<<< Part Three, Whack Jazz In the final piece of these exhaustive, four-part salutes to the top releases of 2012, the fusion jazz records are surveyed.

Neil Young returns with original music with Crazy Horse. Keith Emerson returns to the prog-rock glories of his time with Emerson Lake and Palmer. Black Country Communion, however, is busting up — but they left one last terrific album.

The man better known as drummer to Peter Gabriel, Joni Mitchell, Robbie Robertson, and Simple Minds, Manu Katché leads a double life as a restless, serious jazz musician and composer. “Restless” comes to mind on the eve of his fourth record for ECM, simply titled Manu Katché

by Mark Saleski Immediately recognizable saxophone voices: Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane. To this list we must add Jan Garbarek.

by Mark Saleski Ever stumble into one of those snotty Internet arguments tugging back & forth about the capabilities of musicians? Specifically, the old “Is it possible for player X (an expert in genre A) to cross over to the land of genre B?” “Well, of course he can.” “He’s a master!” “No he can’t.” “This music has nothing to [...]

“The Soul Cages,” a Sting album about boyhood grief, remains this strangely powerful if demanding narrative, one with textured song structures and densely emotional themes. Its triumph comes right away, though, on the opener “Island of Souls” — a compellingly dark, perfectly conceived tale of a riveter’s son whose dream of the open sea only grows more intense when he [...]

by S. Victor Aaron World class drummer Manu Katché continues to pursue a second musical career as a bandleader with his third ECM release (and fourth overall) on Third Round. His second ECM Playground was warmly greeted here when it first appeared three years ago, and his label debut was quite good, too, so we were eager to see if [...]

by S. Victor Aaron The French drummer Manu Katché has carved out a real nice career touring and recording behind names like Peter Gabriel, Sting, Joni Mitchell, Dire Straits, Michael McDonald and Joan Armatrading. So what kind of record would you expect from an A-list pop percussionist? If you said such a record would be as if Brian Blade decided [...]