by S. Victor Aaron This is a compilation of some highlight tracks from Mike Marshall’s albums released under Adventure Music, a label he co-founded in the late 1990s. Going agaist the grain, the track sequence goes in reverse chronological order, which means two cuts from last year’s Mike Marshall’s BigRead More

by S. Victor Aaron Last month, percussionist Sameer Gupta presented a CD that was one of the more creative fusions of East Indian and jazz music ever attempted. His keyboardist Marc Cary played a key role in that endeavor but the productive partnership extends to Cary’s own records, too. LiveRead More

The Doobie Brothers return with the same rich blend of acoustic and electric guitars, the strutting rhythm and those sumptuous backing vocals.

Maybe it was only inevitable that the Brecker Brothers would pool their talents again. But how would they fit into the jazz scene after so long away?

Like the best Herbie Hancock ballads, “Butterfly” has inner complexity, outer beauty, – and a little mysteriousness.

by S. Victor Aaron A side project of hip-hop artist Madlib, the music is pretty much what the ensemble’s name advertises. It’s loose, trippy and stretched out. There isn’t a whole lot of standout improvisation going on, because this is more of a groovy vibe based affair. But as farRead More

Like Christian Scott’s prior two albums, ‘Yesterday You Said Tomorrow’ is a jazz record that’s direct, deep and lives in the present.

by S. Victor Aaron Shipp is one of the currently reigning giants of whack jazz, so that’s a good-sized hole we proud avant garde types left on this site. My short mention of his latest is merely a down payment to rectify that gap. This latest release, by the way,Read More

by S. Victor Aaron Guitar whiz Buckethead has built a loyal following primarily by virtue of his fretted pyrotechnics. Among the several records he makes every year are the mellower, dulcet types that range from ambient to instrumental pop. In some ways , this toned-down record by a fiery guitaristRead More

S. Victor Aaron I haven’t heard this band prior to this album, but was curious about them after reading they were some sort of a jam band, like Phish, Dave Matthews or Humphrey’s McGee. Man of The World doesn’t really conjure up memories of those bands at all except toRead More