by Pico Before diving deeper into the stacks o’ jazz cd’s, I’d like to turn our attention toward a few records of the rock, pop & blues sides that I managed to sample over the last few months. With one exception, these are all by long-established stalwarts, falling right inRead More

by Pico The other day, I explained our lack of year-end lists that all good music review sites do by a still-bountiful stack of unexplored CD’s that deserved some checking out before I can put together a tally that looks somewhat informed. Even after this clearinghouse of an article I’llRead More

by Pico Chicago’s own Ramsey Lewis is part of a surprisingly sturdy fraternity of major jazz pianists who first started making records more than half a century ago. Like Horace Silver, Cecil Taylor, Hank Jones, Ahmad Jamal and Paul Bley, Lewis’ resilient popularity comes from doing things he’s done forRead More

by Pico In the past, I’ve gotten these year-end lists out about two weeks before the end of the year. This time, a crush of projects in the fall set me back and I’m still sorting through a stack of records. Since it wouldn’t be fair to declare the winnersRead More

by Pico Very early in this site’s existence, I wanted to introduce the “Acid (Jazz) Redux” series and the choice for the inaugural album had to be one that represented the genre very well. That’s why Flyin’ The Koop by New Orleans funk-jazz outfit Galactic drummer Stanton Moore got theRead More

by Pico Since the New Orleans Saints is the Official™ NFL Team of Something Else, we were most bummed about the end of the team’s incredible winning streak last Saturday in the ‘Dome at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys. But we still remain hopeful that our boys in theRead More

by S. Victor Aaron Joe Morris is fresh-minded guitarist whose uncommon ideas about improvisation, interaction, time, harmonics and phrasing collectively combine to form a unique sound even within the “seen it all/done it all” world of New York’s improvised music scene. And he does it with a tone that’s clearRead More

by Pico We’ve heard and read so many times about how where a musician is physically has such great bearing on where he’s at musically. Some jazz musicians become vitalized, inspired, motivated by the hustle and bustle of the diverse, vibrant big city scene. Tenor saxophonist Tom Gullion is notRead More

by S. Victor Aaron This installment of Quickies takes a glance at three new offerings from HighNote Records. HighNote Reocrds, in case you didn’t know, has been around since 1996, a creation of former Muse Records founder and Prestige Records exec Joe Fields. As a longtime veteran of the wholeRead More

by S. Victor Aaron There’s a special class of jazz record labels whereby you don’t even have to know the artist to get an idea of the kind of music that’s in store for you when you pop in that CD for the first time. If it’s an ECM, you’reRead More