though innuendo replaces the jarring language of today’s brazen newRead More

This record was, Blanchard told me, his love letter to Miles Davis. In retrospect, it was the beginning of his ascension from young lion into modern standard bearer, too. Born in New Orleans, and brought up in one of the final incarnations of Art Blakey’s traveling finishing school the JazzRead More

NICK DERISO: The most interesting thing about this soundtrack recording from the Beatle-based movie “BackBeat” was that it didn’t include, you know, any Beatles music. Was — co-leader of the now-forgotten 1980s rock group Was (Not Was), but more famous by then as the producer who gave Bonnie Raitt’s careerRead More

Since his early days of hangin’ with Mr. Cougar, James McMurtry remains the same guy he was back then, but with some subtle differences.

Jaco Pastorius dubbed this all-star pairing the “Trio of Doom.” It became more fittingly the “Doomed Trio.”

Some people think ‘Straight Life’ is the gem of Freddie Hubbard’s epic early-’70s run with the CTI label. I gotta go with ‘Red Clay.’

Miles Davis’ ‘Tribute to Jack Johnson’ is less than perfect in many respects, but the imperfections are such that they only add to the intrigue.

‘In a Silent Way’ is the demarcation line between Miles Davis’ acoustic, straight-jazz era and the electric jazz-rock fusion sound to come.