by Pico Last October 20, the up-and-coming violin wizard from Copenhagen Mads Tolling put forth his second CD The Playmaker, a celebration of the kindrid spirit shared by musicians and athletes. Yes, that’s right, the connection between people who make music and people who make plays. As Tolling correctly pointsRead More

by Tom Johnson I have been mulling over how to properly review a film like Rivers and Tides, a documentary that follows sculptor Andy Goldsworthy as he creates his mind-boggling artwork. It almost seems cruel to attempt to judge a film like this, so beautiful, so gentle, and so mesmerizing,Read More

One tendency I’ve found among musicians is that worldly artists tend to be pretty good at making worldly music. Vocalist and songstress Somi certainly qualifies. Born in middle-American Illinois but to immigrants from the East African nations of Rwanda and Uganda, Somi spent part of her childhood in Zambia. SheRead More

by Pico When musicians get together for jam sessions at a restaurant or a music house after the marquee gigs are done, that’s called a “late set.” It’s been a part of the NYC jazz scene at least since guys like Charlie Christian, Thelonius Monk, Kenny “Klook” Clarke, Charlie ParkerRead More

by Pico Last year I devoted precious little space to praise a then-new album by bassist-composer Ben Allison called Little Things Run The World. The brief praise didn’t really do the record justice, as Allison is a certain kind of composer and bandleader who can build rib-sticking compositions and findRead More

by S. Victor Aaron The Two-fer isn’t a double celebration of a single artist, but rather of a single instrument: the trombone. I’ve always liked that warm, brassy sound with its slippery pitch variations that gives it a colorful, almost-human character. An instrument that has been there in jazz’s earliestRead More

photo: Chris Barber The history of jazz is a history of a continuum of leaders where the next generation of shining stars emerge when the leaders of the prior generation are still in their prime period. The torch of the premier trumpet player passed on from Louis Armstrong to DizzyRead More

by Nick DeRiso Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, a spirited, bluesy and always fun performer, seemed to burst out from a series of early live recordings during a period when that was rare. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, there were just too many logistical nightmares, from getting good takes inRead More

by S. Victor Aaron About six weeks ago we saluted some amazing young women who stand poised to make a lot of noise in the man’s world of jazz instrumentalists. One of those is releasing her debut album on this very day, a unique bass player who goes by theRead More

by Mark Saleski This review was written with a No. 2 pencil. It seemed like the right thing to do. I know this seems like an odd choice, especially for material destined for a website, but after finishing Against The Machine I felt the need to put some ‘old’ technologyRead More