Originally intended to be sketches for development at a later date, the songs settled into being complete in and of themselves, with Stevens generating patterns, following their offshoots, and adding smidgens of improvisation for spice.
As might be expected from three players who’ve been partners on and off for so long, the threesome connects on a level so deep it’s nearly spiritual.
The long and winding road of the Fab Four’s most troubled album.
Exactly what you’d hope for from the prime era of “college rock” – catchy, smart, cheeky, with plainspoken girl/guy next door singing and a perfect balance between jangle and crunch.
A longstanding practice in the jazz tradition is the concept of veterans collaborating with up-and-comers, and that’s what happens on Streams.
His boundless imagination and thirst for good stories beyond boy-meets-girl and this-is-why-I-killed-them-all fills his albums with songs that are structurally informed by the narrative flow, rather than melody or harmony. But that doesn’t mean they’re not musical.
Rightfully acclaimed as one of the most impressive and imaginative pianists currently treading the jazz boards, Craig Taborn has played everything from hard bop to avant-garde to fusion to electronica, sitting comfortably in every situation and bringing his own distinctive style to all of them.
From Love to the Beatles to the Beach Boys, echoes of the sunnier side of the sixties abound, not to mention side glances at the PJs’ neo-psych peers. But they’re only implications – this band never rips off anyone.
This is the kind of music that could become overbearing in the wrong hands, a gloom-soaked ride to nowhere. But Rosenthal always drives his despairing themes with genuine emotional power, never toppling into melodrama or misery porn.
Working with jazz violin maverick and co-producer Regina Carter, Sung and her cohorts have crafted a superb record that doesn’t so much push the boundaries of jazz as make clear how much discovery there still is within its borders.
There are musicians who combine genres, to find the ways the frisson between styles can produce something interesting. Then there are the artists who want to simply obliterate genre designations altogether.
The Bootheels were one of many, many combos knockin’ it out with little goal in mind than making a big honkin’ noise and hoping someone might notice. It’s a familiar story, which begs the question: what makes the Bootheels special enough to earn 1988: The Original Demos, a collection from one of the country’s most respected reissue labels?
Eick’s focus is on ensemble playing and melody, often upbeat and overtly pretty melody, not rhythm or improv fire.
Though formally trained, the Norwegian has spent nearly four decades standing consistently at a crossroads where rock, jazz, electronica, psych and ambient music meet, copulate, and produce healthy mutant children.
Soulful stars and wannabes, from Lloyd Price and The Clovers to Baby Dee and TNT Tribble.
Sanford presents a wide program on A Prayer For Lester Bowie, encompassing all facets of his musical personality.
All is groove.
Dylan chases inspiration every which way, never pausing to rest.
The Saskatchewan native is at her best when she and her keyboard are up front, leading a band of excellent musicians in showcasing her own compositions.
Life Lessons, the latest album from prolific keyboardist and composer Marc Cary, is the kind of record one makes after many years of expansive experience.
Though they never hit the big time, the Delevantes – New Jersey-born brothers Bob and Mike – provided unsung highlights of the nascent Americana scene of the nineties.
Produced by Chris Stamey and considered a minor classic of the college rock era, Myra Holder’s Four Mile Road has been out of print for decades, but has now been resurrected in digital form for the first time.
The smoke, the glitter, the creeping misery, the fierce joy – it all comes together on Black Acid Soul, the debut LP from Lady Blackbird.
It sometimes seems like every jazz musician has that one specific fantasy – that of being backed by an orchestra, or at least a string section.
In many ways, the Polish trio embodies the popular perception of the so-called “chamber jazz” that ECM has championed over the decades.
The blend of Indian music and jazz is always an interesting one.
Multi-instrumentalist Cromm Fallon plies his trade with the psych popsters the Laissez Faire, among others. But he casts a much wider net when left to his own devices.
It may be noodling, but it’s noodling with a purpose.
London’s Green Lung follows up its debut album Woodland Rites with second LP Black Harvest, and if you’ve already guessed that we’re getting a metalized soundtrack to a folk horror epic that exists only in the band’s head, you’re dead on.
When alto sax-wielding jazz warrior Kenny Garrett (Miles Davis, Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, and many more, including a ton of solo albums) decides to get spiritual, he reaches way back.
Elegant instrumental gems from the impeccably funky Memphis quartet.
Each of the eight tunes was recorded outside with no rehearsal, and only first takes were used.
Taking its time in following up its 2014 debut The Witching Hour, Ohio’s Doctor Smoke sno time in distinguishing itself from the underground metal hordes on Dreamers and the Dead.
Though he’s been a star on smooth jazz radio from pretty much the time he emerged in the early eighties, it’s not a comfortable fit, as his latest LP Faraway Place indicates.
For his first full-length album, up-and-coming young guitarist Andrew Renfroe recruits friends on whose records he’s recorded, including saxophonist Braxton Cook, keyboardist Taber Gable, bassist Rick Rosato and drummer Curtis Nowosad, all part of the new crop of young NYC jazz artists.
Given the ECM label’s long tradition of solo bass recordings, it’s surprising that it’s taken this long for Marc Johnson to release one.
While a long-respected and cherished sideperson in many different contexts, drummer Andrew Cyrille has been enjoying a renaissance as a leader. The News, his third album for ECM and second with his Quartet, may be his best for the label yet.
As with the Flesh Eaters’ comeback LP, the intriguingly titled Hot Rise of an Ice Cream Phoenix is a blend of covers, new songs, and updated older material.
Eberhard – dedicated to German bassist/composer Eberhard Weber, with whom Mays worked on Metheny’s pre-Group LP Watercolors – is both a tribute to an old friend and a good example of what Mays brought to the table in his various musical endeavors.
The young Yorkshirewoman has as much affinity for funk, soul and psychedelic rock as the spiritual jazz that shimmers through everything on her debut album.
Drummer Tom Cohen has played nearly every kind of music imaginable as a session musician. But when given his druthers, the Philadelphia sticksman is partial to jazz. My Take features him in an organ trio setting, joined primarily by B-3 master Joey DeFrancesco and either Tim Warfield or Ralph Bowen on saxophone.
Regardless of whether or not TJF enjoyed the success that was rightfully theirs, the Welsh combo hasn’t slowed down, releasing its fifth LP Into the Blue.
Unsurprisingly reflecting the difficult times in which it was made and lived, Deep States continues the Melbourne quartet’s mission of deconstruction, tearing down two guitars/bass/drums rock music in order to build it back up.
Plenty of artists return from extended hiatuses and sputter out with one new album, but not these unique noir rock balladeers. If anything, Stray Gods is stronger than the comeback LP.
Home All Day, Home All Night might emerge as one of the more profound artistic statements of the COVID precisely because the band doesn’t date themselves to the era and the album will hold up long after this pandemic is behind us.
It’s interesting to ponder how these songs would have been received if they had been released in the 90s, but it is undeniable that Hey Mountain Hey is absolutely perfect for this moment.
The great country of Sweden has no shortage of stoner rock bands, so it can be hard to get excited about yet another one. But there’s something about Moon Coven that makes the group stand out.
The Alchemysts may not have existed in two decades, but, thanks to Tee Pee, their music not only lives on – it holds up nicely.
Four decades after the first attempt, Sorrows release their masterpiece.
Evolving out of L.A.’s much-beloved Chicano punk trio the Plugz, the Cruzados never got their due in their eighties existence – the curse, perhaps, of being a straightforward, punk-pedigreed rock & roll band on a major label (Arista) looking for both the next Bruce Springsteen and the next Poison.
