On Monday night, drumming great Steve Reid died at the age of sixty-six after a battle with cancer. He leaves behind a legacy that’s explicitly known by few but surely felt by many. A couple of years ago we profiled what is sadly now his last record released in hisRead More

by S. Victor Aaron Not long ago we lauded the old school approach of saxophonist Eric Alexander, but even Alexander sounds rather leading edge compared to another tenorman just two years his senior, Harry Allen. The son of a big band drummer, Allen was exposed to jazz literally from theRead More

by Nick DeRiso You hear Beatles songs remade by jazz musicians with notable frequency, some more successful (Jaco Pastorius‘ glorious reading of the oft-covered “Blackbird” from “Word of Mouth”; a just-right “All My Loving” on “Basie’s Beatles Bag”; Ramsey Lewis‘ underrated “Hard Day’s Night” from “Finest Hour”) than others (almostRead More

by S. Victor Aaron OK, so there’s already a whole lot of great 2010 music to consider (you’ll see), and yet here I am looking at a 2008 release? This is one that escaped my notice when it first came out in September of that year, but we need toRead More

by S. Victor Aaron Baltimore native Tim Kuhl has been a drummer all his life and since 2003, has plied his trade in the rough and tumble NYC music scene. But Kuhl has not only survived, he seems to revel in it. In addition to heading up his own jazzRead More

In an interlocking story with a few shimmering asides, John Dufresne writes about everyday love in his book “Johnny Too Bad” with riveting color and emotion. Actually, a character named John writes about them, or tries to. Still, there are brilliant shards of light running through these pieces, which fitRead More

by S. Victor Aaron There’s jazz and and there’s whack jazz, that label I assign to jazz that is unrestrained, unconventional and sometimes, rude. The kind of jazz that you wouldn’t play at any party, but boy, they sure are fun to listen to when you’re really engaged to theRead More

by S. Victor Aaron A few weeks ago, with little warning, my office got transferred from the cozy suburbs to the concrete jungle. Stranded in a 7th floor cube farm in the middle of Gotham about 30 miles from home and averse to sitting still on freeways, it was timeRead More

by S. Victor Aaron I’m not one of those critics who creates a “best of” list by merely dumping a bunch of names and titles. But I felt a need to explain that because this list of mainstream and modern jazz from the past year has 41 entrants on it.Read More

by S. Victor Aaron 2009 has had its share of the blues but there were plenty of blues practitioners making the best of the hard times, as we saw a slew of fine releases by them last year. There were seven of those that really stood out to me, aboveRead More