by S. Victor Aaron Hard to believe it’s been over three years since a Soft Machine record was last scoped out here, but that’s only half the time frame between the live dates between The Middle Earth Masters and this one from May, 1973, called NDR Jazz Workshop – Hamburg,Read More

by Mark Saleski It’s the last great Rolling Stones album!! Sticky Fingers! Tattoo You! Exile On Main St.! Beggar’s Banquet! Goat’s Head Soup! Get Yer Ya-Yas’s Out! Uh, that one that Brian Jones was sort of on but not too much! Sure, it’s a silly argument. It’s also fun. SometimesRead More

by S. Victor Aaron The Mats/Morgan Band is a Swedish experimental/progressive rock group that is very closely tied to Frank Zappa. Led by two Swedish child prodigies Mats Oberg (keyboards, harmonica, vocals) and Morgan Agren (drums, programming, keyboards, voice), Zappa was so impressed with the two lads in the lateRead More

by Mark Saleski The complete list of collaborators attached to pianist/composer/modern day Renaissance man Ryuichi Sakamoto could easily fill the space reserved for a full-length review. The short list includes Brian Wilson, Thomas Dolby, Iggy Pop, David Sylvain, Robbie Robertson, and Daniel Bernard Roumain. His film score resume, while somewhatRead More

A couple of years back keyboardist and composer Pete Levin put forth Certified Organic, the second in a string of Hammond B-3 jazz records he’s recently taken an interest in making. It was a thoroughly enjoyable set, one that sizzled and simmered in all the right places, and we hadRead More

As a Louisiana-born singing and songwriting swamp pop legend, Tony Joe White is a guy we like a lot around here but never gotten around to singing his praises. His new album The Shine, released last September 26, gives us the perfect occasion to do so. The originator of hitsRead More

Photo by Tommy Hazeltine by Mark Saleski It was many years ago, in the early 1990’s, that I had my first encounter with Ronnie Earl. He was playing at Raoul’s Roadside Attraction in Portland, Maine. I had never heard of him before but a friend of mine was sure thatRead More

Photo: Julieta Cervantes by Mark Saleski Not long after receiving Etudes 4 Violin & Electronix, I got up one morning before the alarm went off, and settled myself down to some coffee. The idea was to catch up on the reading material that had stacked up over the past fewRead More

Jason Kay has slowed down the pace of Jamiroquai new album releases, and Rock Dust Light Star was the group’s first since Dynamite five years ago. Nothing has changed much with the music, and since this band has long ago perfected its style of acid-jazz and retro disco, there’s noRead More

Buddy Guy is a great, living blues legend who can still play guitar and sing as well as he’s always has. But his albums of late have been inconsistent. In the case of his last album, Skin Deep (2008), all the guest appearances diluted that hard-driving Chicago electric blues sound,Read More