At one time, Los Angeles/Hollywood was the hub of jazz. Back in the 1950s-60s, with TV and radio soaring in popularity, studios were filled with jazz musicians playing things like the theme song to “Leave It To Beaver” and living…
Month: June 2024
BYRD BRAINS…Gene Clark: The Lost Studio Sessions 1964-1982, The Flying Burrito Brothers: Live In Amsterdam 1972
While few realized it at the time, the rock group The Byrds essentially created what became known as “country rock”, essentially what every guy with a cowboy hat and guitar is playing these days. At the time, it was a…
Benji Kaplan: Untold Stories
Guitarist Benji Kaplan goes solo with nylon strings on this collection of romantic originals. There’s a delicate bounce to his touch as on the festive “Xaxado em Alegria” and a pretty “Untold Stories”, and tender reflections on “Illusion’s Waltz” and…
BEFORE GETTING SKIN TIGHT…Ohio Players: Observations in Time-The Johnny Brantley/Vidalia Productions
Before putting our sleek disco-laden soul albums with lusty women on the covers, The Ohio Players were a Midwest band that sounded like they grew up in Memphis. This cd contains material mostly form their days of 1969 and 1972,…
The Michael O’Neill Sextet with Tony Lindsay: Synergy
Vocalist Tony Lindsay is featured on this album dominated by standards and Stevie Wonder. The band of Michael O’Neill/ts-ss-bcl, Erk Jekabson/tp-fh, John R. Burr/p, Dan Feiszli/b, Jason Lewis/dr and Omar Ledezma-Brian Rice/pec are upbeat and in a Latin mood for…
Eric Bibb: Live at the Scala Theatre Stockholm
Bluesmaster Eric Bibb has never released an album that his less than stellar, and as he gets older, his voice is slowly turning into the embodiment of rural folk blues. He mixes American folk from the Cumberland gap in a…
Joyous: Joyous
Comprised of Joy Maniscalco-Pratt/voc, Randy Pratt/b-harm, Patrick Klein/g-voc and Phil Weiss/dr, the band Joyous (along with some guests) come across like they drank deeply from the waters of 1970s-80s bands like the Pretenders. Vocalist Joy Maniscalco-Pratt has a Chrissie Hyde…
New Moves: The Chess Project
Marshall Chess creates an offshoot of the famed family label by giving a tribute to the legacy on this album that includes material by legends like Keith Leblanc, Bernard Fowler, Skip McDonald, Eric Gales, Mono Neon and others on this…
Dave Schumacher & Cubeye: Smoke In The Sky
Baritone saxist Dave Schumacher goes front and center with his band of Josh Evans-Jesus Ricardo/tp, Pater Brainin/ts-ss, Manuel Valera/p, Alex Ayala/b, Mauricio Herrera/perc and Joel Mateo/dr on this Afro Cuban collection of tunes. Evans and Schumacher burn a hole in…
Caporaso Ensemble: Encounter
Don’t get intimidated by the subtitle of the album that states that the 8 songs are “a completely improvised electronic jazz composition”. If you’re like I am, when you here phrases like that you think “cacophonic”. Far be it. The…