In 2009, Jake Hertzog was just a couple of years out of Berklee, just beginning to attract notice as a brilliant guitarist, composer and bandleader. You May Also Like: Jake Hertzog – Well Lit Shadow (2016) Harvie S and Sheryl Bailey – Plucky Strum (2015) Plucky Strum [Sheryl Bailey &Read More

An eight minute song with alien (for the time) sounds wasn’t a recipe for a major hit, but just reaching 33 on the Hot 100 in 1972 qualifies as a notable achievement for “Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You).” You May Also Like: Greg Lake compares this eraRead More

When outer fringe guitarist Bruce Eisenbeil got together with kindred spirits Tom Blancarte (upright bass) and Andrew Drury (drums) to form TOTEM>, they injected fresh concepts in the improvised music arena. You May Also Like: Aruán Ortiz Trio feat. Eric Revis + Gerald Cleaver – Hidden Voices (2016) Sound EtiquetteRead More

One of the most self-effacing musicians of Chicago’s AACM scene paradoxically creates some of its boldest music, and bassist Harrison Bankhead’s second album confirms that Morning Sun Harvest Moon was no one-off fluke. You May Also Like: Harrison Bankhead and Paul de Jong – ‘Freedom’ (2020) Solitaire Miles, “Ghost RidersRead More

Tiger Hatchery is a rowdy bunch of thrash jazzers from Chicago. You May Also Like: Tiger Hatchery – ‘Breathing In the Walls’ (2018) Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, “India” from ‘GOASTT Stories’ (2015): One Track Mind Owl Xounds Exploding Galaxy – ‘The Coalescence’ (2020)

In 2007, twenty five years after Art Pepper’s death, his widow Laurie began issuing concert recordings of her late husband covering the period of his remarkable renaissance of the last seven years of his life. You May Also Like: Art Pepper – ‘Smack Up’ (1960; 2024 reissue) Brecker Brothers –Read More

The last time New Orleanian saxophonist Clarence Johnson III made a record, it was still the 1900s. You May Also Like: Julee Johnson, “So on Top of the World” (2020): One Track Mind

A guy with the amount of respect and credentials as a composer, bandleader, arranger and drummer as Gerry Gibbs can more the hold his own in the presence of anybody. You May Also Like: Gerry Gibbs & Thrasher People – Weather Or Not (2017) Daniel Carter, William Parker, Matthew ShippRead More

When Chris Biesterfeldt set out to make the mandolin record which became Urban Mandolin, he used a small combo but outsized ambitions. You May Also Like: The Wood Brothers, “River Takes the Town” from One Drop Of Truth (2018): One Track Mind