It might be best to take Brian Eno — the electronic mastermind behind some of the most important modern rock albums by the likes of David Bowie, Talking Heads and U2 — in smaller doses than this three-disc set allows. A thinker, a tinkerer, he’s always risked much — notRead More

NICK DERISO: There was a time, and not that long ago, when jazz was the music of this country’s youth — a way to rage against the machine, back when the machines were Desotos and Studebakers. So we have here a fairly novel idea: Using the staid conventions of classicalRead More

Tribute records to living icons don’t occur nearly as frequently as the salutes to fallen musical heroes, but they do happen here and there. I was reminded of that occurrence when I covered Jeff Richman’s celebration of Jeff Beck’s music last year. Similarly, avant garde saxophone player Joe McPhee didn’tRead More

One of the subgenres of jazz that’s become an underground hit over the last ten years or so is klezmer jazz. Klezmer itself, as described by AllMusic Guide, is “a Yiddish term for musician and refers primarily to a tradition of Jewish folk music with deep German and Eastern EuropeanRead More

Exploring the wonderful world of wack jazz can be both frustrating and fun. Frustrating because even some of the more influential artists of this genre lack good publicists—through no fault of their own—and fun because when you finally stumble across one of these important figures it’s like you found aRead More

NICK DERISO: The title cut of “Medicine Show” is a room-clearing-brawl type of song: It forces you to pay close attention from there on out. Freddie “Steady” Krc and the Shakin’ Apostles reaffirm, and right from the start, their neat amalgamation of mop-top whimsy and Hill Country picking. They makeRead More

NICK DERISO: A weighty recording from a player who should have been long gone, on a subject that shouldn’t afford such texture. Saxophonist James Moody’s “Young at Heart,” aptly titled, is a shower of invention from out of the clear blue, this burst of romanticism from an aging bebopper thatRead 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

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

A group with the sound and spirit of 1960s-era garage bands, the Woggles are best decribed by the things they are not — despite being from Athens, Ga. No Dead influences. No side projects with Peter Buck. “Teendanceparty” is, instead, refreshingly free of any jangly pretense. In fact, the Woggles’Read More