Month: January 2014

Ah! There’s nothing like the big beefy sound of the “Texas Tenor” to cure whatever pains you have. I’m convinced if you could just take Gene Ammons’ tone and make a balm out of it and rub it into your…

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If you want to hear how a guitar is supposed to sound these days, you can’t go wrong with an album by George Cotsirilos. Here, he’s in a trio format with Robb Fisher/b and Ron Marabuto/dr, and together an intimate…

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Guitarist Leni Stern continues her foray into mixing jazz and African sounds on this excellent session of originals. She teams up with Mamadou Ba/b and Alioiune Faye/perc as the core foundation, but various percussionists, vocalists and keyboardists pop in like…

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Here’s a trumpet player you may not be familiar with, but you’ll like him a lot. Pete Rodriguez sings as well as writes most of the material here as he leads a band of Daniel Dufour/dr, Sam Pankey/b, Luis Perdomo/p…

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Here are two self produced releases by artists and groups trying to develop their own sounds. Wide Hive Players consists of Matt Montgomery/b-key, Gregory Howe/B3, Calvin Keys/g, Doug Rowan/sax, Mike Rinta/tb, and Thomas McCree-Josh Jones/dr. Montgomery and Howe do the…

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  Here are a couple of guitarists that are working on creating their own unique personal and group sound. Guitarist Eric Divito mixes his lithe and symbiotic trio of Corcoran Holt/b and Alyssa Falk Verheyn/dr with occasional guests Steve Wilson/as…

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Drummer Ray Marchica is best known for being in the Ed Palermo Big Band which focuses on Frank Zappa compositions. With chops like that, he can play anything, and he shows that here as he leads an  impressive team of…

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As someone who plays the sax and clarinet, I have been told many times by my teacher, “Are you a musician or an instrumentalist?” What is the difference? One is using their technique on an instrument, while the other is…

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