When vocal and piano powerhouse Diana Krall burst on to the jazz scene in the mid-nineties, the form was getting a bit long in the teeth. Most of the legends had passed on or exceeded […]
The holidays have long since come and gone. Eagerly anticipated tropical getaways have been actualized. After a brief dearth typical of a year’s end, the music resumes. Here are a few things that arrived in […]
Hiromi/Edmar Castaneda “Live In Montreal” (Telarc) Released October 6, 2017 If you think about it, the harp is just a piano with its guts strewn about. Or, to be more historically accurate, the piano is […]
Kermit Ruffins and Irvin Mayfield: A Beautiful World (Basin Street) Release date: Fri., Sept. 22 There are but a scant few constants you can count on in this woeful world: Frozen pizza is always sub-par, dogs […]
John Pizzarelli: “Sinatra and Jobim @ 50” (With Daniel Jobim) (Concord) Full disclosure: Until this year, the 50th anniversary of the historic mind-melding of Frank Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim, I was mildly in the […]
Joel Shapira: “In Essence” The guitar, and its distant kin, the piano, are self-contained orchestras. Few other instruments possess their range in dynamics and melodic potential. If you’re going to master either, it helps to […]
Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’: “TajMo” (Concord) If I ruled the world, and it is decidedly a good thing that I do not, all my recording pipe dreams would bear fruit. Given two brilliant acoustic […]
Louis Hayes: Serenade For Horace (Blue Note) Street date May 26, 2017 Blue Note Records has given a home to arguably the greatest recording artists in jazz for many decades. Like all major record labels, particularly […]
