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Gimme Five: Overlooked jazz piano recordings by Bill Evans, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Herbie Hancock, Dave Brubeck

We already did piano men, but they were all by underrecognized artists. Now, it’s time to look at albums by the big names that didn’t get the kudos of their better known companions, but should have: You May Also Like: Bill Evans – Time Remembered, The Life & Music ofRead More

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Junior Wells – Pleading the Blues (1979)

by Nick DeRiso The year was 1959. The occasion was a “Battle of the Blues” at the Blue Flame Club in Chicago. Young harmonica player Junior Wells — who got his start as Little Walter Jacobs’ replacement in Muddy Waters’ band back in ’52 — probably didn’t imagine he wouldRead More

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Eric Bibb – Good Stuff (1997)

by S. Victor Aaron Son of little-known folk singer Leon Bibb, Eric Bibb grew up listening and meeting musicians like Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan — and his uncle, pianist and composer John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet. Eric has become more of a name in folk and bluesRead More

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Bob Margolin – Down in the Alley (1993)

Bob Margolin makes fine use of delay-time rhythm, a mean slide scream, and the duo and trio ideas that were so successful for his old boss, Muddy Waters.

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Pink Floyd Co-Founder Syd Barrett: An Appreciation

Several years ago, Capitol Records released a terrific 3-CD box set called “Crazy Diamond,” by Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett. Included are “The Madcap Laughs” and “Barrett” — Syd’s only solo albums after getting the boot from Floyd. Also featured is a third disc of unreleased material and rarities, calledRead More

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Gimme Five: Jazz saxophonist Joe Henderson

On June 30, 2001, tenor saxophonist great Joe Henderson passed away. Among one of the giants in a crowded field of post-bop saxmen who sprang up in the fifities and sixties, Henderson nonetheless never got his due until nearly a quarter century after his superb 1963 debut Page One. YouRead More

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Ray Brown with Oscar Peterson and Milt Jackson – The Very Tall Band (1999)

Ray Brown is one of those underrated guys who kept on producing important work well past his so-called prime, because he remained such an in-the-pocket guy. You can’t go wrong with the old Jazz at the Philharmonic stuff, of course. But I also typically recommend his late-period work on Telarc,Read More

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Gimme Five: Overlooked jazz woodwind recordings by Art Pepper, Paul Gonsalves, Roland Kirk, Eric Dolphy, Sonny Stitt

by S. Victor Aaron Some favorite jazz albums of mine that don’t come up at the top of anyone else’s top records list, but I thought were outstanding despite the lack of publicity about them. … You May Also Like: Jazz’s Best Last Records by John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy +Read More

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Roomful of Blues – Watch You When You Go (2001)

They haven’t taken more than a week off since Nixon’s first term. They’ve withstood disco, fathering a rafter-shaking, swing-blues style that saw its own too-fey-by-half revival. (Did you ever notice that all those bands a few years back had names with the word Daddy in them?) So it is thatRead More

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Gimme Five: Overlooked jazz organists Larry Goldings, Big John Patton, Charles Earland, Larry Young, Lonnie Smith

by S. Victor Aaron Here, we take a look at the mighty Hammond B-3. To make it a bit challenging, no records by the organ jazz godfather Jimmy Smith will be on the list. You May Also Like: Scary Goldings, feat. John Scofield – ‘IV’ (2021) Brian Charette – OnceRead More