by Pico Lately it seems every other article I write has some sort of Miles Davis connection to it (and I have yet another piece about a Davis sideman sitting in the pipeline). But as a lover of the early style of fusion as well as just about any formRead More

by Nick DeRiso The doo-wopping Temptations – five guys that had both a way with harmony and these pillow-soft on-stage moves – probably should have been an oldies act years ago. After all, a song like “My Girl,” recorded in 1964, might have held little resonance by the end ofRead More

by Pico Whoa, what’s this? A review on a hot-out-of-the-oven release of a rock record by a well known band…from this site? We’re supposed to stick with old records and/or out of the mainstream stuff, right? Hey, we like our rock ‘n’ roll too, and there’s even a few guysRead More

by S. Victor Aaron That Keith Jarrett, he’s one amazing individual. Consider: · In the middle of the domination of jazz by wanking electric guitarists and keyboardists in 1975, KJ sits down in front of an audience in West Germany armed with only a piano, starts playing whatever came outRead More

by Pico I think I can say this with high confidence that The Isley Brothers were among the best and underrated R&B bands of the 1970’s. It wasn’t just Ronald Isley’s creamy smooth falsetto or killer material like “Footsteps In The Dark”, these guys made more than a passing nodRead More

Ahhhh, Friday night. As R.L. Burnside would say, “I know godd—ed well it’s party time.” But the blues isn’t the only place you’ll find the Good Lord’s name uttered in vain. Thanks to Les McCann, you can also find that commandment broken in a soul-jazz ditty that he made aRead More

Miles Davis’ ‘Tribute to Jack Johnson’ is less than perfect in many respects, but the imperfections are such that they only add to the intrigue.

by Pico When the phrase “jazz musician from Louisiana” is thrown out, thoughts of New Orleans immediately spring to mind. And while it’s true that NOLA is the state’s, natch, the region’s jazz hub, you can find a few from Up North over in Nick’s neck of the woods whoRead More

This week’s single song review shines a light on avant-jazz composer/flautist/altoist Henry Threadgill. A part of the seventies whack jazz movement that brought us such lunimaries as Julius Hemphill, David Murray and the Art Ensemble of Chicaco, Threadgill was one third of the modern creative ensemble Air with bassist FredRead More

by Pico From Stanton Moore we make a short hop to his Garage A Trois bandmate Charlie Hunter. Even among eccentric acid-jazz musicians, Hunter stands out. First of all, for all the soul-jazz, funk and world fusion he paints on his canvas, he is a bop man at heart; mostRead More