Bill Champlin has a face to match his voice — rugged and sharp-edged, a great gravelly visage.

Daniel Kelly is a keyboardist and composer with three albums since 2000 already under his belt before this one, and given his predilection for delving into so many different styles, every release has been a surprise. For Emerge, Kelly’s theme is the piano trio format, but to him, that’s hardlyRead More

This live set is only Kell’s third album, but the bassist/composer offers a fully-conceived collection of songs that’s both modern and melodic. Providing the support are alto saxophonist Loren Stillman (Jackalope, Ecumenics), drummer Joe Smith (John McNeil, Ryan Blotnick) and guitarist Brad Shepik (Carla Bley, Charlie Haden, Paul Motian, DaveRead More

A tucked-away treasure, the Meters never found their own fame like Booker T. and the MGs. No matter. Let it be our secret. Our funky, funky secret.

by Pico So far here we’ve covered a fairly wide variety of music styles, but still repped for only a handful of countries. Today, though, we’re going to add a few more countries to our slowly-burgeoning list of nations from which the talented musicians we cover come from. Most ofRead More

Photo: Kevin Westenberg By Pico A year ago I broke with my unusual protocol and included a “non-new” album in a Quickies piece. These Streets by Paolo Nutini had already been out for a couple of years by that time, but the debut album by this exceptionally talented teenaged singer-songwriterRead More

Koko Taylor, a sharecropper’s daughter, crafted a five-decade hall of fame career that eventually earned her the nickname “Queen of the Blues.”

by Pico Duck Baker has made his name over several decades as a virtuosic acoustic guitarist, one who prefers to play it solo. That might make him sound like another Leo Kottke, but there’s much more to Baker that makes him a compelling and interesting musician. Baker obviously craves applyingRead More