Even decades later, ‘Africa/Brass’ still casts John Coltrane – and this is saying something – in a new, insistently inventive light.

by S. Victor Aaron “Finding your own voice” is such an overused phrase these days. That especially holds true in the music business, where such rote advice is handed out like doubloons at a Mardi Gras parade. The young, alto tenor saxophone specialist Sarah Manning has heard those words herself,Read More

Multiple personality disorder is considered an affliction among the mentally disabled, but when it comes to the artistry of that unquenchable, multidimensional guitarist Nels Cline, it’s the very thing that makes him such an unpredictably compelling musician. Each time I’ve audited a new record of his, like his celebration ofRead More

photo: Jimmy Katz by S. Victor Aaron If you has happened to follow this site long enough, you know the drill: The Stryker/Slagle Band puts out a new record, I listen to said new record, then I write about how great it is. Keeper, the newest by the Stryker/Slagle BandRead More

photo: Kyle Ober by Pico It’s catch up time again. In what is becoming a frequent tradition for me on Something Else, I’m taking a batch of CD’s and doing pocket reviews on them, in order to get you all caught up on what’s been getting the spins lately. WhereasRead More

Fusion guitar big dog Allan Holdsworth has been in a number of notable bands: The Soft Machine, Gong, UK, Level 42…but the brief, mid-seventies stint he had in Tony Williams’ reconstituted Lifetime band have made up some of the fondest memories for him. About a decade ago, he honored hisRead More

‘The Köln Concert’ still sounds as fresh and honest as it did when Keith Jarrett composed these songs in front of a live audience.

By Nick DeRiso One of three jazz-legend siblings, Hank Jones was perhaps as unassuming as his brother Elvin (nine years younger, famously of the John Coltrane group) was the outsized extrovert. Feathery light, then concisely powerful at the piano, Hank concluded an intellectual, often overlooked eight-decade career on Sunday whenRead More

by Pico One of the most enduring singing piano players isn’t Billy Joel or even Elton John. Mose Allison has been at it since Nat King Cole was dominating the charts and although he’s slowed down a lot lately, the eighty-two year old was recently enticed back into the studioRead More

by Nick DeRiso All apologies to Roger Waters, who’s dragging it back on the road for a series of 30th anniversary concert performances, but I was never all that into Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.” Too much talking, not enough — you know — music. While working out issues in dealingRead More