Will Sellenraad is a member of a newer generation of jazz musicians who have that ability to fold in elements of rock, soul and folk into jazz without diluting the jazz component at all. His guitar playing style has a full, rounded tone that can best be described as unaffected,Read More

Like Paul or Ringo, Roger Hodgson will forever be associated with his former band no matter much good music he’s made since he left the group. Granted, Hodgson never quite generated any more note-perfect pop standards such as “Give A Little Bit” or “The Logical Song” from his Supertramp days,Read More

by S. Victor Aaron Dave Fox teaches piano courses at Greensboro College in North Carolina, but the stuff he’s puttin’ down with his combo The Dave Fox Group couldn’t be any more opposite of what you’d find in a classroom setting. It simply has too much panache for formal academicRead More

Finally, a musician with a one-letter last name I can actually embrace. Harvie S was the rock-solid bassist who firmly anchored Linda Presgrave’s completely enjoyable Inspiration CD, released last month. It’s only the latest notch in a long career that’s found S paired with such legends as John Scofield, StanRead More

by S. Victor Aaron I remember once or twice seeing the seventies folk-rock band America on one or two lists of most despised bands, and that always puzzled me. So what if the music is soft, my way of thinking goes, if the vocals are rich, the melodies robust andRead More

by Pico As an acclaimed maestro on a variety of stringed instruments (violin, mandolin, guitar) Mike Marshall can call upon just about anyone in the field of progressive bluegrass to accompany him on an album. For his fresh-out-of-the-oven album Mike Marshall’s Big Trio, he sticks with acoustic guitar and enlistsRead More

Dr. Lonnie Smith enjoyed a Joe Henderson-styled late-career resurgence during the ’00s, capped by ‘Rise Up!’

by Pico Every enterprise that sets lofty goals for itself should have a yardstick for success and put forth a mission statement. You’ve probably been taught this in your high school or college business class. The creative music combo from Brooklyn, NY called Search has one. It goes like this:Read More

by Pico Fareed Haque has become one difficult dude to ignore whenever you talk about fusion these days, including world fusion. He’s come up prominently in reviews of the latest by the Dixon-Rhyne Project and the jam band supergroup he helped to form, Garaj Mahal. Of Chilean and Pakistani descent,Read More

by S. Victor Aaron The tenor and soprano saxophonist Ada Rovatti is a rising star in the contemporary jazz arena; a Berklee School of Music grad who hails from Italy, she’s performed with such jazz heavies as Joanne Brackeen, Miroslav Vitous, John McLaughlin and Randy Brecker. She’s appeared on Brecker’sRead More