If straight-up mainstream jazz is what you crave, you can’t go wrong with Ralph Bowen. Standard Deviation is a solid execution of the form from beginning to end.

Anthony Branker plays no instruments on his latest record Uppity. Actually, he’s never performed on any of his six releases, so I can’t discuss what a great instrumentalist or vocalist he is. You May Also Like: When Miles Davis Finally Looked Back on ‘Miles and Quincy: Live at Montreux’ RickieRead More

The cover for Ralph Bowen’s newest release Total Eclipse is a picture of a “ring of fire” solar eclipse, much like the one that provided a spectacular show for residents of the U.S. Southwest on Monday. Putting on a saxophone show is what Ralph is about, though, and for theRead More

On this special edition of Something Else! Reviews’ One Track Mind, we hand the reins over to Orrin Evans You May Also Like: Brian Mackey, “Captain of the Moon” from Broken Heartstrings (2014): One Track Mind Captain Beefheart, “Pachuco Cadaver” from Trout Mask Replica (1969): One Track Mind Bill EvansRead More

Orrin Evans arrived amidst a wave of new jazz performers in the early 1990s. Unlike many of those young lions, however, he managed to bob up from that era’s ultimately empty retro-conservatism. You May Also Like: Johannes Wallmann, jazz pianist and bandleader: Something Else! Interview Bill Evans – Time Remembered,Read More

photo courtesy of Posi-Tone Records by S. Victor Aaron It seems like it was not even a year since we were last here chatting up a new Ralph Bowen CD, and checking back, there actually is less than twelve months between his last one, Due Reverence and this one dueRead More

by S. Victor Aaron The master tenor sax player Ralph Bowen has been around for quite a while, releasing his first album back in 1992. But plum sideman opportunities and a teaching gig at Rutgers has kept him plenty busy; it only been the last three or so years thatRead More