Jeff Lorber – Heard ThatSome nice pop-jazz gems; guests include Rex Rideout, trumpeters Rick Braun and Ron King, and Gerald Albright. Buy the CD or DRM-free download at Amazon Buy the download from iTunes Will Bernard – Blue Plate Special Buy the CD at Amazon Buy the download from iTunes Take 6 – The StandardA [...]

Kenny Garrett – Sketches of MD: Live At The Iridium. “I wanted to document the band I took on the road for Beyond the Wall while we were working with Pharoah and also write some new songs,” says Kenny of this new recording which features Pharoah Sanders. “The idea of doing the Miles-related songs just [...]

NewsOK.com reports on the latest in Wayman Tisdale’s battle with cancer. The former basketball star and chart-topping contemporary jazz bassist had the lower part of his right leg removed on Monday. It’s expected that the surgery will eliminate the disease. Although he’s now resting at his home in Tulsa, he plans on quick rebound. Tisdale [...]

Saxophonist Curtis Haywood is donating a portion of his sales of his self-titled debut recording to two causes: Feed the Children and Self Help Africaposition. Feed The Children helps supply food for the people of Ethiopa and around the globe, while Self Help Africa Self Help Africa is an international development agency engaged in promoting [...]

Acid jazz was the hip new style taking the States by storm in the 90s. While much of it was created by producers and deejays from abroad, two west coast musicians decided to tackle the genre themselves by fusing jazz melodies with hip hop stylings on the release Solar System (1996). The musicians responsible for [...]

Wow! What a discovery! I was at the Berks Jazz Festival last week. Unfortunately, I was only able to spend two of the festival’s ten days taking in music. Simultaneously I realized that Peak has released the debut of 26-year-old saxophonist Jessy J, who also was to appear at Berks as part of the Guitars [...]

It’s hard to believe that Kenny G is 51 years old but, after releasing 26 albums for Arista, he is starting a new relationship with Concord Records. Concord, by the way, is about the only record company supporting jazz in a big way these days (thank God for an independent label!). I haven’t really listened [...]

In the liner notes to Play, the latest Jeff Kashiwa release, writer Brian Soergel writes “a new creative direction in contemporary jazz – a shaking free of abundantly creative talent in a genre sagging under the weight of yesterday’s rules – is forcefully redefining a style desperately in need of fine tuning.” With a little [...]

If you ever wanted to know how the term “smooth jazz” came about, Marcus Miller has posted the answer to that on his forum. He also writes about its evolution and current state. It’s the best information I’ve seen about that genre and it comes from a guy who knows (having produced and played with [...]