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

by S. Victor Aaron On the Columbia re-release of Miles Davis’ “The Complete In a Silent Way Sessions” … This 3 cd set covers Miles Davis’ recoding sessions from September, 1968 to February, 1969, chronicalling the line of demarcation between “acoustic Miles” and “electric Miles”. It is an important pieceRead More

Another in a series of overlooked jazz classics. This time we look at diamonds in the rough by perhaps the single most influential figure in jazz since World War II: Miles Davis. A high profile artist whose work has been picked apart as much as Davis’ won’t have a lotRead More

by S. Victor Aaron Recently I revisited an album that wore our my cassette player during late ’86-early ’87: Tutu by Miles Davis. It typically takes a long time to get the right perspective on a Miles record, he was often took a direction in music before his listeners wereRead More