Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter was a man of sweeping appetites, for songs, for drink and for life. This made his music rugged and true, but also got him into his share of big trouble. Very big. Ledbetter, born on Jan. 29, 1885 on the Jeter Plantation near Mooringsport, La., wouldRead More
With each layer of studio gimmickry that falls away, we hear more distinctly the way John Lennon was coming to terms with middle age.
Beatles drummer Ringo Starr has taken his share of knocks over the years. But we’d like to give the former Richard Starkey his due.
by Nick DeRiso Even a passing fan can purchase with some confidence the touchstone jazz recordings of the last century. But what next? How to explore deeper into the legacy? SomethingElse! is here to help, with an ongoing guide to what we like to call “if/then” jazz listening … IFRead More
A canny mixture of an old-school swinging style with the then-new cool sound, even if its name sounds like a goof. Shorty Rogers, who’d first garnered attention as part of bands led by Woody Herman (both the first and second Herds) and then Stan Kenton, had a way of confoundingRead More
This remains – often like Pat Metheny himself – more subtle than overpowering, an album that continues to reveal its quiet, darkly emotional secrets.
by Nick DeRiso Several of Muddy Waters‘ great sidemen — Junior Wells, Buddy Guy and Otis Spann — appear on the loose and funky “Southside Blues Jam,” originally issued by Chicago’s Delmark Records. Funny, for all their marquee value, Wells and Guy — Buddy was born in Lettsworth, Louisiana —Read More
by Nick DeRiso Led Zeppelin wasn’t always this thundering, then nimble, amalgamation. The band’s first album had, on its surface, only a copycat kind of appeal. Recorded over just 30 hours, these songs were presented in the same way Zeppelin would have done them on stage at the time —Read More
“Come Down in Time” works as a perfect metaphor, and a sad rebuke, for what later happened to Elton John and his songs.
Tonight’s “Paul McCartney: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in Performance at the White House” — premiering at 8 p.m., and then repeating all week on PBS stations — had us digging through the stacks, looking for favorites from throughout his career. (Click through the titles forRead More
