Results for "Mike Jacobs"
Lyle Workman: Uncommon Measures

If there's a major takeaway to be had from listening to guitarist Lyle Workman's Uncommon Measures, it's the palpable sense that all of his impressive musical experience has been poured into it. And to that end, Workman certainly doesn't bury the lead. The epic opening track North Star" can single-handedly make sense of Workman's entire decades-long ...
Five From Four

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 ...
Nir Felder: II

Six years after the release of his solo debut, Golden Age (Okeh, 2014), Nir Felder's follow-up II brings into sharper focus some of the guitarist's more compelling dichotomies as a player. His instrument of choice is the usually more crystalline-sounding Stratocaster but Felder somehow elicits a fatter-than-a-big-ol'-jazz-box tone from it. His style as ...
Scott Jones: Fictional Characters

Let's face it, if you're an electric guitarist with high-level jazz fusion chops, there are certain inevitabilities. Merely treading (or in this case stomping) through the stylistic domains of Tribal Tech, Allan Holdsworth, The Chick Corea Elektric Band and the like means stepping into the quicksand of comparison to such behemoths of the genre, so one ...
Oz Noy: Snapdragon

It's an old sentiment but it still holds that great instrumental chops, enthralling as they may be, are fairly meaningless on their own. And quite frankly, they are pretty ubiquitous these days with the internet exposure machine going full tilt. Given all that, it's quite easy for the listener to become inured with technical prowess-- especially ...
Ben Wendel: High Heart

If Ben Wendel's fifth outing as a leader High Heart shows anything, it's that the saxophonist is ever advancing. While this may seem a fait accompli for a card-carrying member of the shapeshifting collective Kneebody, Wendel's worthy solo efforts have been notably more in a traditionally-sounding vein and thus his innovations were perhaps a bit less ...
Meet Mike Jacobs

I currently live in: Coatesville Pennsylvania USA--About 40 miles west of jny: Philadelphia. I joined All About Jazz in: About 2010 but I didn't start contributing until 2016. Why did you decide to contribute to All About Jazz? Since the landscape of the music business started going into upheaval around 2000, the ...
John McLaughlin: Where The Muse Leads

John McLaughlinMiles Davis protégé. Jazz/rock revolutionary. East-meets-West visionary. Acoustic, electric and electronic guitar maestro. Now elder statesman of jazzwhat is there left to say? A lot it seems... As a septuagenarian who was facing debilitating hand issuesand possibly the end of his playing careerhe was starting to say his farewells to touring ...
Filmmaker Joerg Steineck's Top Ten John Scofield Albums

In his All About Jazz interview, Berlin-based filmmaker Joerg Steineck discusses the making of his documentary Inside Scofield. As the title suggests, the film takes a look at guitar icon John Scofield's career and life on (and off) the road as a touring jazz musician. After the interview we asked Joerg to identify his favorite Sco" ...
Wayne Krantz: Write Out Your Head

What do you want from Wayne Krantz anyway? It's a particularly relevant question when new release time rolls around for the guitar icon(oclast). Not that Krantz himself seems to give the question much thought. He's more known for being preoccupied with things like inventing (and reinventing) himself, exploring and capturing ineffable group mojo, or ...