Even decades later, ‘Africa/Brass’ still casts John Coltrane – and this is saying something – in a new, insistently inventive light.

by S. Victor Aaron “Finding your own voice” is such an overused phrase these days. That especially holds true in the music business, where such rote advice is handed out like doubloons at a Mardi Gras parade. The young, alto tenor saxophone specialist Sarah Manning has heard those words herself,Read More

photo: Jimmy Katz by S. Victor Aaron If you has happened to follow this site long enough, you know the drill: The Stryker/Slagle Band puts out a new record, I listen to said new record, then I write about how great it is. Keeper, the newest by the Stryker/Slagle BandRead More

photo: Kyle Ober by Pico It’s catch up time again. In what is becoming a frequent tradition for me on Something Else, I’m taking a batch of CD’s and doing pocket reviews on them, in order to get you all caught up on what’s been getting the spins lately. WhereasRead More

‘The Köln Concert’ still sounds as fresh and honest as it did when Keith Jarrett composed these songs in front of a live audience.

By Nick DeRiso One of three jazz-legend siblings, Hank Jones was perhaps as unassuming as his brother Elvin (nine years younger, famously of the John Coltrane group) was the outsized extrovert. Feathery light, then concisely powerful at the piano, Hank concluded an intellectual, often overlooked eight-decade career on Sunday whenRead More

by Pico One of the most enduring singing piano players isn’t Billy Joel or even Elton John. Mose Allison has been at it since Nat King Cole was dominating the charts and although he’s slowed down a lot lately, the eighty-two year old was recently enticed back into the studioRead More

by Pico Rufus Reid has never had the flamboyant, edgy comportment of, say, Charles Mingus, but for decades now, he’s been a first-call bassist for many of the finest jazz (and even non-jazz) musicians. Making his way to the top level of bottom pluckers via stints in the Thad Jones-MelRead More

by Nick DeRiso Bassist Charles Mingus, an enlightening yet stormy presence, clearly felt he had unfinished business with some of his earlier work. So, he used “Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus” and a move to the more creatively open Impulse! label to take another pass at them. That turned intoRead More

by S. Victor Aaron These days, there’s very little in the way of positive vibes coming out of Venezuela to the U.S., so to balance things out, I’m going to offer up one: Otmaro Ruiz. Ruiz hails from Caracas, but his muse—not to mention his abilities on piano—brought him toRead More