Category: Ringer of the Week

Fifty years old and as timeless as the a speech by Winston Churchill, this 1963 (from Columbia Records, no less) session lead by flute player Jeremy Steig has been hiding for decades, and undeservedly so. You probably haven’t heard of…

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Recently elected to the Downbeat Hall of fame, Pat Metheny shows that he is definitely not resting on either his laurels or his hardys, as he teams together again with Chris Potter, Antonio Sanchez/dr and Ben Williams/b with an album…

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If you’re not a sucker for duet albums, maybe THIS one will change your mind. Acoustic guitarist John Stowell sits down by the fireplace with Dave Liebman for a collection of duets that sounds like a conversation between masters of…

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Well, here it is, the beginning of the year, and I’m afraid that the best reissue of 2014 has already been determined. There is just NO WAY that Mosaic, Sony Legacy or Concord are going to match the wonderfully voluminous…

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Remember that old song by Dave Frishberg, “I Want to be a Sideman”? Here, you’ve got two releases by one of the ultimates, Nashville resident Richard Bennett. He plays guitar, mandolin and just about anything that can be strummed or…

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On first glance, this release has at least two strikes against it from the start. Any singer that goes by only one name always worries me. Think “Raffi” or “Madonna”. Second, will someone please explain the outfit of afro, smoke…

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I just cannot figure out why everyone loves Michael Buble’. It’s becoming an obsession with me. He’s SUCH A POSER! All my friends think I’m crazy, or jealous (well, he does have a babe for a wife, but I’m content…

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I usually don’t put two separate releases together to make up my Ringer(s) of the Week, but this pair of sessions are so intertwined that to make separate articles would be redundant. You either “get it” or you don’t.  Lord…

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This is the kind of stuff that the label Adventure Music does so well: puts together fresh sounding material that mixes traditional Brazilian with 21st Century inquisitiveness. Guitarist Ricardo Silveira and singer/vocalist Vinicius Cantuaria gather together for a summit meeting…

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Is anyone noticing that bari saxist Gary Smulyan is putting out some of the greatest music the past few years? Last year he did a cooker of a tribute to Ellington’s sax section, and now, well, it’s a different type…

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