Jazz saxophone and flute giant James Moody has been around seemingly forever and never slowed down, but yesterday pancreatic cancer finally ended a long and distinguished career at the age of 85. He was a key member of Dizzy Gillespie bands going back to the 1940s (Diz once remarked, “PlayingRead More

Photograph by Amy Dey by Nick DeRiso A radiant uncertainty runs through “Maybe,” Emily Hearn’s song about the confusion and memorable pain of a lonely young heart. OK, there’s a girl, and there’s a guy, and the guy won’t give her the time of day. This, we’ve heard before. ButRead More

by S. Victor Aaron Jazz that’s hard to categorize is usually the kind of jazz that’s also hard to describe adequately with words but also the kind of jazz I prefer. And if it swings and grooves, so much the better. Alto sax player Pete Robbins’ music has all thoseRead More

by Mark Saleski See, I just knew I was going to like this album. About twenty seconds into the first listen and the whole “Is it jazz?/Is it rock?/What the hell is it?” issue popped up — almost always a recipe for a good time. Heck, I knew even beforeRead More

As an in-demand drummer and keyboard player, Gary Husband has gotten to play for some pretty heady names in both rock and fusion: John McLaughlin, Jeff Beck, Allan Holdsworth, Mike Stern, Robin Trower, Billy Cobham, Gary Moore, Level 42 and Andy Summers have all called on his services at oneRead More

by Mark Saleski When I was a little kid, we used to take vacations out on Cape Cod. Back then there was a target ship anchored out in the bay, the SS James Longstreet. There was something both creepy and majestic about that ship. Of course, the boy in meRead More

by Nick DeRiso Mark “Pocket” Goldberg’s Off the Alleyway, a rootsy Americana recording with the flickering neon-soul of a blues joint, stays well away from the beaten path. His sound is as eclectic as the country’s rolling byways, bringing in low-country pedal steel, back-pew harmonizing, the nostalgic wheeze of anRead More

Howe’s long and distinguished résumé as a guitarist for Yes, Asia, GTR and several frethead albums under his own name has been more than enough to put him in the elite category among rock guitar players. Even after all that, Travelling needs to be highlighted because it captures Howe inRead More

As delectable as Stars Have Shapes by the Exploding Star Orchestra has been, I still can’t forget Rob Mazurek’s other 2010 project, Boca Negra, performed by only him and percussionist, vibrist and mbira player Chad Taylor. Together, they make up the Chicago Underground Duo, which you can think of asRead More

Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times Maybe it hasn’t been talked about that much, but in spite of all the advances in the mastery the instrument led by Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane, the development and evolution of the jazz saxophone didn’t end with those guys. Many of the saxRead More