Since his early days of hangin’ with Mr. Cougar, James McMurtry remains the same guy he was back then, but with some subtle differences.

Since I enjoy listening to forward-thinking musicians of the NYC jazz scene and have discussed a quite few of them already, it’s perhaps inevitable that I was going to touch on trumpeter/composer Dave Douglas. The introduction of a new Douglas CD gives me the perfect excuse to do that. ToRead More

Dave Stryker can’t seem to stop releasing CD’s and I can’t seem to stop chatting them up. Already this space has been taken up by reviews of a ten-year-old fusion record and a smokin’ hard-bop 2007 release of a sax-guitar quartet co-led with Steve Slagle. Stryker runs the whole gamutRead More

photo by Zack Smith by S. Victor Aaron The first thing you should know about the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey is that there is no Jacob Fred in the band. The second thing to be aware of is that their music is not always jazz—at least not “jazz” in theRead More

by S. Victor Aaron The lead singer and guitar player plays in an electric blues band in Atlanta. The bass player is in New York as one third of the premier acid jazz band of the last ten years. You might say that these guys form a musical odd couple.Read More

For both the man and the music, it’s a story of three continents. Bronx native drummer Steve Reid has been everywhere and played for nearly everyone. He grew up across the street from Thelonius Monk and three blocks from John Coltrane. As a teenager he drummed for Martha Reeves andRead More

by S. Victor Aaron Kurt Rosenwinkel first got my attention as the cerebral but melodic guitarist on Brian Blade’s masterpiece Perceptual back in 2000 and then via Rosenwinkel’s own major work of art Heartcore from three years later. That vastly overlooked record was a commanding balance of musicianship, texture andRead More

by Pico Over the last five years Lizz Wright has become a widely known and respected singer in jazz circles. But much as Eric Bibb often gets unfairly pigeonholed as just “blues” I sort of resent the “jazz” bin she is often put into. That’s because the very thing thatRead More

by Pico Of all the sax-organ-sousaphone-drums ensembles out there, John Ellis & his Double-Wide ensemble really do stand out. That might be because there aren’t any other such ensembles out there. To get to this point where he’s leading such an unusual combo, North Carolina native John Ellis had beenRead More

After arriving in New York City in 2001 and woodshedding as a notable sideman, composer and more recently, producer, a jazz keyboard player is ready to put his best foot forward. Chicago-born Sam Barsh is a name that’s only come up in conversations about the current jazz scene in theRead More