A little more than a month ago I covered a self-released album by a Vancouver, British Columbia-based jazz-pop vocalist by the name of Heidi McCurdy. Heidi’s music is a prime example of the great singing and composing talent out there still unsigned and undiscovered by a record company. Fickle MindRead More

by Pico In the last three or four years, Georgia native Lizz Wright has created a stir in the same folk-jazz circles that Cassandra Wilson, Nina Simone and Oleta Adams have made their names in, but with her 2005 release Dreaming Wide Awake, she moved further into Sarah McLachlan territory.Read More

Ever since Stan Getz, João Gilberto and Charlie Byrd have introduced American audiences to the Brazilian-flavored cool-jazz sounds of Antonio Carlos Jobim, bossa nova has assumed a permanent and prominent place in jazz history. For generations now, people have danced, swayed and just chilled out to the distinctive, 8/4 timeRead More

We all know that Stevie Wonder is a great singer, but former Doobie Brothers star Michael McDonald simply outdoes him here.

by Pico Ray Charles had been such a fixture on the American music scene for so long, it’s still hard to reconcile the fact that he’s been gone for over two years, now. True, it’s been a long time since he had a bona fide hit but his presence permeatedRead More

When certain major events…tragic events..take place, we often look to see how certain mucisians express their feelings about it and if it coincides with our own feelings or informs them, then that artist has delivered something special beyond mere entertainment. Bruce Springsteen’s The Rising was so heavily anticipated because heRead More

by Nick DeRiso The doo-wopping Temptations – five guys that had both a way with harmony and these pillow-soft on-stage moves – probably should have been an oldies act years ago. After all, a song like “My Girl,” recorded in 1964, might have held little resonance by the end ofRead More

by Pico I think I can say this with high confidence that The Isley Brothers were among the best and underrated R&B bands of the 1970’s. It wasn’t just Ronald Isley’s creamy smooth falsetto or killer material like “Footsteps In The Dark”, these guys made more than a passing nodRead More

It’s hard to put a label on Aaron Neville’s music. Even, as we saw in this interview, for Aaron Neville himself.

Cannonball Adderley’s ‘Somethin’ Else’ is the lesser-known, but very worthy, companion piece to ‘Kind of Blue’ that every jazz fan should have.