Discover why Adrian Belew likes working with younger musicians, and how he’d like to push Crimson’s double-trio format even further out

Three of the most gifted improvisers in free jazz today released this week a studio follow-up from their well-received 2009 live debut. As fellow giants of the NYC downtown scene, William Parker, Craig Taborn and Gerald Cleaver know each well musically and personally (as noted before, Cleaver and Taborn goRead More

We talked to Adrian Belew during an extended hiatus for King Crimson. But it’s not like he’d been sitting idly by.

You might say that top-notch jazz pianist Orrin Evans has become a fixture here at SER. It all got started four years ago when we noted his participation in Robin Eubanks’ EB3 unit that made the phenomenal double-CD Live, Vol. 1 of 2007. Early last year we salivated over Evans’Read More

Opening with the old-world charm of an accordian and trumpet, at once lonesome and timeless, Brooklyn-based Katie Costello’s “Isn’t It Lovely” slips into your head like a thief. The whole song has a similar cunning, never going too far yet always beckoning You May Also Like: Animal Logic, “Can YouRead More

If you were tasked with listing the influences of JazzGuitaristPatMetheny™, some good entries might be Four and More (Miles Davis), Ornette Coleman’s Something Else!!! (Sorry, couldn’t resist), and Smokin’ At The Half Note by the Wynton Kelly Trio with Wes Montgomery. You May Also Like: Pat Metheny – ‘Dream Box’Read More

Their Ocean, ambient then soulful, is one of those amalgams that sounds instantly recognizable, yet completely new. The Chicago-based psychedelic R&B/indie rock group has described itself as “a cross between Hall and Oates and Arcade Fire, if they were friends with the Soulquarians.” As funny as that sounds, it’s aboutRead More

Pretty much for the last twenty years, there have been two types of Monty Alexander records: one that features exuberant, evocative mainstream New York jazz and one that showcases Alexander’s unique Jamaican-styled jazz. Earlier this year, the Kingston piano great released the straight-up jazz trio live chronicles Uplift, a tremendousRead More

These two Paul McCartney albums show a willingness to strip down what had become a varnished sound. But they haven’t aged in the same way.

Black Country Communion may not invented any new formulas but they are executing the old ones closer to perfection than anyone else.