Dave Stryker can’t seem to stop releasing CD’s and I can’t seem to stop chatting them up. Already this space has been taken up by reviews of a ten-year-old fusion record and a smokin’ hard-bop 2007 release of a sax-guitar quartet co-led with Steve Slagle. Stryker runs the whole gamutRead More

Ellis Marsalis’ ‘Whistle Stop’ served as an important reminder that New Orleans’ jazz patriarch was still a hat-tipping, oh-so-swinging piano man.

NICK DERISO: Pete Fountain, and this is rare, has remained local. Even now, you can still find this almost-mythical 70-something clarinetist at hometown spots in the New Orleans area, playing native-born favorites. Your garden-variety Marsalis talks about the Crescent City, but can’t be found within a country mile of itRead More

Skip the in-concert patter, and Frank Sinatra’s ‘Sinatra and Sextet: Live in Paris’ was a record that couldn’t help but matter.

by S. Victor Aaron Kurt Rosenwinkel first got my attention as the cerebral but melodic guitarist on Brian Blade’s masterpiece Perceptual back in 2000 and then via Rosenwinkel’s own major work of art Heartcore from three years later. That vastly overlooked record was a commanding balance of musicianship, texture andRead More

To call this the most successful melding of New Orleans-style rag with hard Chicago blues presupposes that there ever was one before. Eurreal “Little Brother” Montgomery, as was his way, tills up new earth here, and with remarkable results. A stride pianist of great wit and power, Montgomery had theRead 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

‘Dedications and Inspirations’ fully confirms the high praise of former bandmate Sonny Rollins, who once called Jim Hall “the greatest guitarist in jazz.”

Tribute records to living icons don’t occur nearly as frequently as the salutes to fallen musical heroes, but they do happen here and there. I was reminded of that occurrence when I covered Jeff Richman’s celebration of Jeff Beck’s music last year. Similarly, avant garde saxophone player Joe McPhee didn’tRead More

After arriving in New York City in 2001 and woodshedding as a notable sideman, composer and more recently, producer, a jazz keyboard player is ready to put his best foot forward. Chicago-born Sam Barsh is a name that’s only come up in conversations about the current jazz scene in theRead More