A solo cello record might not sound like an exciting proposition for some, but with ‘REX,’ Christopher Hoffman puts the instrument at the forefront of modern music.

Here’s why Preston Frazier says albums from Steve Porcaro, Vernon Reid, Fernando Perdomo and others are the Best of 2025 Pop and Rock.

Camila Nebbia, James Banner and Max Andrzejewski successfully capture the spirit of creating live while innovating, making ‘Presencia’ an exciting new entry in the catalog of free jazz.

‘Chicago III’ arrived 55 years ago this week as their third consecutive double album in less than two years. Yet Chicago was somehow still pushing the musical envelope.

Preston Frazier included Oz Noy, Catherine Russell, Ron Blake, Bobby Broom and others among the Best of 2025 Jazz.

If laying down tracks where John Coltrane’s ‘A Love supreme’ was birthed is a jazz pilgrimage, then Dave Stryker’s ‘Blue Fire, The Van Gelder Sessions’ is a truly religious experience in the jazz sense.

Here is the advance single “Eat Your Greens” from Parlor Greens’ upcoming album ‘Emeralds.’

Steve Matteo surveys 2025’s best rock books on the West Coast rock scene, sharing praise for Cameron Crowe, David Leaf and Jude Warne.

Ivo Perelman and Wadada Leo Smith collectively bring about a century of fearless music creation into ‘Duologues 5,’ and the veteran poise and confidence shows up unfailingly from beginning to end.

Vijay Iyer, Steve Lehman and Tyshawn Sorey come back from seventeen years off to execute with a vengeance on Fieldplay’s ‘Thereupon.’