Photo by John Broughton by S. Victor Aaron Like William Parker, Anthony Braxton and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Ernest Dawkins is an avant garde jazz guy who doesn’t give a damn if the music he plays is dissonant or tuneful, it’s all about if it sounds right, period. By extension, the saxophonist’sRead More

Photo from Fallon Cush’s MySpace page by Nick DeRiso Fallon Cush grows more confident with each passing song on their self-titled debut. Perhaps because singer Steve Smith put this together on the fly, enlivened by passion and not weighed down by heavy planning. You May Also Like: The Beatles’ AbbeyRead More

by S. Victor Aaron Since very early on we’ve eagerly pounced on records that re-image that dense, impenetrable period of Miles Davis between about 1969 and 1975 when he first defined fusion jazz and then kept redefining it again and again. This is music that doesn’t come easily to mostRead More

Photo from www.BobbySelvaggio.com by S. Victor Aaron For a serious post-bop performer to take a leap into Grooveland, it can often be a risky bet. Will they be able to keep their artistic integrity? Will they even care? A couple of years ago, alto saxophonist Bobby Selvaggio made his secondRead More

Photo from After Midnight’s gigsalad.com web page by Nick DeRiso Clarinetist Roger Campbell has turned an enduring passion for swing legend Benny Goodman into a sizzling six-piece jazz project called After Midnight. It’s perhaps no surprise, then, that a new live effort finds him slithering his way through “Memories ofRead More

Photo from Jos Knaepen/ amsterdamjazzagency.com by S. Victor Aaron When I first started the Stacks series last year, I had two formatting rules about it: each artist was to be allotted one paragraph each and there must be at least six albums examined. I’m bending both rules this time, asRead More

Photo by Steve J. Sherman by S. Victor Aaron When reviewing Vijay Iyer’s sublime piano-only disc Solo last year, I tossed out my personal maxim that “when a great, small combo jazz pianist makes a solo record, it usually doesn’t signal that pianist’s arrival, it means he’s solidifying his legacy.” Well,Read More

The aptly titled Live Forever, a newly released concert set by Bob Marley and the Wailers, doesn’t sound anything like a man just moments away from the end. Instead, it underscores the indomitable spirit of the singer and his song. Marley had collapsed while jogging in New York just twoRead More

Featuring this dreamtime folk whimsy and a fabulist band name, The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger sound at times like Syd Barrett, or maybe Simon and Garfunkel. Or, like an ornate, late-night 1960s French pop singer, after perhaps one too many tokes. What they don’t sound like, not really,Read More

You could argue that Robert Johnson, the doomed 1920s-era Mississippi bluesman, was the first rock ‘n’ roll star. Johnson certainly played the role, with his flair for the dramatic, questionable lifestyle choices and early death. More particularly, he sounded the part: Tough and honest, full of vibrancy, danger and rhythm.Read More