by S. Victor Aaron Since the mid-sixties, jazz musicians have sought to combine electronic instruments with jazz to create something new and fresh sounding. The most obvious result of this mix is called fusion, but others have managed to do it taking different approaches that uses these instruments to actuallyRead More

In anybody else’s hands, this new Mavis Staples album would have been a museum piece, interesting but ultimately dust-covered and remote. Not that “We’ll Never Turn Back” (to be issued on Tuesday by Anti- records) doesn’t have plenty of right things to say, and certainly plenty of righteous things, inRead More

For well over a decade, Medeski, Martin and Wood (henceforth referred to as “MMW”) has been to acid jazz what Crosby, Stills & Nash is to folk-rock. A group at the top of the heap consisting of three extraordinary talents, and whose main releases are richly supplemented with temporary configurationRead More

Turns out, chaff from Umphrey’s McGee still makes for a tasty loaf of bread.

Ever since Stan Getz, João Gilberto and Charlie Byrd have introduced American audiences to the Brazilian-flavored cool-jazz sounds of Antonio Carlos Jobim, bossa nova has assumed a permanent and prominent place in jazz history. For generations now, people have danced, swayed and just chilled out to the distinctive, 8/4 timeRead More

In the brilliant, circular overture of synthesizer and riff that opens ‘Endless Wire,’ we find a triumph for what’s left of the Who.

by S. Victor Aaron Heavy metal is not the kind of music I get into that much, but combine it with avant garde jazz and it’s often a whole ‘nother story. Caspar Brotzmann, The Scorch Trio, parts of The Vandermark 5; these guys have a way of making two seeminglyRead More

by Pico Whoa, what’s this? A review on a hot-out-of-the-oven release of a rock record by a well known band…from this site? We’re supposed to stick with old records and/or out of the mainstream stuff, right? Hey, we like our rock ‘n’ roll too, and there’s even a few guysRead More

Branford Marsalis’ sibling producer Delfeayo said ‘Bloomington’ was the “most important concert recorded in our generation.” Thing is, he could be right.

One well-placed guitar note might be all Robert Cray hits, while others would play three or four.