by Mark Saleski Often when something is unexpected, it ends up being that much more rewarding. You know: surprises! I remember back in 1994 when Brandford Marsalis put together his jazz/funk/hip-hop group Buckshot LeFonque. The debut album was a giant pile of unexpected. So much so that some folks didn’tRead More

by Mark SaleskiOver the years, there have been a lot of musical hybrids that have surprised our ears by revealing hidden commonalities in melded musical genres. For instance, I’m fairly certain that my only exposure to hip-hop back before the mid-1980’s was with Sugar Hill’s “Rapper’s Delight,” and Blondie’s “Rapture.”Read More

When we last visited the music of the brilliant bassist and composer William Parker three years ago, he was putting his poetry to his music on Corn Meal Dance. Yesterday, he introduced a new album that again revolves around poetry but this time it’s based on the poetic music ofRead More

A canny mixture of an old-school swinging style with the then-new cool sound, even if its name sounds like a goof. Shorty Rogers, who’d first garnered attention as part of bands led by Woody Herman (both the first and second Herds) and then Stan Kenton, had a way of confoundingRead More

The Wilson Sisters aka Heart are among long-time rock acts with an infrequent new release. by Pico Long, established rock acts like Eric Clapton and Heart have nothing more to prove and have plenty enough hits that they really don’t need to make records anymore. They still do, of course,Read More

by S. Victor Aaron I know exactly what our own Mark Saleski speaks of when he states that “music obsessives and regular folks alike know of the song/memory retrieval phenomenon — you hear a song and instantly remember where you were the first time you heard it.” Moreover, a songRead More

by Mark Saleski OK, so tomorrow is the 9th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. This has been approaching and I’d been hoping to have something enlightening to say about it, but so far…well…let’s just say that I’m still waiting for someRead More

Maybe it’s just me, but I think we’re in the midst of a full-fledged revival in jazz organ, led by a newer generation of players who have gone beyond mimicking the tried and true voicings of Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff and Richard “Groove” Holmes. In that group of innovative newRead More

by Mark Saleski So they were picking up the band instruments, holding them high in the air, and looking for interested faces. When I saw that gleaming trombone, I just knew that I had to learn it. It was seventh grade and the middle school music teacher was looking forRead More

by Mark Saleski These kind of pairings are not supposed to work. It goes against the laws of pop music nature. Take any number of well-known and successful musicians, put them together, stir, and what you usually get is something not even worth the time it takes to watch theRead More