A vibraphonist very much in the tradition of Lionel Hampton, Peter Appleyard — who’d, fittingly, worked with Benny Goodman in the period that these recordings were made — has issued 21 albums as a leader. Unfortunately, many (maybe most) of them have long been out of print, including a pairRead More

Originally released in 1976, loverman/maestro Barry White’s sixth album — despite including three monster hit singles, including the title song, “You See The Trouble With Me” and “Baby, We Better Try To Get It Together” — somehow had gone out of print. That is, before this new reissue from Hip-ORead More

In a genre that’s rapidly becoming overwhelmed with vocalists reinterpreting the Great American Snoozebook (important in their time, but rapidly becoming threadbare old saws — if only because of their endless modern repetitions), Lorraine Feather (daughter of the legendary jazz critic Leonard Feather) is not kidding with this album title.Read More

A delicately refined update of band leader Tim Baker’s 2008 project Into Your Lungs, Hey Rosetta! (with an assist from producer Tony Doogan, who’s worked with Belle and Sebastian, and Wintersleep) offers another retro-cool chamber pop triumph here, but with a pleasant dash of pop-music raucousness. ATO is releasing SeedsRead More

I use the tune “King Soloman’s Marbles” when I want to “trick” someone into liking the Grateful Dead.

Some people made fun of the Lilith Fair shows put on by Sarah McLachlan, the idea being that the whole enterprise was some sort of unnecessary female music ghetto. I dunno. I think those people where just thinkin’ too hard. I mean, the show I went to had a pileRead More

ECM is a record label that is often stereotyped as offering only open, spacious, and sterile European — frequently Scandinavian — kind of chamber jazz and I’ve often come across so many exceptions, that characterization can’t even be considered the rule. But Tord Gustavsen’s music can be. Playing economically andRead More

When you peel away all chordal instruments, the rhythm section gets exposed. That can be a delight or a disaster, but in the case of Toronto’s October Trio, it’s the former. Evan Arntzen’s sax or clarinet has a lot of character, a product of his expressive articulation, but Josh Cole’sRead More

I love a good musical crossover. By that I don’t mean when a country star has a pop hit. No, what I’m talking about is a tune that is taken completely out of context by being covered in a different genre. One of my favorite records is called Brand NewRead More

This was a near-total crapshoot. I’ve never heard of guitarist Dorge, but the names Billy Hart (drums) and John Tchicai (soprano and alto sax) were familiar. This is mostly straight ahead jazz with a fair bit of angularity. Dorge’s playing goes from the ethereal to way out there. He hasRead More