by Pico As an acclaimed maestro on a variety of stringed instruments (violin, mandolin, guitar) Mike Marshall can call upon just about anyone in the field of progressive bluegrass to accompany him on an album. For his fresh-out-of-the-oven album Mike Marshall’s Big Trio, he sticks with acoustic guitar and enlistsRead More

Dr. Lonnie Smith enjoyed a Joe Henderson-styled late-career resurgence during the ’00s, capped by ‘Rise Up!’

by Pico Every enterprise that sets lofty goals for itself should have a yardstick for success and put forth a mission statement. You’ve probably been taught this in your high school or college business class. The creative music combo from Brooklyn, NY called Search has one. It goes like this:Read More

by Pico Fareed Haque has become one difficult dude to ignore whenever you talk about fusion these days, including world fusion. He’s come up prominently in reviews of the latest by the Dixon-Rhyne Project and the jam band supergroup he helped to form, Garaj Mahal. Of Chilean and Pakistani descent,Read More

Milton’s roots music, ruddy and real, doesn’t sound anything like his bio: New York City-based singer-songwriter. Instead, we have this sweetly gruff record, “Grand Hotel,” which stands flat-footed in the middle of the four-way intersection of folk-rock, country, blues and pop. Milton, turns out, comes by this honestly: His grandmother,Read More

by S. Victor Aaron The tenor and soprano saxophonist Ada Rovatti is a rising star in the contemporary jazz arena; a Berklee School of Music grad who hails from Italy, she’s performed with such jazz heavies as Joanne Brackeen, Miroslav Vitous, John McLaughlin and Randy Brecker. She’s appeared on Brecker’sRead More

The last two Quickies were an investigation of jazz records only. We’re still hacking through some recent noteworthy jazz records of different stripes, but this time, I threw in some non-jazz right at the end. Still on a blues bent that started with coverage of Shemekia Copeland’s and Joe Bonamassa’sRead More

by Nick Deriso The Blues Foundation announced its 2009 inductees for the Blues Hall of Fame on Wednesday. Lucky us. We already love ’em: Multiple Grammy Award-winner Taj Mahal; Irma Thomas, the “Soul Queen of New Orleans”; as well as late Chicago bluesman Son Seals and the Reverend Gary Davis.Read More

by S. Victor Aaron It’s no throwaway phrase to say Shemekia Copeland was raised on the blues; her Dad Johnny Copeland established a proud tradition of quality blues as a singer, songwriter and guitarist and put out a slew of notable records in the 80’s and 90’s until his deathRead More

Getting the word out on some of more esoteric or little-known artists and their albums is something we love doing here at Something Else, hence the name for our little tea room on the interwebs. “Quickies” is where I’ve yakked up a lot of records by musicians who are notRead More