by Nick DeRiso Neo-soul singer Victor Nelson, in an aptly titled new disc, doesn’t try to hide his emotions on Transparent. In fact, across 10 songs (nine of them self-penned), the vocalist opens up completely. That raw, tender-hearted emotion finds a home in comfy musical surroundings, as Victor references manyRead More

Some time ago…two years and three months ago to be more precise…we raved on the double-bass mastery of the Norwegian ECM Records mainstay Arild Andersen, and noted then that he “may not be the first name that comes up when one thinks of the greatest living acoustic bassists, but he’sRead More

by Nick DeRiso Keith Horn is a tinkerer, someone who hammers things together to see what they can become. But, as with every workshop, having the right tools can make or break a project. Luckily Horn, a Los Angeles-based television composer since the early 2000s, has the cinematic chops toRead More

by Nick DeRiso Turns out, it actually does mean a thing, even if it ain’t got that swing. For something like 80 years now, that old Duke Ellington cliche worked as the clarion call of big band music, but its mantra has also become its curse. You May Also Like:Read More

by Nick DeRiso Talk about a throwback. Here we have a guy known for these thrilling light shows at the old Fillmore East in New York, another who worked as a producer and songwriter with Aerosmith, Ringo Starr, Ozzy Osbourne and Harry Nilsson, and a dragon from Tolkien. I mean,Read More

The early Warner Bros.-focused ‘In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988–2003’ does a great job of exploring a period I refer to as the band’s Adult Years.

by S. Victor Aaron Kingston, Jamaica’s own Monty Alexander looms as large a figure in Jamaica’s jazz world as Bob Marley does for its homegrown reggae. A virtuosic pianist in the Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson tradition, Alexander often melds Tatum and Peterson with the dancehall, calypso and reggae idiomsRead More

Pinetop Perkins, a rollicking piano player who performed with bluesman Muddy Waters for more than a decade, has passed at 97. Perkins, born in Honey Island near the Delta town of Belzoni, Mississippi, died on Monday at his home in Austin, Texas, reportedly after suffering cardiac arrest. You May AlsoRead More

by Nick DeRiso There are songs you listen to with one elbow jutting out a car window, the gas pedal cutting into the floor mat. Then there are the things that open up different vistas, albums that bring you around to quieter places — sounds that force you to stopRead More

by S. Victor Aaron It’s become a late winter tradition for three years running: covering a new release by the most successful electric blues artist of late, Joe Bonamassa. In ’09 it was The Ballad Of John Henry, then ’10 brought us Black Rock. The short story on the reviewsRead More