Todd Rundgren’s oddball “Love My Way” is perhaps the most perfectly, head-scratchingly reformulated song on ‘(Re)Production.’

by Tom Johnson A sadly overlooked band, the Trees got lumped in with the grunge movement in the early 1990s. What’s unfortunate is that, like fellow Seattlites Mudhoney, these guys were way better than what got popular. It’s a typical complaint, I know, but I dare you to listen toRead More

Pianist David Paul Mesler and saxophonist Tony Rondolone offer 13 takes on a theme during the appropriately titled Moonsongs, an album perfectly suited for twilight You May Also Like: Harrison Bankhead and Paul de Jong – ‘Freedom’ (2020)

The toughest part about writing this review has been trying to decide if I should file it under the jazz category or the fusion jazz category. And whenever that conundrum happens, it’s usually a good sign for the record. You May Also Like: Makaya McCraven – ‘Universal Beings’ (2018)

Johnny Winter joined us for a discussion on his terrific 2011 album, his biggest successes and biggest regrets – and why he always got in a fight in Dallas.

A mainstream jazz pianist leading a trio through a set of tunes out of the Great American Songbook doesn’t signal that the record is going to set the jazz world on fire with a cutting edge material and indeed, Out Of This World by the Ted Rosenthal Trio doesn’t deliverRead More

Composer Jason Kao Hwang, performing on both violin and viola, starts with a foundation of chamber jazz, and then blows it up. Hwang (Reggie Workman, Anthony Braxton, Henry Threadgill) is just as apt to set off an explosion of emotive, Eastern-themed motifs (as on the title track from Crossroads Unseen,Read More

There is a contingent of “fans” out there who label this song the “mistake” of The Wild, The Innocent & the E Street Shuffle. Since I think of the record as one of rock’s perfect albums, I must disagree. You May Also Like: Reevaluating Bruce Springsteen’s ‘The Wild, the InnocentRead More

You hear, for one final time, the promise of Amy Winehouse — if only in the way she can so expertly imitate the memorable phrasing of Dinah Washington. You May Also Like: Jazz Reedist Daniel Bennett on How Musicians Can Thrive In (and After) the Pandemic Age [Part 1 ofRead More

by Tom Johnson 2004’s Equatorial Stars seemed like a reunion after 12 years apart for these two ambient giants. After all, the last we’d heard from them was on Eno’s 1992 album Nerve Net, but little did we know that they’d been working together the entire time. This album pullsRead More