by S. Victor Aaron Like James Moody and Benny Golson, Barry Harris is a fine, old-school performer with a few standards under his belt and whom I was pleasantly surprised to find is still making viable records. Having a long legacy from 1960 on playing alongside greats such as CannonballRead More

I tend to regard unaccompanied solo records as a pretty good indicator as to how well that musician can play their instrument. Even if they play so well a capella, though, that doesn’t necessarily make it a great record. It can so easily devolve into a “look how good IRead More

by Mark Saleski I don’t have the language to properly describe most pieces of classical music, so you will rarely (if ever) see me employ words such as “sonata,” “fortissimo,” and “canon.” Besides, with this week’s passing of Polish composer Henryk Górecki, many megabytes (and ink!) have been spilled withRead More

by S. Victor Aaron Here’s another CD of advanced jazz led by its composing drummer, this time Mike Pride. One thing I’ve found with drummer-led combos, is that drummers have a natural tendency toward democracy in a band, and his Bacteria To Boys (Darius Jones, alto sax; Peter Bitenc, bass;Read More

by S. Victor Aaron Avant garde specialist Albert Beger has long been known commodity in his native Israel but not so much in America, despite having recorded with William Parker and Hamid Drake on a couple of records. Beger seeks to change that with what he considers one of hisRead More

by S. Victor Aaron The drummer and composer Mark Lomax convened a recording session with saxophonist Edwin Bayard and bassist Dean Hulett with a batch of compositions that the Blacklist co-founder wrote when he was trying to come to terms with his own identity as both an American and aRead More

by S. Victor Aaron John McNeil is a trumpet player, a veteran of the illustrious Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra and has led recording dates since 1978. Bill McHenry is a sax player, has played with Charlie Haden, Paul Motian, Henry Grimes and Norah Jones, and has led recording dates sinceRead More

by Mark Saleski Time to return to one of my favorite topics: Why do I like that? Have you ever engaged in this kind of self-debate? There are all sorts of ways to play. There’s the Top-40 angle: “Come On Eileen…Bawitdaba!? Hmmm…I better not tell anybody,” the Angle of PureRead More

by S. Victor Aaron My current rotation has Crystal Silence by Gary Burton and Chick Corea, as well as After-Birth Of Cool by the Chris Graham Trio. When I play the two records concurrently or near concurrently, I pick up the same ambiance from the latter as I do fromRead More

Grateful Dead co-founder Bill Kreutzmann, great groovy Meters bassman George Porter Jr. and hoodoo guitarist Papa Mali have joined together.