They are, these odds and ends, the last great treasure left by one Sam Maghett — better known as Magic Sam. This god of the tremolo embodied (just as fully, but with far less fanfare) the same gritty and adventurous West Side Chicago swagger more commonly associated with Buddy GuyRead More

by Mark Saleski I love to collect books about writing. Old ones, new ones. Books about technique, books about process. My favorite among these is the writing memoir. An older example of this might be Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast. More recently, there’s been Steven King’s On Writing. At the topRead More

NICK DERISO: Finding an impressive record by Lionel Hampton, known for both his harmonic and rhythmic sophistication, is easy. Finding one that delights as much as its intrigues anymore, however, is rare. His legacy, now more than ever, is secure: Born in Louisville, Ky., in 1908, Hamp would record hundredsRead More

NICK DERISO: I must admit, even now, an abiding love for the inner-ear damage that “Purrrr,” this long-forgotten hard-pop release, offers. But there’s more to it: Hollyfaith’s debut on Epic is, in some ways, perfectly done guitar-focused music, raunchily loud but then welcomely tender — and, in no small way,Read More

NICK DERISO: 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. He’s been dead 20 years this summer, and I must admit that — like everything fromRead More

This record was, Blanchard told me, his love letter to Miles Davis. In retrospect, it was the beginning of his ascension from young lion into modern standard bearer, too. Born in New Orleans, and brought up in one of the final incarnations of Art Blakey’s traveling finishing school the JazzRead More

NICK DERISO: Cephas and Wiggins, America’s best remaining champions of the easterly Piedmont blues tradition, somehow never really made it. I mean, Robert Cray-type made it. Stevie Ray-type made it. A shame. Self-taught harp player Phil Wiggins, from Washington D.C., met John Cephas as the 1960s blues revival was inRead More

It’s one of those Isaac Hayes shut-your-mouth moments. I’m talking about the news that Hayes, at 65, had passed. He was a renaissance man in gold chains, a composer and arranger unafraid of style. He’d wear sunglasses the size of milk saucers while directing a room full of musicians onRead More

by Pico Jazz fusion records from the 1974 time frame are almost always going to fall into one of two categories: a few that are truly great but overly familiar, or, more frequently, simply forgettable. Transitory by Pork Pie is a unique one from that period in that it’s bothRead More

NICK DERISO: Asleep at the Wheel has ensured that Texas swing music is no museum piece. In fact, they can be downright postmodern — recording, on occasion, with the likes of Manhattan Transfer and the Squirrel Nut Zippers, while paying tribute to Lone Star musical legend Bob Wills. A niftyRead More