By Nick DeRiso It’s tempting to get too comfy, as Kimball Gallagher dots Orange with a series of spare, acoustic guitar-driven ruminations. It’s never long, however, before this New York City-based Boston native has amped up his dark themes of life and loss into a gritty outburst of power-pop. ThatRead More
Photo by John Broughton by S. Victor Aaron Like William Parker, Anthony Braxton and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Ernest Dawkins is an avant garde jazz guy who doesn’t give a damn if the music he plays is dissonant or tuneful, it’s all about if it sounds right, period. By extension, the saxophonist’sRead More
by Mark Saleski Tomorrow would have been Jack Kerouac‘s 89th birthday. I often wonder what the mad & exuberant fool would have been writing today, had he been able to overcome his drinking demons. Would he be distraught at the fact that his beloved jazz has fallen to the veryRead More
Back then, you had to go to the record store, and look through this big catalog. I wanted to buy my father some of his music, something that would resonate, to show him I’d grown up to the point of buying a good gift. I ran my finger down theRead More
Photo from Fallon Cush’s MySpace page by Nick DeRiso Fallon Cush grows more confident with each passing song on their self-titled debut. Perhaps because singer Steve Smith put this together on the fly, enlivened by passion and not weighed down by heavy planning. You May Also Like: Why Patti Smith’sRead More
by S. Victor Aaron Since very early on we’ve eagerly pounced on records that re-image that dense, impenetrable period of Miles Davis between about 1969 and 1975 when he first defined fusion jazz and then kept redefining it again and again. This is music that doesn’t come easily to mostRead More
In defense of Rush, a band that delved into Ayn Rand, sci-fi, songs about balding, fights between dogs and, well, whatever a Bytor is.
Photo from www.BobbySelvaggio.com by S. Victor Aaron For a serious post-bop performer to take a leap into Grooveland, it can often be a risky bet. Will they be able to keep their artistic integrity? Will they even care? A couple of years ago, alto saxophonist Bobby Selvaggio made his secondRead More
Ginger Baker’s all-too-brief ‘Horses & Trees’ was fusion in the most complete sense of the word.
With a voice that’s axiomatically compared with winged messengers from God, Aaron Neville’s gospel records ought to form the cornerstone of his resume, right? Instead, the New Orleans singing legend’s two previous attempts felt too forced, like being dragged into church. Not this one. Neville, paired with producer Joe HenryRead More
