It’s not just a preponderance of fresh ideas that makes Russ Lossing’s album ‘Metamorphism’ work so well; they are ideas that fit right with the people chosen to carry them out.

Starting perhaps around the time Ben Goldberg assembled his New Klezmer Trio and The Klezmatics was formed, the clarinet went from being a meek instrument associated with the traditional and archaic — like trad jazz and Polish weddings — to becoming You May Also Like: Ben Goldberg School – VolRead More

For ‘Oscalypso’, Erik Friedlander makes the case for cello as a lead jazz instrument the same way his hero Oscar Pettiford once did.

The unexpected solitude the master cellist found from the five day loss of power in lower Manhattan from Hurricane Sandy gave him the perspective and focus that provided the material for his bluegrass-tinged combo’s second release, Nighthawks.