by S. Victor Aaron Wednesday night I noticed a tickle in my throat; it was sudden, unwelcome cascade of post-nasal drip. “I am not getting sick” I told myself and went to bed successfully ignoring this minor distraction. Thursday night the symptom was still persisting, but I felt fine. AsRead More

The composer and pianist from Zurich by the name of Nik Bärtsch and his band Ronin have just this week released their second major-label record. And even with having had the benefit is listening to Holon for a few weeks, now, it’s hard to tell if this record is supposedRead More

Earlier in the week we introduced in this space the topic of “Nu jazz” that’s all the rage in Europe, and has represented one of the frontiers of fusion jazz these days. One of the pioneers of this collision of acoustic jazz and electronic music is the Norwegian keyboard player,Read More

NICK DERISO: Four Dobie Gillis types, including brothers from Irvine, Calif., the Swamp Zombies were notable for having some amount of ability on all manner of instruments, but also at the clanging of pots and pans. They remain a great pop-music (or punk folk, I guess) example of what canRead More

NICK DERISO: As good as her studio recordings are, they have a certain airless perfection that doesn’t quite fit the rollicking piano genius of Marcia Ball. Hers is a bubbling soulfulness, loose limbed and informal – and it’s dripping over the sides of “Live! Down the Road,” Ball’s first-ever full-lengthRead More

by S. Victor Aaron The first Quickies of 2008 is all that jazz. More precisely, it’s all jazz. Or variants of jazz. That is, if you don’t count the last entry, which is soul-funk. Got it? Good, let’s get started… Pat Metheny Trio Day TripToday is supposed to be theRead More

Just because I haven’t written a whole lot about John Coltrane up to this point doesn’t mean I don’t seriously revere the man’s music. But what is there left to be said about Coltrane that hasn’t already been said with much more eloquent words than I can muster? There are,Read More

The late, and unjustly obscure Washington D.C. guitar guru Danny Gatton — known, quite simply, as The Humbler — finally got his splashy major-label debut with this one, and it sparkles in the white-hot spotlight. Good thing, too. By 1994, one of music’s most versatile, talented and electric performers hadRead More

by Pico Here’s where it all started… Pianist Keith Jarrett, double-bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette make up the threesome that today is the gold standard of trio jazz. You’ve might have even seen me effuse about them in the past a time or two. And this month marksRead More

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, perhaps the very face of New Orleans music, shoulders a heavy burden on “The Hurricane Sessions” in trying to convey the sweeping emotions surrounding Katrina. So much happened away from those familiar wooden benches at 726 St. Peter St. in the dusty room known asRead More