NICK DERISO: Skid past the first few tracks — an overcooked original, then a couple of snoozers that are just too obvious in their modern cliche — and Dave Kikoski began to live up to his producer’s persistent tips of the hat. That would be Steely Dan guitarist Walter Becker,Read More

Jaco Pastorius dubbed this all-star pairing the “Trio of Doom.” It became more fittingly the “Doomed Trio.”

The long-lost 8-track of Little River Band’s ‘Diamantina Cocktail’ has been playing in my mind, repeating the third song over and over again.

by S. Victor Aaron The classic record showcasing the masterful piano of a just-maturing Bill Evans is back. More to the point, it returns in 24-bit remastered form as part of Orrin Keepnews’currently running “Keepnews Collection” reissue campaign, straight from the original producer of such notable jazz records by ChetRead More

by Pico Joey deFrancesco. Tony Monaco. Larry Goldings. Barbara Dennerlein. All at the forefront of the current generation of jazz organists and heirs to the mantle of Jimmy Smith, Charles Earland and Jack McDuff. Oh yeah, there’s one more notable: Sam Yahel. But with the release this week of hisRead More

Tony Joe White is one of us, pure and simple. Earthy and plain-spoken. Southern and proud. With all the contradictions.

Ed Williams, a good-time throwback, is as much bluesman and blue blood — his uncle and musical mentor was the great slide guitarist J.B. Hutto — so it’s certainly no surprise that he strikes a determined retro stance on “Rattleshake.” What’s cool is that he keeps pulling it off. MatureRead More

Tony Soprano tucked into a booth at a New Jersey diner, one of those old-time places with a selection of jukebox tunes right at the table. He considered, briefly, something by Tony Bennett, then went with Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin,’” and the final, controversial, moments of HBO’s “The Sopranos” —Read More

NICK DERISO: From the trembling strains of the first harpsichord notes here, to the rappy backbeat that follows, to the bubbling funk from later on, to the hard jazz moving through this album after that, it’s clear … Bernie Worrell — the original keyboardist with Parliament-Funkadelic— is crazy. But inRead More

NICK DERISO: The Rockets were an undeniably crisp, hard-working blues band in the early 1980s, respectable if a little nondescript. Darrell Nulish handled vocals and harmonica, fronting a group led by the unusually named, and just as unusually talented, guitarist Anson Funderburgh. The basis for “Blast Off,” a 1992 retrospectiveRead More