Ben Folds, for all his blind-alley turns into jokes that go nowhere, retains a particular eye for the turn of phrase, for the precise word the opens your heart like a flower You May Also Like: Ben Folds Returned to Older Work on ‘Stems and Seeds,’ and Vastly Improved It

Tribute records are a tricky things; star-studded tribute projects even more so. It takes a strong unifying voice, some central character beyond the featured composer, to save them from sounding like choppy compilations. Steve Cropper, on today’s 429 Records release Dedicated, is that voice. Co-founder of Booker T and theRead More

Dancing with Duke, the second album as a leader from North Carolina bassist John Brown (Nnenna Freelon), follows the thematic pattern established by his well-received initial recording — a tribute to Art Blakey. But this homage to Ellington explores more interesting territory, in that Blakey’s music has always been associatedRead More

Guitarist John McLaughlin, decades after his audacious late 1960s’ stateside debut with Tony Williams and Miles Davis, has lost none of his power, virtuosity and vision You May Also Like: How John McLaughlin’s First 4th Dimension Album Brought Things Back in Focus John McLaughlin’s Shakti – ‘This Moment’ (2023)

Fusion label Abstract Logix, which played host to the newly formed New Universe Festival last November in Raleigh, North Carolina, will issue a two-disc commemorative highlights package on July 19 You May Also Like: How ‘Stanley Clarke Band Featuring Hiromi’ Recalled a Funky Past

Her album is populated with songs we’ve heard too often, sung in front of a band that’s bland and not engaging. It’s a lot for Pam Saulsby to overcome, but she does, and she does it with vigor. You May Also Like: Ella Fitzgerald, “Perdido” (1949): Appreciations

There is a sensuous, lush quietude to this recording, which notes on the front that it was “inspired by water.” Ritter’s playing — trickling and ruminative one moment, bubbly and adventurous the next — certainly echoes the theme. You May Also Like: Why I Avoided Herbie Hancock’s Triumphant ‘River: TheRead More

Bob Margolin has spent his life around blues music’s most recognizable figures, and he’s now a respected band leader in his own right.

by Nick DeRiso Keith Horn is a tinkerer, someone who hammers things together to see what they can become. But, as with every workshop, having the right tools can make or break a project. Luckily Horn, a Los Angeles-based television composer since the early 2000s, has the cinematic chops toRead More

by Nick DeRiso Taking on Nina Simone, a singer of dusky persuasiveness, might be foolhardy enough. Remaking this song, a Top 20 pop hit off Simone’s celebrated 1958 debut Little Girl Blue seemed like the worst idea of all. But Canadian singer Kellylee Evans finds a new light, even ifRead More