As delectable as Stars Have Shapes by the Exploding Star Orchestra has been, I still can’t forget Rob Mazurek’s other 2010 project, Boca Negra, performed by only him and percussionist, vibrist and mbira player Chad Taylor. Together, they make up the Chicago Underground Duo, which you can think of asRead More

Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times Maybe it hasn’t been talked about that much, but in spite of all the advances in the mastery the instrument led by Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane, the development and evolution of the jazz saxophone didn’t end with those guys. Many of the saxRead More

Dirty Baby wasn’t Nels Cline’s first 2010 release and Initiate wasn’t even the first Nels Cline Singers 2010 release. That came on March 1, when the Singers got together with the free jazz saxophone quartet Rova to collaborate on an album recorded in 2008, The Celestial Septet. Though both bandsRead More

Like Bill Frisell, Loueke is one of those instantly recognizable guitarists. But when I hear Loueke, I think of Bobby McFerrin before I think of any other guitar player. His ability to cover the treble, bass and midrange simultaneously perfectly throughout some densely syncopated rhythms is breathtaking like when McFerrinRead More

Densely layered, with an elegant construction, Black Dub doesn’t start out all that much differently from your average recording by uber-hip producer Daniel Lanois. Then something welcomely dangerous, almost feral, happens. Lanois — famous for his work with U2, Bob Dylan and Peter Gabriel, among others — is the firstRead More

Back in the late 80s-early 90s, Frisell had a cellist by the name of Hank Roberts in his band. The combination and contrapuntal flow between the two helped define Frisell’s sound at the time, and he’s periodically returned to a light helping of strings throughout his career after that era.Read More

by Nick DeRiso News this week that Buddy Guy had been Grammy nominated for best contemporary blues album had me revisiting the scalding blisses of Living Proof. I loved it from the first solo, this sharp outburst of gnarled sexuality on “74 Years Young”: “There ain’t nothing I haven’t done,”Read More

by S. Victor Aaron I’ve always had a hard time distinguishing West Coast jazz from East Coast jazz by ear. I mean. I know it’s supposed to be a more smoothed-out “cooler” variant of the vigorous, sometimes jarring jazz that comes out of NYC and I know that guys likeRead More

by Nick DeRiso The worry, with any rock-guitar virtuoso’s recording, is that it will quickly devolve into onanistic noodling. But Tony Savarino’s Guitaring adroitly sidesteps the problem with a keen eye for variety, and a welcome sense of unselfishness in the studio. The Boston-bred musician is a dabbler, with aRead More

by Mark Saleski Sometimes, the history of music is full of surprises. Another way of looking at it: I’m surprised by my own ignorance. When I think of the South and old-time music, the blues, whites, and blacks, I tend to think of the musics as being mostly separated, withRead More