by S. Victor Aaron Trumpeter and arranger Steven Bernstein might be the hardest working man in music these days. Just these last few years he has garnered a Grammy nomination (for Sexotica by his band Sex Mob) and a Annie nomination for scoring a children’s TV series; released an albumRead More

photo: Cryptogramophone by Pico The hermitic but acclaimed multi-reedist Bennie Maupin is suddenly prolific. As a sideman for Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock during fusion’s formative years, Maupin’s versatility and sensitivity across a wide variety of wind instruments garnered him work on important documents of the genre live Bitches BrewRead More

Seems writing a tragi-comedy about small town eccentrics — some on the very brink of despair, all of them building powerful dreams inside their heads — comes easy for someone who spent time in Louisiana. It has for John Dufresne, the former professor at Northeast Louisiana University turned accomplished author.Read More

I remember Azymuth back in the eighties as this funky little jazz fusion trio from Brazil whose sound approximated Weather Report but with some hot samba thrown in for local flavoring. The Cascades LP I had back then got a fair amount of spins and these guys were all better-than-averageRead More

by S. Victor Aaron There seems to be this wonderful trend of late, where a newer generation of bass players are following the example of Charles Mingus and presenting themselves as serious composers and bandleaders. In the last year on this space we’ve profiled the latest releases of such luminariesRead More

What better way to spend Halloween than with (as it’s lovingly referred to in the liner notes) “this thing“? “The Torture Never Stops” — a 24-song, two-hour blast of almost indescribably brilliant/crazy rock from an Oct. 31, 1981 concert by the equally brilliant/crazy Frank Zappa — affords us a uniqueRead More

by Pico At this time last year the sizzling straight-jazz band headed up by guitarist Dave Stryker and saxophonist/flautist Steve Slagle had a record out that we were making hay over, entitled Latest Outlook. The boys are back already with another batch of mostly original tunes called The Scene. AndRead More

by S. Victor Aaron It feels strange to evaluate a talented musician’s latest output knowing that he will have no more new recordings forthcoming. That was the situation last year when I took a gander at Michael Brecker’s last CD, Pilgrimage. Sadly, we’re here again, as Esbjörn Svensson died thisRead More

by Pico As audacious as the claim might sound, Baton Rouge, Louisiana’s own Tab Benoit is the Bayou State’s answer to Stevie Ray Vaughan. It’s a feeling I’ve had from the time I discovered his well-received debut Nice And Warm from 1992 and haven’t wavered on that after about anRead More

by Pico As far as jazz pianists go, McCoy Tyner is the living patriarch. As a member of John Coltrane’s seminal band of the sixties, a sideman on so many key recordings and, of course, a leader with his own substantial solo career, Tyner has long ago secured a significantRead More