by S. Victor Aaron The beginning of the year is usually a quiet period for music releases. Coming on the heels of the frantic holiday shopping season and the various “best of (prior) year lists” that assist in yuletide purchasing decisions, you’d think there wouldn’t be anything worthwhile coming outRead More

by Nick DeRiso Equal parts Summer of Love songcraft and heartland soul, the Shamus Twins’ Garden of Weeds is as apt to jangle as it is to twang. That’s reflective of the Los Angeles-based band’s founders, guitarist Jerry Juden and bassist Tim Morrow, two halves of the same genre-busting whole.Read More

by S. Victor Aaron David Cook is a recent addition to the burgeoning young talent that’s filling up the roster at Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records, and like his new labelmates, this pianist comes to BJU Records with an abundance of experience. Already, he’s worked with Lizz Wright, Donny McCaslin, DennisRead More

by Something Else Reviews Writing can feel akin to tossing a flat rock across the surface of a shimmering river. You never know how far it will go, or just how wide those concentric circles left behind might eventually spread. Sometimes, the thing just sinks. Like, well, a rock. ButRead More

by Mark Saleski After years of writing reviews, I have now stumbled into what must be the most embarrassing way to discover music: via a tumblr photo blog. I can’t even remember what I’d been writing at the time, but I had googled the word “geek” and ended up onRead More

by Nick DeRiso Let’s get this admission out of the way: Picking the best of 2010’s unsigned treasures is like trying to determine your favorite grain of sand. There are far too many, really, to make any reasonable guess — and the whole time you’re walking around with a bucketRead More

by Nick DeRiso Taking on Nina Simone, a singer of dusky persuasiveness, might be foolhardy enough. Remaking this song, a Top 20 pop hit off Simone’s celebrated 1958 debut Little Girl Blue seemed like the worst idea of all. But Canadian singer Kellylee Evans finds a new light, even ifRead More

by Something Else Reviews Over the last few weeks, this merry band of music lovers has offered its varied take on the Year That Was. Now, we winnow it all down. First to go were the personal obsessions (Mark: Mary Halvorson; Pico: Greg Ward’s Fitted Shards), and other worthy entriesRead More

Each of the year’s four Satoko Fujii records made our Best Of 2010 List. by Pico With the more accessible types of jazz out of the way in Part 3 and Part 4, this Best of 2010 series concludes with the least accessible stuff, the experimental and avant garde stuffRead More

by Tom Johnson Every year I start out thinking that I have a feeling what album is going to ride high on my year end list, and more often than not I’m surprised by so many other things that the album in question may not even register. This year’s victimRead More