by Tom Johnson Every year I start out thinking that I have a feeling what album is going to ride high on my year end list, and more often than not I’m surprised by so many other things that the album in question may not even register. This year’s victimRead More

Many relative newcomers like Sarah Wilson have brought a breath of fresh air to jazz this year. by Pico When scanning the landscape of jazz records from 2010, one thing is clear: there’s an awful lot of very skilled and talented jazz musicians out there today, and I would argueRead More

by Nick DeRiso Emory Quinn doesn’t quibble about genre. Heck, this happy-go-lucky San Antonio, Texas-based band can’t even stick to one instrument, with its principal members merrily switching from one to another. That makes for a nice metaphor on See You At The Next Light, an album of restless musicalRead More

by Mark Saleski Sometimes, a writer can feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of releases that come along during the year. Look at those piles of CDs! It’s a fraction of what shows up on my desk over a 12-month timespan. As I said in my list of Jazz FavoritesRead More

Upon reflecting back on the year, I’ve concluded that Torben Waldorff’s American Rock Beauty ranks up there among 2010’s finest fusion jazz records. by S. Victor Aaron It’s been a great year for fusion records, as there has been an abundance of new ideas and well-recycled old ideas. Moreover, there’sRead More

by Mark Saleski I’m trying to remember when it was. It was definitely during a pop music fad that involved a lot of synthesizers and other electrical accoutrements. Maybe it was the New Wave era…or maybe when The Prodigy hit it big. All I know is that I caught thisRead More

by Mark Saleski It’s amazing to look back at the Golden Age of Spain (9th to 15th century) with modern eyes. In this era, the idea of multiculturalism has become loaded with political import (both good and bad), making it tough to accept the idea of so many diverse culturesRead More

by Mark Saleski On paper it looks like a mess. A mess that has been done before. For lyrical source material, take a bunch of words written by a cast of poets both famous and not. Set the poetry to music. Then, record the songs with a huge assortment ofRead More

by Nick DeRiso For me, the traditional year-ending Top 10 list has a more utilitarian standard: Which albums did I add to my permanent rotation? See, it’s the rarest of rare items that actually becomes a member of the collection. That’s the kind of standout recording we’ll be talking aboutRead More

by Nick DeRiso Erik Hartley can’t decide about things, and that uncertainty creates an interesting tension on the new EP Not Me Being Nervous. The in-joke ends up being that he’s anything but “not nervous.” Hartley, instead, couldn’t be less settled, with looming questions about girls, about life, about gettingRead More