by Mark Saleski Often when something is unexpected, it ends up being that much more rewarding. You know: surprises! I remember back in 1994 when Brandford Marsalis put together his jazz/funk/hip-hop group Buckshot LeFonque. The debut album was a giant pile of unexpected. So much so that some folks didn’tRead More

by Mark SaleskiOver the years, there have been a lot of musical hybrids that have surprised our ears by revealing hidden commonalities in melded musical genres. For instance, I’m fairly certain that my only exposure to hip-hop back before the mid-1980’s was with Sugar Hill’s “Rapper’s Delight,” and Blondie’s “Rapture.”Read More

by Mark Saleski OK, so tomorrow is the 9th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. This has been approaching and I’d been hoping to have something enlightening to say about it, but so far…well…let’s just say that I’m still waiting for someRead More

by Mark Saleski So they were picking up the band instruments, holding them high in the air, and looking for interested faces. When I saw that gleaming trombone, I just knew that I had to learn it. It was seventh grade and the middle school music teacher was looking forRead More

by Mark Saleski These kind of pairings are not supposed to work. It goes against the laws of pop music nature. Take any number of well-known and successful musicians, put them together, stir, and what you usually get is something not even worth the time it takes to watch theRead More

by Mark Saleski Bill Frisell has often been referred to as the mad scientist of the guitar. His good friend Gary Larson goes the idea one better, that Frisell has a team of mad scientists living inside of his brain. The notion is a funny one, because the stereotype ofRead More

by Mark Saleski A friend of mine, who is just beginning to dip his toe into the pool of jazz, asked me if I thought he was “ready” for Bitches Brew. That’s a tricky question, no matter who is doing the asking. The generic answer, suitable for use in nearlyRead More

by Mark Saleski If you want to really scare yourself, wait until everybody else in the house has gone to bed, turn out all of the lights, and put the Kronos Quartet’s Black Angels on the stereo. You will be assaulted with George Crumb’s terrifying “Black Angels (Images I),” aRead More

by Mark Saleski I wish I had a cool story about where I learned about the blues. I never had an older brother who gave me his Howlin’ Wolf records. There was no cousin who pointed out the line that runs backwards from Jimmy Page. Despite the early appearance ofRead More

I had intended for this essay to start out something like this: OK, I’ll come right out and say it. I used to hate John Mellencamp. Back then he was known as John Cougar. All of my friends had their copies of American Fool, and I had to put upRead More