’21’ could have been a game changer for the big-voiced Adele. Instead, it’s just another weigh station.

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Photo from Shawn Bell’s Facebook fan page by S. Victor Aaron The young trombonist Shawn Bell didn’t attend one of those big name prestigious music schools in the Northeast, nor is a player in the hustle and bustle of New York City’s intense jazz scene, but just listen to hisRead More

From adrianbelew.net His credentials are as deep as his records are extraordinary: Adrian Belew, after all, has had stints with Frank Zappa, David Bowie, the Talking Heads, King Crimson and Nine Inch Nails. You May Also Like: Adrian Belew’s ‘Side One’ Was a Journey Through His Rich Musical History AdrianRead More

photo courtesy of Posi-Tone Records by S. Victor Aaron It seems like it was not even a year since we were last here chatting up a new Ralph Bowen CD, and checking back, there actually is less than twelve months between his last one, Due Reverence and this one dueRead More

by Nick DeRiso Twinray has produced a cloud-parting blast of pop-rock buoyancy with The Train You’re On, recorded with producer/engineer Sean O’Keefe (Plain White T’s, Fallout Boy, Hawthorn Heights). Their endless enthusiasm informs both the subject matter, and the merry experimentation that propels the Chicago-based band’s genre-bending sound. “Do YouRead More

by S. Victor Aaron Robert Hurst is a guy I remember being Wynton Marsalis’ bassist in the late 1980s, before performing in the same capacity for Branford’s Tonight Show band. From there, I don’t recall much. But that’s on me because in reality, Hurst has kept very busy: he’s servedRead More

by S. Victor Aaron Growing up in the Detroit area, Sam Trapchak’s dad played electric bass, and like most musically interested young boys in America, Sam wanted to play guitar. But his father persuaded him to take up bass instead with a piece of irrefutable logic: Everyone always needs aRead More

by Mark Saleski I’ve been reading bits and pieces of Henry Miller’s The Air-Conditioned Nightmare, Miller’s collection of essays about his travels around the United States. The expatriate writer had wanted to see what his homeland had become, to get to the core of it all. As with all ofRead More

From lowanthem.com by Mark Saleski I have attempted to describe this before (and I even referred to it in a recent preview of The Low Anthem’s Smart Flesh), but the sensation is a difficult one to get at. Without any sort of documentation, the best I’ve ever been able toRead More