by Pico Last week, another Strickland made his debut. Enoch Jamal Strickland, better known as “E.J.” Strickland, has made his name as a drummer for notables that include Freddie Hubbard,

by S. Victor Aaron Hybrids are all the rage these days; you see Toyota Priuses and Honda Insights filling up our roadways as recent gas price hikes has engendered a greater focus on fuel efficiency. There’s was recently another cool new hybrid unveiled, but this isn’t a hybrid of gasRead More

by Pico Can Old School sound fresh? It did when Wynton Marsalis first burst onto the jazz scene at a time when tradition was largely ignored or widely diluted. After a seventeen year stint in The Count Basie Orchestra, a sideman stint in Marcus Roberts’ combo and recording dates withRead More

by Pico Back in the late seventies my oldest brother would come home from college for the weekend and bring with him records by all these fusion and crossover jazz figures that I hadn’t heard of before but sounded good to my younger ears. That’s how I first got toRead More

by Pico I’ve often wondered what a record made by a couple of guys who’ve made a distinguished living scoring films, TV shows, even CD ROM education games would sound like. Actually, I haven’t, but with yesterday’s release of Dave Siebels with Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band, I’ve got myRead More

‘Mama Rosa,’ named after Brian Blade’s grandmother, is a thematic album built around family, faith and early life events, as well as people he’s come to love along the way.

by Pico The real revolutionaries in music never seem to run out of ideas. That can certainly be said of one of the most…if not the most singular voice in improvised music today, guitarist Bruce Eisenbeil. When we first visited his work on this site, it was about a single,Read More

In June of last year Steve Lukather folded in Toto’s tent, declaring that “If there isn’t Paich or at least one Porcaro how can we even call it Toto?” Thirty years of recording, touring, enduring tragedy (drummer Jeff Porcaro’s death in 1992) and a revolving door of band members wereRead More

Last fall MMW kicked off the first part of their Radiolarians trilogy with Radiolarians I. Earlier this month, Part 2 came out. As with Part 1, Radiolarians II has many of the threesome’s astonishing range, sharp musicianship and unpredictability on display; it’s atypical nature makes it a typical MMW album,Read More

by Pico So what do these three albums getting the spotlight on this Quickies have in common? For one, they all fall on the jazz side of things (no surprise there). For another, these are all April releases. Oops, it’s already May, isn’t it? It’s still not too late toRead More