Vibraphonist Gary Burton’s entire career as a musician has been about thinking outside the box and exploring new frontiers in jazz music. You May Also Like: No related posts.

by Tom Johnson Following her fantastic 2000 release Red Dirt Girl, this found the angelic-voiced Emmylou Harris continuing down the path she started with Daniel Lanois on the equally fantastic but slightly more stunning 1995 album Wrecking Ball, and that’s just fine with me. Once a country-goddess, Harris has incorporatedRead More

In many ways, the initial cuts on Journey’s Eclipse recall the wide-open heavy fusion of the the band’s original Gregg Rolie-era records, a period when guitarist Neal Schon pulled and stretched his muse. At the same time, singer Arnel Pineda possesses a second-act Steve Perry-sounding penchant for soaring expectancy. YouRead More

by Mark Saleski First off, I just have to say that this album, recorded at WGBH’s Fraser Performance Studio in Boston, sounds gorgeous. Many modern recordings, even in the quieter jazz realm, are tainted by the overuse of compression. Not so here. The inner detail of Winard Harper’s cymbal workRead More

On this special edition of Something Else! Reviews’ One Track Mind, we hand the reins over to jazz pianist Michael Wolff. You May Also Like: Cannonball Adderley – ‘Poppin’ in Paris: Live at L’Olympia 1972′ (2024) Warren Zevon’s ‘Jeannie Needs a Shooter,’ ‘Piano Fighter’ + Others: Gimme Five Warren Zevon,Read More

Endlessly engaging, Michael Wolff was praised by the New York Times for “near impeccable good taste, technical facility and lyrical inventiveness.”

by Tom Johnson Elvis Costello makes yet another shift in his career, this time to take on the persona of a jazz crooner backed by an orchestra arranged and conducted by his own bad self. Does it work? Depends on your view of Elvis: If, in your world, he’s theRead More

I do like my jazz with some funk, and Chris Greene delivers.

A pioneer as just the third African American woman to make a phonograph recording back in the 1920s, Edith Wilson later fell on hard times — and was reduced to appearing through the mid-’60s (and quite anonymously) in the first Aunt Jemima TV commercials. You May Also Like: No relatedRead More

Sometimes old really is new again. Bela Fleck and the Flecktones existed as a trio for a handful of years after harmonica/pianist Howard Levy left, only to ask consistent fill-in saxophonist Jeff Coffin to join their ranks. You May Also Like: Bela Fleck, Robin McKelle, Delfeayo Marsalis + Others: FiveRead More