Music Reviews

Ethan Iverson may be best known as the original pianist for The Bad Plus, a trio that made an improbably huge splash in the early 2000s by grafting jazz rhythms onto such pop and punk tunes as Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Blondie’s “Heart of Glass,” Aphex Twin’s “Flim,” and Abba’s “Knowing Me Knowing You”—and doing it with energy, wit, virtuosity, and genuine cross-genre feel for idiom: no nudge-wink po-mo irony. The group’s drummer and bassist, Dave King and... Read More

There is a moment in the 1950 French film of the Orpheus legend by legendary poet and director Jean Cocteau when the hero enters the shadow world to find his dead wife by passing through a mirror. He stands before the mirror - tentative - and then as he reaches out his hands to begin his journey, they appear to pass through the mirror’s surface.It’s an indelible image that remains iconic to this day, achieved through simple analogue means, that still brings gasps to... Read More

ORG Music continues their rollout of selections from the Westbound Records catalog that have been remastered and reissued on vinyl for the first time in several decades with a rare release from later in the label’s history, Eramus Hall’s, Your Love is My Desire (1980). Armen Boladian founded Detroit’s Westbound Records 1968 and it became a soul and funk dynamo, especially during the years following Motown’s exodus from Motor City. ORG’s series recently included the... Read More

The term “supergroup” heralds a level of heightened pressure and expectation. If bands like Cream, Blind Faith, or Emerson Lake & Palmer had instant success granted to them, Bad Company found themselves in good company. The group formed from the ashes of three of England’s beloved groups: Free, Mott The Hoople, and King Crimson. Vocalist Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke had enough of Free’s guitarist Paul Kossoff’s drug abuse and unreliability. Guitarist Mick... Read More

Afric Pepperbird by the Jan Garbarek Quartet with Terje Rypdal, Arild Andersen and Jon Christensen was an early ECM touchstone, and the beginning of five decades of cooperation between producer Manfred Eicher, engineer Jan Erik Kongshaug and the four Norwegian players. It gets its first vinyl reissue since 1976 in ECM's Luminessence series.

If the above title scans, then you’re probably already familiar with the well-worn tale of ex-Beatle gone rogue to the far reaches of Nigeria. If not we can refer you to Wikipedia where tales of poor studio conditions, robbery and physical exhaustion all did their best to derail Sir Paul’s fifth solo attempt at getting back into the upper ranks of the pop realm.But if you just glance at the charts from the years before he, the memsahib and Denny Laine set off on... Read More

Have you seen the 2022 movie “Armaggedon Time”? It’s a coming of age movie set in 1980 Queens, New York about a creative, dreamer of a young man who wants to become an artist but his traditional Jewish parents are of course against it, preferring he become a “professional”. His musical tastes are rock’n’roll but after befriending a Black classmate, he’s introduced to Hip-Hop.Not that the movie is about music, but music represents the cultural crosswind at the time in... Read More

Herbie Nichols, who died of leukemia in 1963 at the age of 44, was a jazz composer-pianist of vast talent, wit, and virtuosity, but little luck. He recorded just four albums (three for Blue Note, one for Bethlehem), none of which sold well; his music may have been at once too formalistic and too quirky for its time. He had a playful style, not unlike Thelonious Monk's, who was a friend and contemporary, though Nichols' sense of structure and harmony was... Read More

The pantheon of guitar gods from the 1970s consists of the usual players that come to mind: Jimmy Page, Tony Iommi, and Ritchie Blackmore, just to name a few. Best known for being the original guitarist in KISS and adopting the makeup persona of “The Spaceman,” Ace Frehley is a self-described anomaly. His unorthodox approach to guitar playing left a mark on teenagers who spent their adolescent years learning his solos note-for-note. KISS’ on-stage theatrics enabled... Read More

Yen Records encapsulated bubble-era Japan’s artistic experimentation at a mainstream-adjacent level, though some artists never took off. Among them was Tamao Koike, whose new CD TAMAO - Complete Yen Years documents her short-lived '80s attempt at techno-kayō stardom. Partially produced by Yellow Magic Orchestra, Koike's music deserves rediscovery.

One of my favorite classical records of the last few years is Impex Records’ stunning reissue of violinist Jascha Heifetz and cellist Gregor Piatigorsky’s Beethoven Op. 1 trio on RCA (LSC-2770). This often overlook record originally released on the much-maligned RCA Dynagroove label has been brought back to life, sounding worlds away from the compressed original.I had secretly hoped the label would be dipping its toes back into the RCA classical waters, but I think... Read More

When someone has worked with a Beatle, they've no doubt reached a certain career pinnacle. It may be in film, audio, art, or elsewhere, it doesn’t matter what field, Beatles don’t work with folks who are second best. When it comes to music, however, this is Mt. Everest. To be given the opportunity to create music with a Beatle is what rock and roll dreams are made of. As an added bonus, you can be sure that the contributions you’ve made to the recording will be... Read More

The obi says the Adderley/Evans "reunion" was "Cannonball"'s idea, something I didn't know when I picked up a Japanese repress for $3.98 at Record Surplus back in the mid-80s during the era of the great "vinyl record replacement dump"—and what a great time it was for those who recognized the CD folly for what it was!The cover shot doesn't have Julian appearing all that happy posing with his horn in front of some art that... Read More

If the task is to compare five releases of an album, which it is here, at least it should be an album worth repeated listenings, and of course Ballads is, though it's not up there with Coltrane's greatest recorded achievements. It can't be beat as a Coltrane intro record for non-jazz fans who need the melody. For the rest of us, while Coltrane's playing is straight ahead and wonderfully lyrical, McCoy Tyner center stage wraps his fingers around the... Read More

Trio Fascination: Edition One—a 1997 piano-less trio session, newly mastered on two LPs as part of Blue Note’s Tone Poet series—is a magical album. First, the trio itself—Joe Lovano on various reeds, Dave Holland on bass, Elvin Jones on drums—was a one-time-only combo, the likes of which remains nearly unparalleled. Second, the music (all but one track composed by Lovano) is original, almost inexplainable, yet very accessible. Finally, the fact that this reissue... Read More

So now, let me tell you why High Definition Tape Transfer’s stunning first-release downloads, based upon Jerry Bruck’s experimental session tapes from more than 50 years ago, is a “Must Buy” recommendation if you love the music of Gustav Mahler. (However, the same holds true, even if all you want is to hear your stereo system sounding as though it is worth all the money you have put into it!)