Alabaster DePlume : A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole

Alabaster DePlume is described as “an English jazz musician, saxophonist, spoken word poet, composer, and activist.” When I read something like that I instantly forget the musician and saxophonist part and concentrate on “poet”, “activist” and think I’m not going to like it. Like the music part of that equation is just a side note for an […]

Nels Cline : Consentrik Quartet

Nels Cline is a musician’s musician. Prior to becoming Wilco’s lead guitarist/noise maker in 2004, Cline had been more known in the underground music scene of California. Playing with everyone from Mike Watt, Thurston Moore, Mary Lou Lord; to Rickie Lee Jones, John Zorn, and Blue Man Group. His lightning fast solos only matched by […]

Monday Check-In, 3/10/25 : Spring Preview, New(Old) Jazz, Under The Weather

Hello all. Monday has returned in record-breaking speed. Maybe the fastest Monday turnaround yet. I’m trying to decide if Monday arrived quicker back in school, or as an adult. I’m leaning towards adult. When you were in elementary school, or even middle and high school there were some weekends where it seemed to drag on […]

Futuropaco Returns with The Groovy “Crollo Capitalista”; ‘Fortezza di Vetro, Vol. 2’ Coming Soon

Drum maestro and all around musical wizard Justin Pinkerton dropped his first record as Futuropaco back in 2018 on El Paraiso Records. Futuropaco’s debut was a mix of late 60s grooves and Italian countryside psychedelia. Fuzzy guitar lines intermingled with tight, groove-heavy drums and lean into the musical spirit of cats like Ennio Morricone, Fabio […]

Elephant9 & Terje Rydpal : Catching Fire

I’ve been listening to Elephant9 & Terje Rydpal’s live album Catching Fire for a couple months now. Letting the immense 80 minute concert recorded in 2017 soak into my brain just to try and put words together to describe it. Putting this into some narrative has eluded me, but I figured what the heck. Elephant9 […]

Out Of/Into : Motion I

Jazz quintet Out Of/Into – formerly known as The Blue Note Quintet – makes it perfectly clear that there are some exciting things happening in the world of jazz still. Following in the footsteps of the giants of jazz that came before, the band that consists of pianist Gerald Clayton, alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, vibraphonist Joel Ross, drummer Kendrick […]

Jeff Parker ETA IVtet : The Way Out of Easy

Jeff Parker is one of those unsuspecting musical geniuses. He’s been a figure in the Chicago underground music scene for years, having played in Tortoise, Chicago Underground Quartet, Chicago Underground Trio, and Isotope 217 to name a few. He’s also worked with Makaya McCraven, Rob Mazurek, Joshua Abrams and Hamid Drake. That doesn’t include his […]

Lotus : Synthbuljong

The European jazz/psych quartet Lotus’ debut release Synthbuljong is a force to be reckoned with. The band – which consists of percussionist Olaf Olsen (Fra Det Onde, Needlepoint), Chris Holm (Orions Belte, Sondre Lerches band), alto saxophonist Signe Emmeluth, and experimental electric guitarist Karl Bjorå – are not making your grandpa’s jazz music(unless grandpa was […]

Marc Moulin’s ‘Sam’ Suffy’

I first came across Belgian musician and journalist Marc Moulin back in 2014. I was visiting Neat Neat Neat Records in late April 2014 with my wife. We were there to pick up the LCD Soundsystem box set The Long Goodbye(a RSD 2014 release.) He still had a copy from the big day a week […]

“Mr. Clean”

Other names tend to pop up when you think of jazz trumpeters. Of course Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Dorham, and Louis Armstrong come to mind, as does Chet Baker and Lee Morgan. But there’s one cat that was born in Indianapolis, IN that for my money is one of the most underrated jazz trumpeters […]