“Night By Night” falls right in the middle of the best three song sequence on any Steely Dan album. Last week we took the occasion of “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” to reflect on the genius of Jim Gordon. If Jim Gordon was the heir to Hal Blaine as theRead More

Taking in the first solo steps by a budding jazz talent is usually an excursion into a fresh new discovery. Most of time, these performances are polished and if there are originals, they can be surprisingly well developed You May Also Like: Marquis Hill – The Way We Play (2016)Read More

On “Willie Dixon’s Gone,” one of two originals on George Thorogood & The Destroyers’ brand new 2120 South Michigan Ave. album, George sings, “rock is inside my head but blues is in my heart,” and that nicely sums up the music of his entire career. Here we are in 2011,Read More

When ‘News of the World’ ended its 168-year run on July 10, 2011, I can’t imagine that anyone was cheering louder than Joe Jackson.

Listening to the guitarist Aram Bajakian is lot like listening to Marc Ribot, and Aram follows much of Ribot’s wildly divergent style that incorporates the vintage forms of swing, punk and rock and roll into a fresh and daring style. So it’s fair to state that if you like Ribot,Read More

Vaughan dishes a second helping of obscure blues covers with Jimmie Vaughan Plays More Blues, Ballads & Favorites. Fast on the heels of the well-received Plays Blues, Ballads & Favorites from last year, everything great about that record is present on this one: Vaughan’s cropped, cool guitar picking, his smooth,Read More

“Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” was a Top 5 hit in part because Steely Dan didn’t cut corners – especially when it came to the drummer.

Being in a town known for some mind expanding and often quirky acts (Tortoise, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Vandermark 5, etc.), Cheer-Accident stands out in their hometown Chicago. You May Also Like: Cheer-Accident – ‘Chicago XX’ (2020) Blue Cheer Set a New Rock Standard With ‘Vincebus Eruptum’ Gestalt – ‘MusicRead More

The closest musical cousins to the whack jazz quintet Afuche that comes to mind are fellow Brooklyners Little Women and the Italian trio Treo: they share some of Little Women’s penchant for highly agitated thrash jazz and Neo’s total unity between harmony and rhythm. At least, that’s what I takeRead More

Cuong Vu is a Vietnamese-born, Seattle-raised trumpet player who can be considered a pretty damned impressive and forward thinking just by looking at the list of bandleaders who he impressed enough to have in their bands: You May Also Like: Cuong Vu 4-Tet, featuring Bill Frisell – ‘Change In theRead More