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Corinne Bailey Rae - The Love EP (2011)
By Nick DeRiso Corinne Bailey Rae isn't the same singer, maybe isn't even the same person, that she was at the time of her celebrated 2007 debut. Three Grammy nominations, including one for best new artist, couldn't shield her from this world's knifing truths: Her husband, 31-year-old saxophonist Jason Rae, would be dead of an overdose ...
Nathaniel Smith - Nathaniel Smith Quartet (2010)
By Pico Missoula, Montana's own Nathaniel Smith career as a jazz drummer and composer took him from a mountain valley in the Rockies eastward to Appleton, Wisconsin's Lawrence University (where Smith got to perform with the visiting Dave Holland and Maria Schneider), briefly west to San Francisco to study with percussionist Michael Spiro, and finally to ...
The Friday Morning Listen: Allison Tartalia - Sweet and Vicious EP (2011)
By Mark Saleski I heard a short piece on the radio yesterday about the band Cake. Apparently, their new album has hit the top of the charts. The bad news is that hitting the top of the charts doesn't mean what it used to mean. Showroom of Compassion took the top spot for January, 2011. This ...
One Track Mind: Mavis Staples, "Last Train" (2010)
By Nick DeRiso Over the course of a remarkable career, both with her family band the Staple Singers and as a solo artist, gospel-soul icon Mavis Staples has bravely explored the frustrations, sorrows and then joys of the African-American freedom fight. But, lest we forget, she can still rock it. “Last Train," from Staples' most recent ...
Unsigned Treasures: Sasha and the Indulgents - Love in a Box (2010)
By Nick DeRiso Sasha and the Indulgents' Love in a Box is shot through with a devastating sense of foreboding, from the crafty creep-rock of its opening title track almost all the way through to its desolate final moments of lonesome acceptance. Yet, and this is the power and magic of the record, they never bog ...
Gimme Five: Five Disco Songs That Don't, You Know, Suck
By Nick DeRiso Nobody is arguing that there weren't excesses. “Disco Duck," that song about CB radios, Barry Gibb's chest hair. But don't let one or two—OK, a teetering truckload—of bad apples spoil the whole batch. The 1970s had their moments. Even amidst those dark days when pointing straight up counted as a dance move. Here ...
One Track Mind: Pinetop Perkins, with Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, "Grinding Man" (2010)
By Nick DeRiso With “Grinding Man," a rollicking rapscallion highlight from his Grammy nominated album with Willie “Big Eyes" Smith, we get a winking glimpse into how 97-year-old Pinetop Perkins has kept himself going all these years. Perkins, who like Smith made his bones playing with Muddy Waters, connects the dots between blues music's rustic era ...
Noah Preminger - Before the Rain (2011)
By Pico In 2008, then-21 year old tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger issued his debut CD Dry Bridge Road, one that made much of an impression. Fresh out of the New England Conservatory, Dry Bridge Road racked up recognition from publications like Jazztimes, Jazz Review and the Village Voice, where it won the Jazz Critics' Poll Best ...
In Praise of Todd Rundgren: Pioneer, Pop Star, Fabulously Weird
By Something Else Reviews Perhaps Todd Rungren's own restive muse—he's dabbled in every major rock subgenre over the past four decades—simply makes him too difficult to categorize. Maybe Rundgren never stuck with one thing long enough. Somehow, this pop music maverick hasn't consistently found the wider fame he so richly deserves. At least outside of our ...
Bradford Monk - Bradford Monk and the Foggy Hogtown Boys (2011)
By Nick DeRiso Inspired by a record-release performance by the Toronto-based Foggy Hogtown Boys, fellow Canadian Bradford Monk decided to compose a traditional bluegrass recording. By that, he didn't mean sped-up country songs. He meant honest-to-goodness, real-deal bluegrass—done the old-fashioned way, with no winking irony or next-gen updates. His singular focus has paid rich dividends. Their ...
