BackTracks
Your Eggs Scrambled, Any Way You Like
by Mike Jacobs
This edition of BackTracks takes a look at a few selections that might rewire, reset, thoroughly scramble or even short-circuit the “normal" music pathways of your noodle. These five selections are each capable of this in subtle or sometimes not-so-subtle ways. Everything from stylistic jumbles and conceptual twists to abandonment of premeditated form and utter mayhem is here because let's face it, the old grey matter needs a musical shake-up now and then. (Note: Selections from Don Li's Gen were ...
read moreEthnic Embraces
by Mike Jacobs
For the fourth installment in the continuing BackTracks series, we take a look at some notable releases that infuse their jazz with stylistic spice indigenous to different regions of the world—namely North Africa, the Iberian peninsula and the Balkans. As BackTracks was on a hiatus of sorts (and because these recordings seemed to emerge in matched pairs), this edition features six albums instead of the usual five. As before, there is a YouTube link below the article to a playlist ...
read moreLive, Eclectic, And Electrifying
by Mike Jacobs
Live albums. Love them, hate them, they are definitely a different animal from the studio album. It may be argued--especially with all of the tools available currently--that the “studio" recording is the means by which music can be crafted and honed into the most accurate representation of the artist's vision. And yes, live albums can be often characterized by poorer audio quality, crowd noise, mistakes in performance, meager facsimiles of studio material, etc. but the live album will never go ...
read moreFive Albums From Bands That Broadened The Jazz Paradigm
by Mike Jacobs
In this installment of BackTracks we take a look at five albums that not only helped expand the jazz paradigm, but also helped establish the band as a re-merging entity (and an ethos) in jazz. Lost TribeMany Lifetimes Arabesque Jazz 1998 In 1998, a first listen to this album could understandably have been a bit of a shocker (or possibly even a letdown) to more than a few Lost Tribe fans. The two ...
read moreFive From Four
by Mike Jacobs
Welcome to the inaugural edition of BackTracks, where we look back at some notable albums that were somehow absent from All About Jazz's extensive 50,000 plus review archive (or are just plain worthy of another look). For the first installment we have five guitar-led projects from four artists that somehow got by us (but needn't get by you). Zoot Horn Rollo We Saw A Bozo Under The Sea Self Produced 2001 There are ...
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