It’s hard to put a label on Aaron Neville’s music. Even, as we saw in this interview, for Aaron Neville himself.

by Nick DeRiso A pair of early 1990s Rhino compilations, all punky guts and art-rock pretention – without being pretentious – showed how the Do It Yourself aesthetic was given great depth by the almighty hook. Taken together, they’re a nice overview of the British punk explosion and the lastRead More

by Nick DeRiso While the performances on “Johnny Shines and Robert Lockwood,” from Shreveport, Louisiana’s Paula Records, are first-rate, unfortunately the sound quality early on is spotty. Some of the source material was slightly damaged on the Shines sides, resulting in a couple of gurgly spots where the sound fallsRead More

Cannonball Adderley’s ‘Somethin’ Else’ is the lesser-known, but very worthy, companion piece to ‘Kind of Blue’ that every jazz fan should have.

by Nick DeRiso The year was 1959. The occasion was a “Battle of the Blues” at the Blue Flame Club in Chicago. Young harmonica player Junior Wells — who got his start as Little Walter Jacobs’ replacement in Muddy Waters’ band back in ’52 — probably didn’t imagine he wouldRead More

Bob Margolin makes fine use of delay-time rhythm, a mean slide scream, and the duo and trio ideas that were so successful for his old boss, Muddy Waters.

Several years ago, Capitol Records released a terrific 3-CD box set called “Crazy Diamond,” by Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett. Included are “The Madcap Laughs” and “Barrett” — Syd’s only solo albums after getting the boot from Floyd. Also featured is a third disc of unreleased material and rarities, calledRead More

Ray Brown is one of those underrated guys who kept on producing important work well past his so-called prime, because he remained such an in-the-pocket guy. You can’t go wrong with the old Jazz at the Philharmonic stuff, of course. But I also typically recommend his late-period work on Telarc,Read More

They haven’t taken more than a week off since Nixon’s first term. They’ve withstood disco, fathering a rafter-shaking, swing-blues style that saw its own too-fey-by-half revival. (Did you ever notice that all those bands a few years back had names with the word Daddy in them?) So it is thatRead More

Branford Marsalis’ sibling producer Delfeayo said ‘Bloomington’ was the “most important concert recorded in our generation.” Thing is, he could be right.