If not for a young man’s goof, Steely Dan’s ‘Gaucho’ might have had a third hit: “The Second Arrangement.”

For their third album, the offbeat experimental jazz-rock trio Ergo brought in a few guest performers to shake things up a bit. You May Also Like: Mary Halvorson – ‘Cloudward’ (2024) Mary Halvorson and Sylvie Courvoisier – Crop Circles (2017)

Just as Steve Kuhn recently looked back to his very brief but impressionable stint in an early edition of the John Coltrane Quartet, the prolific jazz pianist is reminiscing again. You May Also Like: Steve Kuhn Trio – ‘To and From the Heart’ (2018)

Rockin’ the Jeff Lynne look especially with aviator sunglasses, Omer Avital might not be ready to lead ELO, but a half dozen years ago he led a stellar band You May Also Like: No related posts.

Clarinetists don’t typically have a reputation of being adventurous (our own Mort Weiss notwithstanding), but it isn’t for the lack of such practitioners as Ben Goldberg and Chris Speed working hard to punch holes into those perceptions. Add Aaron Novik to that list of clarinet insurgents. Novik, who once studiedRead More

Music that’s noisy and unconstrained aren’t all the same, and the best hardcore experimental bands understand that merely creating chaos is not enough; the chaos is best created in an orderly way. You May Also Like: Desertion Trio – ‘Numbers Maker’ (2021) Nick Millevoi – ‘Digital Reaction’ (2023)

Back in 1971 when they were struggling to make it as songwriters for hire and before they formed Steely Dan, Becker and Fagen landed some work scoring a soundtrack for a movie that starred Richard Pryor. You May Also Like: Walter Becker, “Hard Up Case (Live at Slim’s 1995)” (2024):Read More

The music of Tomas Fujiwara and his Hook Up band is some of the most deceptively clever jazz out there, which makes it very difficult to describe his music. You May Also Like: Tomas Fujiwara [w/ Tomeka Reid + Patricia Brennan] – ‘Pith’ (2023) Tomas Fujiwara, Ben Goldberg + MaryRead More

Sprung from classmates at the well-regarded New England Conservatory of Music, Ro Sham Beaux, est. 2009, is a Boston-based band that, in a rarity for a fusion jazz ensemble, takes the “band” word seriously: they operate as a true cooperative. This quartet made up of Zac Shaiman (sax, effects), LukeRead More

When I went back to the SER watercooler with my cohorts following the news today of Dick Clark’s death, we were all in a somber and reflective mood. Watching American Bandstand was a late Saturday morning ritual for all of us You May Also Like: No related posts.