Rebirth Brass Band comes out hotter than a pistol on “Shrimp and Gumbo,” another in the long line of lip-smacking New Orleans songs about food, yet there remains an underlying theme of musicianship. You May Also Like: Canadian Brass – ‘Canadiana’ (2022)

There are moments when bands turn a corner, where everything becomes a bit more tightened up, stronger, more prominent. Transatlanticism was that album for Death Cab For Cutie. You May Also Like: Death Cab for Cutie, “Summer Skin” from ‘Plans’ (2005): One Track Mind

It’s something we’ve visited before, but many Steely Dan songs touch on topics from Becker and Fagen’s youth in the 1960s (see “Boston Rag”, “My Old School”). Donald Fagen would later explicitly make an entire album recounting his aspirations and hopes from the late 1950s and early ’60s; I thinkRead More

by Mark Saleski Fans of pianist Bill Evans will probably bristle at the comparison here, but that was the first connection that popped into my head with The Ground. You May Also Like: Noah Haidu – ‘Slowly: Song For Keith Jarrett’ (2021) Why Keith Jarrett’s Reunion With Charlie Haden onRead More

Larry Goldings, the jazz organist and long-time James Taylor sideman, opens his second acoustic piano solo release with this update of “In My Room,” a Beach Boys’ 1963 pop masterpiece You May Also Like: Scary Goldings, feat. John Scofield – ‘IV’ (2021)

Everybody digs Nicole Mitchell. They love her in sweet hometown Chicago and all the critics in New York love her, too. Heck, even we discerning types at SER have taken a shining to her. She’s the consensus top flautist in the jazz world, she’s got a new record out, Awakening,Read More

If I have anything to say about technology in this space, it’s usually negative. People who know me are aware of the contradiction: I’ve made my living writing software and spend a lot of time on the Internet, and yet consider myself something of a Luddite. You May Also Like:Read More

New Life arrived amidst much anticipation of something in keeping with drummer Zigaboo Modeliste’s mythically groovetastic tenure with the Meters. And, bless him, I got it. But that wasn’t all. Take the title track. “New Life” doesn’t mimic the expected grease-fire funk of his old band, so much as forcablyRead More

If you’re at all familiar with jazz bassist Marc Johnson you surely know about his classic 1987 album Second Sight (by his group Bass Desires). On that record, Johnson teamed up with Peter Erskine (drums) and the phenomenal guitar duo of Bill Frisell and John Scofield You May Also Like:Read More

When ZZ Top, tearing through “Waiting for the Bus,” howls “have mercy!” in tandem, I’m right there with them. You May Also Like: ZZ Top’s “El Diablo,” “Thunderbird,” “Rough Boy” + Others: Gimme Five