Part 2, Mainstream and Modern Jazz >>> For the sixth straight year, it’s time to look back on the year in music to recollect which albums I really, really liked this year and make a list.

Another New Music Monday, another truckload of cool sounds — this time from the likes of John Hiatt, Lee Ritenour, Medeski Martin and Wood, Shemekia Copeland, Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris and the Gaddabouts, among others.

Hitting the age where you’re a third of the way to 100 years old is evidently a milestone to some; certainly it was for George Harrison.

In an election year, there are a lot of political issues being discussed, argued, spun and distorted.

Tribute records are a tricky things; star-studded tribute projects even more so. It takes a strong unifying voice, some central character beyond the featured composer, to save them from sounding like choppy compilations.

by S. Victor Aaron It’s no throwaway phrase to say Shemekia Copeland was raised on the blues; her Dad Johnny Copeland established a proud tradition of quality blues as a singer, songwriter and guitarist and put out a slew of notable records in the 80′s and 90′s until his death in 1997. The following year at just nineteen years old, [...]