Bill Summers shares thoughts on a new album, his rejuvenated collaboration with Irvin Mayfield and some of those classic Headhunters sides.

The Headhunters have completed an ambitious new jazz release — one that continues to push the edges of fusion, incorporating hip hop and funk You May Also Like: How Bennie Maupin Left Mwandishi Behind on ‘The Jewel in the Lotus’ Rob Dixon Trio, with Charlie Hunter and Mike Clark –Read More

by Pico Right about a year and a half ago, jam band extraordinaire Garaj Mahal wowed us with their nimble, creative offering w00t, which made 2008’s “Best Of” list of fusion records, and contained a killer track I thought topped all other songs in the fusion jazz category. Now inRead More

The term “Milwaukee’s Best” probably doesn’t have the positive connotation that it should, thanks to that being the name of Miller Beer’s economy brand. But when it comes to musicians, there’s plenty from this fine Wisconsin city to be proud of, from Woody Herman and Al Jarreau to Daryl StuermerRead More

Like Dave Holland, Derrick Gardner is following the axiom of “more is…” more. Allow me to explain… One of the hottest jazz combos of the last decade has been the Dave Holland Quintet. Recently, Holland decided to shake things up a bit and expanded his quintet to a sextet. TheRead More

by Pico Fareed Haque has become one difficult dude to ignore whenever you talk about fusion these days, including world fusion. He’s come up prominently in reviews of the latest by the Dixon-Rhyne Project and the jam band supergroup he helped to form, Garaj Mahal. Of Chilean and Pakistani descent,Read More

Bill Moring is someone readers of this space have come to know as the guy jazz pianist extraordinaire Steve Allee relies upon for holding down the bottom in his band. Moring is hardly “just” Allee’s bass player, though. Throughout a three-decade career, Moring has played in ensembles of all sizesRead More

Photo: Susan J. Weiand by Pico With jazz fusion having been around for some forty years, now, it’s not so easy to be distinctive in that field anymore. Garaj Mahal manages to stick out, mainly due to massive chops by all four group members and a dizzying array of influencesRead More

Last year we touched on a solid release by Steve Allee, Colours, where the seasoned Indianapolis-based pianist found delight in turning from crossover jazz to honest-to-goodness straight trio jazz. Allee must have really enjoyed making that record, because here we are less than a year later discussing another new SteveRead More

Here’s a case of “old school meets new school.” Saxophonist Rob Dixon, who we earlier introduced as a key player in Derrick Gardner’s Jazz Prophets, is another Indianapolis-based jazz talent who’s been getting notice since the mid-nineties as an up and comer for both his playing and composing. Hammond B3Read More