The story of one of jazz’s most important pianists continues… Last year brought the reissue of Bill Evans’ second album, the delightful but overlooked Everybody Digs Bill Evans, remastered with updated liner notes from original producer Orrin Keepnews. Last month, Evans’ follow-up album has also been released again as partRead More

Dave Stryker can’t seem to stop releasing CD’s and I can’t seem to stop chatting them up. Already this space has been taken up by reviews of a ten-year-old fusion record and a smokin’ hard-bop 2007 release of a sax-guitar quartet co-led with Steve Slagle. Stryker runs the whole gamutRead More

photo by Zack Smith by S. Victor Aaron The first thing you should know about the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey is that there is no Jacob Fred in the band. The second thing to be aware of is that their music is not always jazz—at least not “jazz” in theRead More

Before they were the Crusaders, they were the Jazz Crusaders. And before they were the Jazz Crusaders, keyboardist Joe Sample, trombonist Wayne Henderson, tenor saxophonist Wilton Felder and drummer Nesbert “Stix” Hooper were kids growing up together in post-war Houston, Texas. By the late fifties, these burgeoning talents formed aRead More

by S. Victor Aaron The lead singer and guitar player plays in an electric blues band in Atlanta. The bass player is in New York as one third of the premier acid jazz band of the last ten years. You might say that these guys form a musical odd couple.Read More

Brazilian-born, Seattle-based multi-instrumentalist Jovino Santos Neto is an artist I’m just getting familiar with, but his brand new CD Alma do Nordeste (http://www.adventure-music.com/) has sure gotten my curiosity. The title means “soul of the Northeast” in Portugese, and the “northeast” being referred to here is the northeast region of Brazil.Read More

by Pico For both the man and the music, it’s a story of three continents. Bronx native drummer Steve Reid has been everywhere and played for nearly everyone. He grew up across the street from Thelonius Monk and three blocks from John Coltrane. As a teenager he drummed for MarthaRead More

by S. Victor Aaron Kurt Rosenwinkel first got my attention as the cerebral but melodic guitarist on Brian Blade’s masterpiece Perceptual back in 2000 and then via Rosenwinkel’s own major work of art Heartcore from three years later. That vastly overlooked record was a commanding balance of musicianship, texture andRead More

by Pico Over the last five years Lizz Wright has become a widely known and respected singer in jazz circles. But much as Eric Bibb often gets unfairly pigeonholed as just “blues” I sort of resent the “jazz” bin she is often put into. That’s because the very thing thatRead More

by Pico Of all the sax-organ-sousaphone-drums ensembles out there, John Ellis & his Double-Wide ensemble really do stand out. That might be because there aren’t any other such ensembles out there. To get to this point where he’s leading such an unusual combo, North Carolina native John Ellis had beenRead More