by Tom Johnson I like to think of Isis as the band that Tool wishes it could be. Call me jaded, but by this time, Tool had become entangled in plots created to baffle and obfuscate rather than intrigue and draw listeners in, being what they think is clever butRead More

Our favorite avant gardist from Japan Satoko Fujii is at it again, releasing at once a new batch of records of distinct character. You May Also Like: Satoko Fujii Orchestra Toyko – Peace (2017) Kaze + Ikue Mori – ‘Crustal Movement’ (2023) Kaze – ‘Unwritten’ (2024)

I wrote a Friday Morning Listen that was a mashup of Joe Jackson, Bruce, Clarence, and Fellini. I was nervous about a bunch of things that day, not the least of which was the health of Clarence. You May Also Like: Reevaluating Bruce Springsteen’s ‘The Wild, the Innocent and theRead More

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