Hughes Taylor plays his 6 string ax hard and heavy, and sings with a snarl with a team of Ben Alford/, Tom Wilson/key, Jonathan Benton-Greg Sassaman/dr and a mix of guests. His guitar wails with a Hendrixy swirl on the…
Month: October 2021
Paxton/Spangler Septet: Anthem For The New Nation
One of the more under-appreciated composers in jazz, Abdullah Ibrahim, has a collection of his compositions adroitly interpreted by the co-led team of Tbone Paxton/tb and RJ Spangler/perc along with a team of Phillip J. Hale/key, Sean Perlmutter/dr, Jeff Cuny/b,…
CROONER…Jack Wood: We Were Lovers
Even before reading the liner notes, I took a listen to this album by singer Jack Wood and thought “this guy took his Jack Jones pills!”. Sure enough, the album waws inspired by the Boomer Crooner, and is better for…
MUSIC TO LIFT UP YOUR SOUL…MUSIC FOR LOVE: VOLUME 1
In this day of lockdowns, political tensions, COVID restrictions and political blame games, there seems to be a dearth of encouraging messages. Well, this album, put together by 29 different artist from 8 various countries, is attempting to put some…
TWELVE STRINGS OF JOY…Larry Carlton & Paul Brown: Soul Searchin’
Ever since the earliest days of jazz, guitar duet albums have been one of the true pleasures of America’s classical music. Smooth sounding guitarist Paul Brown teams up with iconic six stringer Larry Carlton, no stranger to the genre, for…
VINTAGE R&B AND PROGRESSIVE JAZZ FROM AVID…Jackie Wilson: Five Classic Albums, Stan Kenton: Four Classic Albums
Hard hitting R&B and forward thinking big band jazz are presented by UK based AVID Records Nicknamed “Mr. Excitement”, ex-boxer Jackie Wilson set the stage for all of the subsequent “soul” singers like Sam Cooke and Otis Redding. His 1958…
Mike Cohen: Winter Sun
Playing mostly alto sax with a dash of soprano, Mike Cohen leads a quartet of Brian Gelfand/p, Ronen Itzik/dr and Danny Weller/b through a mix of (mostly) post modern originals. His tone is warm and easy on the ears, most…
Staci Griesbach Presents the George Jones Songbook @ Catalina’s 10.07.21
Dizzy did it with Afro Cuban. Getz, likewise with bossa nova. Miles plugged in. Like all of these giants who injected new blood into jazz, vocalist Staci Griesbach is doing by bringing in songbooks from the country and western side…
Joe Bonamassa: Time Clocks
For the past number of years, Joe Bonamassa has kept his regular working band together for his “regular” albums, using his alias names and groups in which to indulge his more rootsy nature. This time, however, under his own name,…
BLUES BREAKERS…Joe Louis Walker: Eclectic Electric, Jeremy Monteiro & Alberto Marisco: Jazz-Blues Brothers, Landslide Records: 40 Years Anniversary Issue
The blues are brewin’… Blues vet Joe Louis Walker is in vintage form on both voice and pickings with an all star cast of John Lindsay Bradvord/b, Phillip/key, Byron Cage-Joh nMedeiros Jr-Geno Blacknell Jr/dr and various guests including studio stud…