by S. Victor Aaron Scherr is an American jazz bassist who resides in Hong Kong and spends his time trying to foster creative music within China. A few years ago, he got the urge to fulfill a longtime goal of making music with saxophonist Michael Blake, and he wanted toRead More

by S. Victor Aaron Listening to Shawn Costantino’s Waltz For Anne, you’re reminded of Stanley Turrentine or Gene Ammons. Also, he takes on a few standards, but only one of them (“The Touch of your Lips”) is a jazz one. The other two are taken from The Beatles (“Can’t BuyRead More

by S. Victor Aaron Women continue to move into areas of jazz long dominated by men, and in a big way. Even since I made a big to-do about this trend a couple of summers ago, the parade of girls muscling their way into the boys’ club continues on strongerRead More

by S. Victor Aaron NOLA-based Plunge is back again to follow up on their stripped down trombone-based brand of funky jazz found on Dancing On Thin Ice, Tin Fish Tango. Once again, ‘bone player Mark McGrain leads a small ensemble with bassist James Singleton of Astral Project, a sax playerRead More

by S. Victor Aaron Bassist Luther Hughes leads a tenor sax/alto sax quintet in its forth recording paying tribute to the spirit of Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane. Specifically, The Cannonball Adderley Quintet in Chicago album recorded with Miles Davis’ band sans Miles himself just six months before they allRead More

Gene Pritsker is a guitarist and bandleader whose written over 370 compositions, has worked closely with the late Joe Zawinul and has orchestrated major Hollywood movies. His band Sound Liberation plays an amalgamation of rock, jazz, chamber, minimalism and hip-hop. Varieties Of Religious Experience Suite is a series of relatedRead More

I have a real appreciation for classical music, but I’m not what you’d call a fan. Generally speaking, music’s either gotta be free or unpredictable like jazz or straightforward and powerful like rock or blues; classical music tends to not have either of those qualities. That can’t really be saidRead More

This debut release by the modern rock-jazz ensemble Salo is a showcase for the compositions of its bass player Ben Gallina. The rest of the band includes Alex Hamlin (alto saxophone, baritone saxophone), Ed Rosenberg (tenor saxophone), Josh Rutner (tenor saxophone, bass clarinet), Red Wierenga (piano, keyboards), Alex Wyatt (drums,Read More

As an in-demand drummer and keyboard player, Gary Husband has gotten to play for some pretty heady names in both rock and fusion: John McLaughlin, Jeff Beck, Allan Holdsworth, Mike Stern, Robin Trower, Billy Cobham, Gary Moore, Level 42 and Andy Summers have all called on his services at oneRead More

As delectable as Stars Have Shapes by the Exploding Star Orchestra has been, I still can’t forget Rob Mazurek’s other 2010 project, Boca Negra, performed by only him and percussionist, vibrist and mbira player Chad Taylor. Together, they make up the Chicago Underground Duo, which you can think of asRead More