by Mark SaleskiOver the years, there have been a lot of musical hybrids that have surprised our ears by revealing hidden commonalities in melded musical genres. For instance, I’m fairly certain that my only exposure to hip-hop back before the mid-1980’s was with Sugar Hill’s “Rapper’s Delight,” and Blondie’s “Rapture.”Read More

When we last visited the music of the brilliant bassist and composer William Parker three years ago, he was putting his poetry to his music on Corn Meal Dance. Yesterday, he introduced a new album that again revolves around poetry but this time it’s based on the poetic music ofRead More

The Wilson Sisters aka Heart are among long-time rock acts with an infrequent new release. by Pico Long, established rock acts like Eric Clapton and Heart have nothing more to prove and have plenty enough hits that they really don’t need to make records anymore. They still do, of course,Read More

Maybe it’s just me, but I think we’re in the midst of a full-fledged revival in jazz organ, led by a newer generation of players who have gone beyond mimicking the tried and true voicings of Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff and Richard “Groove” Holmes. In that group of innovative newRead More

by Mark Saleski These kind of pairings are not supposed to work. It goes against the laws of pop music nature. Take any number of well-known and successful musicians, put them together, stir, and what you usually get is something not even worth the time it takes to watch theRead More

by Pico As the most popular pop band of all time, it naturally follows that the Beatles have been the most-covered band of all time. Their songs’ popularity has extended into every form of music, and that greasy, soulful organ jazz has been no exception. Before the Beatles were evenRead More

by S. Victor Aaron When Jon Irabagon signed with the mighty Concord Records after bagging the 2008 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition for saxophone, you might assume that he would have left behind his wild side to become a more “serious” player. But his continued involvement in the gangsta jazzRead More

by Mark Saleski I wish I had a cool story about where I learned about the blues. I never had an older brother who gave me his Howlin’ Wolf records. There was no cousin who pointed out the line that runs backwards from Jimmy Page. Despite the early appearance ofRead More

photo: Jimmy Katz by S. Victor Aaron 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. We witnessed this with Art Tatum’s Solo Masterpieces recordings made at the end of his life. The same goesRead More

by S. Victor Aaron As I write this, two very talented bands from Italy specializing in the jazz of the whack variety are traversing the fruited plains looking to collect fans from the USA. The trio Neo and the quartet Tribraco are criss-crossing the country from August 23 to OctoberRead More