One night back in the late 1970s, me and my cousin Andy were playing a game of backgammon (cripes, that really was a long time ago … I remember there was a Styx Grand Illusion poster on the wall You May Also Like: Why Pat Metheny’s ‘New Chautauqua’ Still ProvidesRead More

When I listen to Rob Garcia’s new album The Drop And The Ocean, the same adjectives come to me as they did for his prior album, Perennial, which are “seductive,” “lyrical,” “well-conceived,” “well-designed,” and Garcia’s drumming being “sensitive” and “delicate.” What I’d probably could add to that is Garcia’s drummingRead More

Sung Jo leads a quartet on Dream that walks a fine line — pushing at the edges of the jazz envelope, yet still swinging like crazy. The result is an album that has both narrative logic and these splashes of new sounds. You May Also Like: Chris Potter – TheRead More

About a year ago saxophonist Greg Ward was leading a quartet that was preparing to do a recording session for a jazz radio station when the pianist was unable to make it. You May Also Like: Greg Ward – Touch My Beloved’s Thought (2016)

There’s a trance-like euphoria surrounding this emotional, at times indescribably spiritual endeavor. Rez Abbasi, leading a group that also includes Rudresh Mahanthappa and Vijay Iyer, found inspiration for Suno Suno from Pakistani Qawwali, a devotional Sufi music You May Also Like: Rez Abbasi – Unfiltered Universe (2017) Rez Abbasi &Read More

You hear about musicians being moved to a new tribute by dusty old masterpieces, about timeless moments on vinyl that crackle and pop to life as reborn honorifics. Then there’s the jazz tango disaster Take Me Dancing, a 1959 recording by Astor Piazzola that is so irredeemably bad that itRead More

The virile, confrontational jazz of the 1960s is reborn on the Curtis Brothers’ Completeion of Proof. Siblings Luques and Zaccai Curtis perform in the brash, muscular style of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, even as they confront thorny moral issues You May Also Like: BLOOP (Lina Allemano + Mike Smith) –Read More

Here’s a look back at the Top 10 stories from last month on SomethingElseReviews.com, based on page views from our readers. You May Also Like: How Jon Anderson Faced Down Threat of Gunfire at a Yes Show in Argentina The Solo Song Where Jon Anderson Finally Reclaimed His Yes Legacy

On his last outing, trumpet master Enrico Rava was in a New York state of mind. This time, for Tribe, his head, heart—and most notably—his entire band is firmly back in his native Italy. You May Also Like: Miles Davis, Billie Holiday + Others: Top 10 Versions of ‘Darn ThatRead More

Long, long before Nels Cline had attained his current status as one of the most original, fearless and bad-assed electric guitarists around, he was an obscure twenty-something acoustic guitarist playing in a small, acoustic combo You May Also Like: The Smudges [Jeff Gauthier + Maggie Parkins], “The Gigue Is Up”Read More