photo: Catherine Stockhausen by S. Victor Aaron When I think of a drummer of one of the most familiar-sounding trios in all of jazz who is still pushing out the boundaries of the genres, Paul Motian is the first name that comes to my mind. So much so, I easilyRead More

Richard “Blue” Mitchell may not have been the best trumpeter in straight-ahead jazz but he’s among the best who didn’t become a household name. Mitchell didn’t display the the sharp timbre and fanciful trips up and down scales like contemporaries such as Freddie Hubbard or Booker Little. He never developedRead More

Less anthematic, in the way of his work with The Who, than it is reflective and frank, Pete Townshend convincingly argues the case for middle-aged rock with “Slit Skirts.” That the gap between the extroversion of his band recordings and the smaller joys of his solo stuff was already disappearingRead More

Charlie Musselwhite, who once played with Muddy Waters, has just gotten better in his absence. A fine example is this Grammy-nominated release, which includes a deft cover of Sleepy John Estes’ fine “Brownsville Blues.” It’s a career highpoint, and (funny thing) Musselwhite hasn’t even put harmonica to mouth yet atRead More

by Pico It’s a CD that might be best enjoyed with a bucket of popcorn and a box of Ju Ju beans. That’s probably the way Barry Adamson intends for it to be, too. Ever since his first solo album Moss Side Story from almost two decades ago, Adamson hasRead More

by Pico Readers of this site are going to think that we are celebrating Father’s Day two months early because for the second time in as many days, a talented offspring of a famous father is getting the spotlight. Charlie Haden’s daughter Petra never aspired to fill her dad’s hugeRead More

Since his early days of hangin’ with Mr. Cougar, James McMurtry remains the same guy he was back then, but with some subtle differences.

Since I enjoy listening to forward-thinking musicians of the NYC jazz scene and have discussed a quite few of them already, it’s perhaps inevitable that I was going to touch on trumpeter/composer Dave Douglas. The introduction of a new Douglas CD gives me the perfect excuse to do that. ToRead More

It might be best to take Brian Eno — the electronic mastermind behind some of the most important modern rock albums by the likes of David Bowie, Talking Heads and U2 — in smaller doses than this three-disc set allows. A thinker, a tinkerer, he’s always risked much — notRead More

by Pico It was hardly a month ago when I was on this space talking up this brand new release by blues wunderkind Sean Costello called We Can Get Together. Costello really impressed me as the former guitar prodigy who was poised to take up a long-term residency at theRead More