by Pico Right about a year and a half ago, jam band extraordinaire Garaj Mahal wowed us with their nimble, creative offering w00t, which made 2008’s “Best Of” list of fusion records, and contained a killer track I thought topped all other songs in the fusion jazz category. Now inRead More

by S. Victor Aaron I freakin’ love the music of Miles Davis. I once named a dog “Miles Davis.” I’ve written tons about Miles Davis. Even compare most every artist who’s doing something cool and expansive to Miles Davis. And when a musician takes on a project projecting the musicRead More

by Pico I find that much of jazz is taking someone else’s tune and make it into something new. The trick is to do so without casting off the thing (or things) that made it such a great tune to cover to begin with. But who can take Joe Henderson’sRead More

by S. Victor Aaron German woodwind wunderkind Gebhard Ullmann and New York-based trombone titlist Steve Swell may come from opposing sides of the Atlantic, but when the two get together to make music, they’re in the same house of whack jazz. There are some 70 led or co-led albums betweenRead More

by Pico The call Aretha Franklin the Queen of Soul, but those too young to remember her will mostly likely know about the Queen of Neo Soul, Erykah Badu. Today she unleashes the follow-up to her dense and intense New Amerykah, Pt. 1: 4th World War (2008), which was oftenRead More

Like Christian Scott’s prior two albums, ‘Yesterday You Said Tomorrow’ is a jazz record that’s direct, deep and lives in the present.

by Pico Samuel Torres’ life journey from a boy with dreams of being a full-time musician, to becoming a full-time musician, to becoming a successful one, takes another turn with the release last week of his second album, Yaoundé. Born and raised by a hard working a supportive single motherRead More

by Pico “The world’s most vicious vibes-led threesome” That was the big impression I was left with from the self-described “post-punk jazz trio with vibraphone,” aka the Wee Trio, back when they released their debut record in the late summer of 2008. Capitol Diner Vol. 1 was hell-bent on bustingRead More

Drumming ace Allison Miller might not be a household name yet but, boy, she sure is linked to a whole host of them.

The hottest band in the land just might be the Drive-By Truckers by S. Victor Aaron Funny how it seems I have plenty of time to listen to new music and precious little to write about. There’s about 9GBs of albums in my iPod rotation and I’m familiar with aRead More