An exploration of the more notable hidden surprises in jazz.

Recently, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, fiddler Stuart Duncan, double bassist Edgar Meyer and mandolin player Chris Thile got together to make an Appalachian styled string music record, and called it The Goat Rodeo Sessions. You May Also Like: The Most Surprising Moment on Alan Parsons Project’s ‘Eve’ Alison Brown: The AlbumsRead More

Daniel Bennett is a saxophone, clarinet and flute player in Manhattan, but he’s not like any jazz horn player out of NYC. And the reason for that is because what he plays is just as much not jazz as it is jazz. Blending in heaping helpings of folk and someRead More

Nat Janoff’s guitar sounds pretty good on a leisure listen; it’s downright revelatory on closer listen. His single line runs are so brisk, clean and vibrant, the notes feel like 3-D for the ears. Janoff took an unusual route to get that perfect tone and phrasing: he started on piano,Read More

Feel good music, I’ve been told Good for your body, and it’s good for your soul Ever since the Meters first sang that in “Hey Pocky A-Way,” one of their best all time tunes, vintage funk to me has been my “feel good music.” You May Also Like: Paul LevinsonRead More

It’s a given that show tunes and Tin Pan Alley songs have provided plenty of fodder for jazz interpretations, especially in the decades before there were enough quality standards written specifically for jazz to fill up a fake book. You May Also Like: Why Keith Jarrett’s Reunion With Charlie HadenRead More

“Don’t Take Me Alive” is one of last of Steely Dan’s songs that’s truly “rock,” and the narrator’s portrayal as a deranged killer daring the cops to take him out also makes it one of Becker and Fagen’s least ambiguous songs. You May Also Like: Steely Dan, “Kid Charlemagne” fromRead More

Since Donald Fagen and Walter Becker first set out to be a songwriting team and only started a band when it became evident this was was going to be the only way to get their songs recorded in any meaningful way You May Also Like: Walter Becker, “Hard Up CaseRead More

There are several reasons why this non-regular release is a sleeper pick as my favorite latter-day Chicago album.

As I write this, the power fails at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park just prior to kickoff of the Niners/Steelers Monday night football game. But as I am also listening to Frisco-based trumpeter Darren Johnston, I’m hearing lights-out music. You May Also Like: Darren Barrett – ‘The EVI Sessions: Mr. Steiner’Read More