Stephane Grappelli’s ‘Plays Jerome Kern’ wasn’t a rethinking of the legendary American Broadway composer’s work, so much as a deeply romantic, light jazz/classical aside.

We love these songs. The words become a part of us. Does that mean we “know” the artist? When Bruce Springsteen appeared on VH1’s Storytellers, a fan asked him that very same question. Bruce’s response was a resounding (and laughter-infused) “Nope!” It makes sense really You May Also Like: GregRead More

I took a quick survey of pianist Bruce Barth’s discography, and the album titles go like this: Home: Live in Columbia Missouri, Live at Café Del Teatre, Live at The Village Vanguard, Hope Springs Eternal, Live. So when New York’s legendary Small’s jazz club asked Barth to make a liveRead More

Washington D.C. percussion specialist Nasar Abadey has earned his stripes over decades performing with some of jazz’s towering figures like Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Pharoah Sanders and Sonny Fortune. You May Also Like: Chicken Diamond – The Night Has A Thousand Eyes (2016) Chicken Diamond – Skeleton Coast (2018) DiamondRead More

by Tom Johnson A definitive entry in the Talking Heads’ catalog this was somehow out of print at one point for, what, nearly two full decades? I was lucky enough to stumble upon a bootleg copy of the vinyl a while back but the sound quality was pretty rough; thereRead More

Vacation Part 2. Oh my, it feels so good to downshift. With no daily work regimen to get the stress train moving (beyond making sure that there’s enough coffee for the next day), the relaxation response takes over. You May Also Like: Of All the Tom Waits Albums, ‘Real Gone’Read More

Taylor Haskins, who’s done an impressive amount of soundtrack work, has put out an appropriately cinematic project here. Originally recorded in 2009, but just issued by NineteenEight Records earlier this month, Taylor Haskins + Recombination begins with the soaring sunrise of “Morning Chorale,” moves on into the rush-hour bustle ofRead More

by Mark Saleski Every true music fan has in their pocket a short list: the artists who hold special meaning. Our relationships to those artists are different from the rest. Each release means something. They’re not just records, they’re events You May Also Like: Reevaluating Bruce Springsteen’s ‘The Wild, theRead More

by Tom Johnson Three-part harmonies, a verified guitar-god genius, and some of the lowest, thickest, sludgiest bass around — King’s X is like the Beatles of metal, but they go year-after-year depressingly ignored. They scored a few minor hits in the early 1990s and then pretty much sunk off theRead More

A life around jazz, and fellow jazz greats, has left Alphonse Mouzon with his share of stories.