A return-to-form triumph for Deep Purple, and a reunion of the crunchy Raw Power-era edition of Iggy and the Stooges tops this heavy-rocking version of New Music Monday.

An assemblage of musicians the caliber of Marc Ribot, Ches Smith and Shahazad Ismaily usually signals that this is going to be seriously nerdy jazz, but Ceramic Dog is, in many ways, the exact opposite.

Whether you like the Beatles or not, their music can certainly take you to some interesting places — as reflected in our latest edition of Desert Island Discs.

Ultime Cosmos was not serious. At least, not serious in that We’re Wearing Nice Suits, We’re Going To Play Jazz kind of way. Heck, this wasn’t even jazz, not in spirit anyway.

There are certain names that signify quality in a musical release, and there’s a bunch gathered right here: Backing former John Coltrane pianist Tyner, there’s bassist extraordinaire Ron Carter and drummer Jack DeJohnette, but along for the ride, and to make the title make sense, are guitarists Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot, Derek Trucks, John Scofield and banjo-god Bela Fleck. Each [...]

After reading Rolling Stone magazine’s list of Top 100 guitarists, I felt the need to chime in.

There’s an argument I like to use when ‘defending’ music. It goes something like this: any particular piece of music (song or album) exists independent of its surroundings.

Back when Tom Waits released Real Gone, I used the concept of the essential nature of a pair of bluejeans to illustrate how that record could be used to get at what Waits’ music is all about

by Mark Saleski Anybody out there who has been paying attention to my writings may have noticed that the name Marc Ribot has appeared almost as many times as Pat Metheny. Though the two guitar players are nothing alike, they do take up a considerable amount of my shelf space. Ribot seems to specialize in confounding the listener with his [...]

by Mark Saleski I wasn’t familiar with the work of vibraphonist Bill Ware (though a quick Allmusic search said that he’s played with the Jazz Passengers, Groove Collective and even Steely Dan) but I was, then as now, a sucker for the sound of vibes. What’s more, I’ll buy anything with the name “Marc Ribot” attached to it (check out [...]