There is an incredible confidence that flows
through Now Playing. Though Grusin's piano
work is filled with stylistic flourishes, it's
hardly overdone. He knows he has great material
here, material that will stand up, and he's not
afraid to step back and let it do the work for
him.
The music captured on this eight-CD boxed set,
Consecration: The Final Recordings Part 2,
illuminates the separate worlds that Bill Evans'
musical spirit and failing drug-beaten body
inhabited.
In The Morning highlights the music of
Joe Louis Walker's impressive career. It's like a
having a front row seat to experience one of most
dynamic soul and blues artists in the music
industry today.
Fattening Frogs For Snakes and the
equally compelling book that is its mate are highly
recommended juju for the converted and a dare to
those who only think they know about the blues.
Greg Piccolo is more than a talented musician.
Whether he's playing swing, jump blues, acid jazz
or a funky reggae mix, his music is pure emotion,
compelling, and totally electric
The 35th Anniversary Jam is a musical
summary of James Cotton's lengthy career. It's a
gigantic celebration, highlighting almost five
decades of classic blues.
There's no shortage of great jazz piano players,
both contemporary and those who live on through the
miracle of recorded music, but Keith Jarrett and
Brad Mehldau can hold their own in any company.
On Any Time, Leon Redbone's
throaty, mumble-mouthed delivery become a testament
to his great love for a time when melody was king
and electric instruments weren't yet a thought.
Recorded at three sessions stretching from 1955
to 1956, the 'Round About Midnight LP was a
fresh-sounding collection that became an instant
classic and presaged even more exciting music to
come.
Flights of Fancy: Trio Fascination Edition
Two unfolds like a suite of expressive
études, slipping from one trio to the next,
from one musical voice to another.
On Sky Like a Broken Clock, Phelps
surrounds himself with a band for the first time.
The resulting music is emasculated and smoothed
clean of the rough edges that previously endowed
Phelps' sound with its gritty authenticity.
He's still here and hasn't lost a step, a
lick or a note off the top of his range since he
and the Fabulous Flames used to hold court at the
Flamingo for weeks at a time back in the 60s.
Smith makes the ham-handed Hammond chime in an
elegant fashion and has it doing tricks while
coaxing sounds out of it that would have mere
keyboard mortals rubbing the charley horses out of
their digits.
Joseph Goebbels called it "the art of the
subhuman." Maxim Gorky called it "the music of the
gross." Mostly, however, jazz has brought people
together as a community regardless of where they
were from or the color of their skin. Breaking
boundaries and lifting spirits.
Forget the pedigree for a minute: if you can.
Sure, this is the John Coltrane's kid. And
-- yeah -- that is a sax he's playing. But
Ravi is playing it his own way.
A live album, if well recorded, is the perfect
medium for jazz. Sure, there are great studio
albums by jazz musicians, but the energy of a great
concert can propel jazz to epic heights.
No one in the last three decades would have
imagined a diva like Diana Krall. From the
pillowy-soft voice, the pleasantly musty material
and the freshly-scrubbed visage.
If you close your eyes you can almost picture
the trio in a small, smoky, jazz club, playing to a
small audience, working off each other and loving
every minute of it.
