Maria Schneider wanted to send a strong message about the threat of a mass manipulation with ‘Data Lords.’ She gets the message across in perhaps the grandest way possible.

I just realized why Ralph Alessi became Fred Hersch’s trumpet player of choice: Alessi is Fred Hersch, rendered through brass instead of ivory.

A love letter to classic Italian music, Bella Napoli features an unlikely pairing and a lot of flavor. The recording from baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan and singer Dominic Chianese is an interesting blend You May Also Like: Ulises Bella, multi-instrumentalist with Ozomatli: Something Else! Interview Maria Schneider Orchestra – ‘DataRead More

If it’s an even-numbered year, it’s a safe bet that guitarist Torben Waldorff will have a new album out, and it’s a similarly sound assumption that such a record will be well-conceived, mellifluous, and briskly performed. You May Also Like: Torben Waldorff – Holiday On Fire (2017) Maria Schneider OrchestraRead More

Here’s a guitarist with a version of the Allman Brothers’ “Whipping Post.” Think you know how this is gonna go, right? If you do, you didn’t consider that Joel Harrison isn’t into predictable music. You May Also Like: The Allman Brothers Band’s Ubiquitous ‘Whipping Post’: One Track Mind

Being from the town of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Falkner Evans might be a jazz pianist, but he’s travelled through other styles of music before settling there permanently, even served as a member of country swing band Asleep At The Wheel in the early 80’s. Since around the turn of the millennium,Read More

  by S. Victor Aaron For a lot of us, our first exposure to jazz was those Charlie Brown TV specials featuring the piano trio music of Vince Guaraldi. Then again, some Disney films like 101 Dalmations, Lady And The Tramp and especially The Aristocats contained jazz or jazz-y tunes.Read More

by S. Victor Aaron The Claudia Quintet is an ensemble that goes by its own set of rules. With its slightly weird combination of vibes, accordion, sax, double-bass and drums, and songs that don’t follow the script of how songs go (but avoids skronkery and dissonance), the five piece bandRead More

by Pico Of all the sax-organ-sousaphone-drums ensembles out there, John Ellis & his Double-Wide ensemble really do stand out. That might be because there aren’t any other such ensembles out there. To get to this point where he’s leading such an unusual combo, North Carolina native John Ellis had beenRead More