by Mark Saleski A piano and drum ‘duo,’ all played by Dave King. Yes, the drummer for The Bad Plus not only has piano skills as well but also a big piles of ideas to play with. Grooves would of course be expected, as well as dissonance and stumbling rhythmsRead More

by Mark Saleski “What? You’ve never head any Roomful of Blues?” I tell you, I’ve asked that question far too many times. They’ve gone through many lineup changes through the years, and their list of alumni includes Duke Robillard, Ron Levy, Sugar Ray Norcia, and Ronnie Earl. Why they’re notRead More

by Tom Johnson Just because King Crimson is one of my all-time favorites doesn’t mean that I have to trot out the old standard In the Court of the Crimson King. I don’t particularly care for it, regardless of its standing as a prog-classic. The one that I return to,Read More

by Tom Johnson Poor Trey. Not only did he get wrapped up in dealing with a major label in 2005 with Shine, he also had to deal with the double-whammy of two decidedly non-fan friendly formats that Columbia insisted on releasing the album through, the shoddy DualDisc format and theRead More

by Mark Saleski Dude is wearing a porkpie hat on the cover. Dude is making “jazz face.” Dude can play his ass off. Skip right to the end and check out “CD Changer.” It’s not often that a pianist will apply so much torque to the percussive nature of theRead More

by Tom Johnson Who knew Low would crank things up like they did with 2005’s The Great Destroyer, their Sub-Pop debut? Were they holding back all those years, or did the label urge them to do something different? Whatever it was, it worked against every notion fans had when wordRead More

by Mark Saleski Wow, sometimes you just stumble onto a little gold. Jae Sinnett’s kit work manages to channel bits of my favorite drummers (Jeff Watts, Tony Williams) while retaining his own thing. It’s very inspiring to be witness to a player who can muster great power when necessary andRead More

Last year, the outlaw chamber music cooperative Anti-Social Music did something that was out of the ordinary for a democratic cooperative and presented songs only by of its thirteen members, Pat Muchmore. But there has never been anything ordinary about ASM to begin with. In one sense, you can callRead More

by Mark Saleski Sax, piano, bass and drums — staples in the jazz world. Sometimes, that combination can be bland. If the players don’t add a little spice to the proceedings, you quickly realize that you’ve been here before. (“What? Intro-head-solos-head again?!”) Thankfully, Dave Glasser knows how to apply theRead More

By Tom Johnson Corinne Bailey Rae is one of those unexpected interests for me, a pop-chanteuse making the kind of music I typically wouldn’t really find much interest in. But, for some reason, I fell for her simple, emotive voice. My only problem with her eponymous debut album was thatRead More