Though my mind sometimes likes to classify all “big band” jazz into that Benny Goodman/Glenn Miller/Paul Whiteman box, doing so ignores the innovations in working with larger groups brought by Fletcher Henderson, Sun Ra and, mostly prominently, Duke Ellington. You May Also Like: Rickie Lee Jones, Alexis Evans, Shawn MaxwellRead More

The songs, after a long time away, just started floating to the surface for Benmont Tench. He’d been a member of Tom Petty’s staggeringly underrated band the Heartbreakers forever, had even had a Nashville writing gig for a time. You May Also Like: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ gritty MojoRead More

There had been some talk about an autobiography from Steve Lukather, the co-founding Toto guitarist who’s played on countless sessions. That project has been shelved, however, amidst a flurry of new activity. Lukather had been at work on the book with Lonn Friend, a Grant High School classmate and ex-editorRead More

Over both ’11 Tracks of Whack’ and ‘Circus Money,’ this Walter Becker solo song is his most Steely Dan-ish.

Left to her own devices after a band breakup, Austin-based singer-songwriter Amy Edwards found herself stuck between her melancholy over what had been and her hopefulness for what might come next. Ghosts and Saints, at times hard-eyed and at others remarkably open, is stronger for that essential dichotomy. She purrsRead More

The Walter Becker-produced tracks on China Crisis’ unjustly overlooked 1989 album ‘Diary of a Hollow Horse’ represent their best work to date.

After years of sub-par compilations, best of collections and generally below-standard packaging and repackaging of their recorded output, those mod dignitaries the Small Faces have finally received a respectful and proper tribute You May Also Like: Elton John – ‘Jewel Box’ (2020) Steppenwolf – ‘Magic Carpet Ride: The Dunhill /Read More

At first, it looked as if there would be a reunion of the original quartet when Kiss is belatedly inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame later this year. Then, maybe not. Now, it seems more like: Definitely not. In fact, Paul Stanley is saying he has noRead More

It would have been easy enough for Matt Schofield, the most heralded blues guitarist to come out of England in recent memory, to leave at slow burns and nifty shuffles. But Far As I Can See displays broader ambitions — and from the first. You May Also Like: Matt SmithRead More

Tommy Malone might forever be known as a founder and frontman for the widely admired subdudes, but as he reminded us last year with his first solo effort in ages, Natural Born Days, You May Also Like: Wayne Krantz, “U Can’t Touch This” from Good Piranha, Bad Piranha (2014): OneRead More