by Pico Ever since Miles Davis passed away in 1991, there’s been endless Miles tribute albums by artists influenced by him whether by listening to him or even by playing with him. More recently, tribute albums have focused more on the enigmatic electric period and we even covered a fewRead More

Back when I was a young man in my twenties, I had frequent cravings for testosterone-driven jams—just like any young man does. But while some of my buds got their fix through the likes of Van Halen, AC/DC or Metallica, I often turned to McCoy Tyner. McCoy Tyner? Absolutely, whyRead More

by Pico “Machine & the Synergetic Nuts”. What kind of music does that band moniker conjure up in your mind? New wave? Neo-prog? Goth metal? Vintage psychedelic rock? How about avant jazz-rock? At least that’s the closest I can come to describing this compelling instrumental music. This isn’t the firstRead More

by S. Victor Aaron When I initally got into fusion jazz in the mid to late seventies, Jean-Luc Ponty was one of the first artists I became a fan of, and I still dig his music today. He’s been an enduring figure on the scene, having been recording for overRead More

by S. Victor Aaron The jazz world took a double whammy over the weekend as Alice Coltrane and Michael Brecker passed away. Both of these artists were among my favorites, and like many of others, I’ll miss them and the major contributions they’ve made to the art form. Alice ColtraneRead More

> by Pico Jam bands seem to come in all kinds of flavors. The Allman Brothers took blues-rock, mixed it with soul and jazz and stretched it out. Grateful Dead was into a psychedelic kind of folk while Phish was known for their eclecticism and thrived on absurdity. Virtuosos DerekRead More

The foundations laid down here set up the Pat Metheny Group for commercial success on 1985’s ‘The Falcon and the Snowman’ and 1987’s ‘Still Life (Talking).’

by S. Victor Aaron I was trying to get mentally prepared to actually describe a Charlie Hunter record when on a whim I decided to cue up GB’s The Other Side Of Abbey Road. That got me to thinking about Nick’s piece on the best Beatle remakes (hey Nick, IRead More

by S. Victor Aaron Soul-jazz was never a major genre, even in its seventies heyday, but the boys from Houston who called themselves The Crusaders were doing it better than just about anyone else then…and now. You May Also Like: Groove Legacy – Groove Legacy (2016)

This time we look at albums with grooves in the pocket even if they weren’t much in the press: 1) Herbie Hancock, Mr. Hands (1980)The seventies began very creatively for HH, first with the space funk Mwandishi albums followed by the better-known Head Hunters period that firmly eastablished Herbie’s pre-eminanceRead More