by S. Victor Aaron David Cook is a recent addition to the burgeoning young talent that’s filling up the roster at Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records, and like his new labelmates, this pianist comes to BJU Records with an abundance of experience. Already, he’s worked with Lizz Wright, Donny McCaslin, DennisRead More

By S. Victor Aaron Ten years before Wetlands, a young Cajun kid from Baton Rouge walked into a Houston studio and produced some of the most refreshingly honest rock-tinged swamp blues ever heard. Yet, one worried that Benoit would go the way of may bluesmen who’ve tasted success and eventuallyRead More

by S. Victor Aaron “If that guy hits you, I’m not stopping to help you!” “Come on, people, MOVE!!!” “Get your @#$% out of my way!” My wife, God love her, gets a little impatient with her fellow motorists and often has these one-sided conversations with them from behind theRead More

by S. Victor Aaron Electric blues guitarist Melvin Taylor had been sporadically recording solo albums for 20 years when Dirty Pool arrived — and was somehow just beginning to find fame. Already a hit in Europe, it had taken a steady run of performing in Chicago’s famed blues clubs toRead More

Each of the year’s four Satoko Fujii records made our Best Of 2010 List. by Pico With the more accessible types of jazz out of the way in Part 3 and Part 4, this Best of 2010 series concludes with the least accessible stuff, the experimental and avant garde stuffRead More

Many relative newcomers like Sarah Wilson have brought a breath of fresh air to jazz this year. by Pico When scanning the landscape of jazz records from 2010, one thing is clear: there’s an awful lot of very skilled and talented jazz musicians out there today, and I would argueRead More

Upon reflecting back on the year, I’ve concluded that Torben Waldorff’s American Rock Beauty ranks up there among 2010’s finest fusion jazz records. by S. Victor Aaron It’s been a great year for fusion records, as there has been an abundance of new ideas and well-recycled old ideas. Moreover, there’sRead More

Nobody plays it like Buddy, as his Living Proof testifies. by Pico This part of the Year End series is typically the shortest, and not because there’s less excellent blues and roots records than other kinds of music, but because I regrettably have little time leftover to delve into theseRead More

We begin this series by covering the kind of music most music critics cover when making lists: the Great Mainstream.

by Pico Like mistletoe and egg nog, the “Best Of” lists has become a holiday tradition here. 2010 has been a very good year at Something Else, and not just because we got to listen to a lot of swell tuneskis: we added to our ranks someone whose writing we’veRead More