Articles by: S. Victor Aaron

Vinyl

Maria Marquez – Tonada (2013)

Jazz vocalists don’t typically give me the same charge I get from jazz instrumentalists, but there are always a few exceptions to the rule. You May Also Like: Rich Halley and Carson Halley – The Wild (2017)

Vinyl

Matt Holman’s Diversion Ensemble – When Flooded (2013)

An emerging talent who has starred in Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society and a 2009 winner of ASCAP Young Jazz Composer’s Competition, trumpet player Matt Holman has put it all together for his maiden record as a leader, When Flooded. You May Also Like: Matt Mayhall – ‘Fanatics’ (2020) JaimieRead More

Vinyl

Soft Machine Legacy – ‘Burden of Proof’ (2013)

Soft Machine will never exist again, but one of the best of the Canterbury bands still lives on via an alumni band.

WTF?! Wednesdays: Jandek, "One Last Chance" (2001)

WTF?! Wednesdays: Jandek, “One Last Chance” (2001)

Longtime readers of SER, if such an animal even exists, know that some of us like to indulge in noisy, nonsensical and just plain weird-assed music. Once in a while, we’ll encounter something from the margins that’s so beyond the pale it makes even hardened avantists like us do aRead More

Vinyl

Sexmob – Cinema, Circus & Spaghetti (2013)

After reveling in pre-Benny Goodman big band jazz with a cheery avant twist and unlikely pop references leading the Millennial Territory Orchestra, slide trumpet extraordinaire Steven Bernstein returns to his first major project after a seven year studio layoff. You May Also Like: Sexmob – Cultural Capital (2017) Steven Bernstein’sRead More

Vinyl

Tomasz Stanko New York Quartet – Wislawa (2013)

The Penguin Guide to Jazz On CD (Fourth Ed., Cook and Morton) opined back in the 90s that the Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko is an artist first and foremost and a musician second, asserting that “he is a man whose imagination is fired as much by words…as by music.” YouRead More

Vinyl

Stan Killian – Evoke (2013)

When Stan Killian came out with Unified a couple of years back, it didn’t knock me back in one certain way, it knocked me back in many ways. Killian brought a stout but sensitive tenor saxophone to compositions he crafted with canny detail, but also pleasing to the ear. YouRead More

Vinyl

Steely Dan Sunday, “Pearl Of The Quarter” by Boz Scaggs (2013)

Last week Boz Scaggs issued his first album since 2008’s Speak Low, another covers-dominant record, but as the name makes clear, Memphis is not a jazz crooner record like his prior two, but rather, a soul crooner record. You May Also Like: Boz Scaggs – Out Of The Blues (2018)Read More

Vinyl

Jaleel Shaw – The Soundtrack Of Things To Come (2013)

A longtime member of both the Mingus Big Band and the Roy Haynes Quartet, saxophonist Jaleel Shaw had first gotten my attention as a leader with 2008’s Optimism and his ASCAP award winning song “Flipside.” You May Also Like: Woody Shaw – ‘Love Dance’ (1976, 2026 reissue) Ernesto Cervini’s TurbopropRead More

Vinyl

Benoit Delbecq and Fred Hersch Double Trio – Fun House (2013)

King Crimson, of all things, was the ensemble that first demonstrated (to the wider public, at least) the greater possibilities introduced by a double trio. And now, a Frenchman and an American extend this thrilling concept into jazz. You May Also Like: Illegal Crowns [Tomas Fujiwara, Mary Halvorson, Taylor HoRead More