When pianist Aaron Goldberg set out to do this record, he wanted to mix things up with the compositions and arrangement You May Also Like: Ben Goldberg – ‘Everything Happens To Be.’ (2021) Michael Coleman + Ben Goldberg – Practitioner (2018) Ben Goldberg School – Vol 1: The Humanities (2017)

The star of the show on Gerald Wilson’s brilliant ‘Legacy’ remains his adopted hometown of Chicago.

Late last night, I saw the email light blinking on my phone. A single new message had come in from one of my writer cohorts. The subject line read “Blood Brothers” … and I knew. You May Also Like: Leon Russell (1942-2016): The Last of the Bird-Flipping Genre-Busters Alan White,Read More

If there’s one song I am drawn to by the message alone, it’s this one. The cheesy late-eighties production and the plain melody does not bother me one bit. You May Also Like: How Mike and the Mechanics’ ‘The Living Years’ Helped Bridge an Emotional Gap

A stylistic tour de force, this self-titled trio effort manages to take in many of jazz music’s most notable influences, even tosses in a dash of Pacific island flavor, but it never falls into the rote imitative traps of so many of today’s more traditionalist recordings. You May Also Like:Read More

I do believe that there just might be a major error in the Guinness Book of World Records. They’re claiming that the loudest animal sound is made by the blue whale. Hmmmm … not that I want to be a know-it-all or anything but I’m fairly certain that the loudestRead More

This song, issued in the wake of the devastating attacks on New York City in 2001, nearly overwhelmed me with grief the first time I heard it. I thought of my father. You May Also Like: How Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Tunnel of Love’ Dug Deeply to Find Hard Truths Remembering 9/11:Read More

Remember last month when I said I have more examples of weird-assed trios coming up? Here’s another one. Inspired by the long running Ray Anderson-led BassDrumBone trio, Brainkiller has Brian Allen manning the trombone and Hernan Hecht on drums, but substitutes the bass for keyboards and effects by Jacob Koller.Read More

Tough times call for angry protest records, for political records, for records that produce rueful smiles. Ry Cooder has done that and more with “No Banker Left Behind,” a tart treatise on the recent financial meltdown You May Also Like: Ry Cooder’s ‘The UFO Has Landed’ Finally Put His AmazingRead More

We talked to Adrian Belew during an extended hiatus for King Crimson. But it’s not like he’d been sitting idly by.