Elephant9 : Mythical River

I discovered Elephant9 a couple years ago via the great and powerful algorithm. Spotify was playing in the house while I did my Friday afternoon cleaning. Not sure what I was listening to, but it ended so the great Spotify algorithm started spitting like-minded artists out at me. One was a song called “Sojourn” by […]

Mr. Jones’ Takes The Spotlight : Breaking Down Elvin Jones’ ‘Poly-Currents’

There’s plenty of amazing jazz drummers, but for my money one of the most powerful with the most finesse was Elvin Jones. Jones gained notoriety for being part of John Coltrane’s great quartet, along with McCoy Tyner(piano), Jimmy Garrison(bass), and of course Coltrane. Tony Williams, Jack DeJohnette, Philly Joe Jones, Billy Cobham, Rashied Ali, and […]

Road Trip, BBQ, Sunday Jazz, Birthday Celebration

Weekend came and went as usual. The space/time/weekend continuum continues to baffle and astound my regular guy brain. I’ll never quite understand how five days feels like 10, while two days feel like an afternoon nap. And yet despite that glaring disturbance in the force I’m still 50-years old with a sizable 401-K, a nearly […]

Ivan The Tolerable Trio : Infinite Peace

Oli Heffernan, aka Ivan The Tolerable, isn’t one to chill and take some down time. He’s a musician on a mission, and that mission is to dive into the deep end of the pool and see how far down he can go. Dig deep and explore. His music is a crossroads of heady jams, psychedelic […]

Making Things, Jazz On CD, Tapping Into The Universal Hum: 2024 Edition

I’m coming into 2024 hot, folks. Okay, maybe not hot but with a dull, orange glow of a meteor entering earth’s atmosphere. That glow is the glow of creativity. I told myself on New Year’s Eve that I wanted to make this year one where I put energy into making things, as opposed to letting […]

John Runs The Voodoo Down : Me, Miles, and The Portal That Is ‘Bitches Brew’

Even before I found myself going down the jazz rabbit hole(a hole I’m still dizzily finding myself descending into 15 years later) I knew of Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew. As a teen seeing that album cover by French painter Malti Klarwein perusing Musicland or Super Sounds, it would always make me stop and gawk. The […]

London Odense Ensemble : Live At Jaiyede Jazz Festival

When you’re as tight, forward-thinking, and exploratory as London Odense Ensemble it’s hard not to keep striking while the iron’s hot. The five-piece fusion/cosmic jazz collective is made up of Danish musicians Jonas Munk(guitar), Martin Rude(bass), and Jakob Skøtt(drums); as well as London-based Tamar Osborn(saxophone, winds) and Al MacSween(keyboards). A fruitful recording session back in […]

Rob Mazurek/Exploding Star Orchestra : Lightning Dreamers

Rob Mazurek makes music that tows the line between chaotic musical abstractions and groove-oriented excursions. Composer, cornetist, and visual artist that came up in the Chicago underground music scene, Mazurek made his name in bands like Chicago Underground, Isotope 217, Black Cube Marriage, as well as his project Exploding Star Orchestra. He locked into the […]

Unknown Mortal Orchestra : V

Ruban Nielson arrived on the indie music scene back in 2010 with his Unknown Mortal Orchestra project in an air of mystery. This lo-fi project made songs that sounded as if they’d been locked in a storage locker for 40 years; musty, muffled tracks that were equally built for grooving and for dropping out. Garage […]

Ivan The Tolerable Quartet’s ‘Toft House Session’ Out 3/31; Zone Out To “Mothra II”

Oli Heffernan, aka Ivan The Tolerable, makes the kind of drone-heavy psychedelic jams that would be just at home playing in your ears on one hell of an acid trip as they would soundtracking a post-apocalyptic road trip. The songs hang in the air like fog over daybreak waters, or wavering smoke rising off burning […]