WORTH A LISTEN
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What is it about Randy Brecker’s 1987 recording In The Idiom (issued on the Denon label) that bugs me?
Randy Brecker is one of the finest trumpet players playing fusion or post bop, and nothing he plays on In The Idiom would influence that opinion for the worse. His compositions in the post […]

JAZZBO NOTE HIGHLY RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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Alright, Dregs of the Earth (originally issued on the Arista label) doesn’t hit quite the same heights as Night of the Living Dregs or Freefall, but it’s still darned good. Besides, where else are you going to find the Dregs’ unique fusion blend of Southern rock, jazz, bluegrass, and funk?
So, why […]

DON’T BOTHER
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Listening to You’re Under Arrest (on Columbia Records) is an enervating, depressing experience. The grooves are robotic and lame. On covers like Human Nature and Time After Time, Miles is reduced to doing soft core R&B covers of pop tunes. I mean, we’re talking about Miles Davis, who was consistently in the center of […]

DON’T BOTHER
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Tutu (on the Columbia label) barely counts as a Miles Davis album. More accurately, it’s a Marcus Miller date, with Davis being the principle soloist. Most of the instruments are played by Marcus Miller. All but one of the arrangements are by Marcus Miller. Six out of eight of the tunes were written […]

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
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After Jaco’s tragic death, the market was flooded with posthumous releases. Most of them were pretty terrible. The Birthday Concert (issued on the Warner Brothers label) is a notable exception.
To a large degree, The Birthday Concert duplicates the set list of Invitation, the official live set that was put out while Jaco […]

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
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The Yellowjackets have often been tarred with the same brush as Spyro Gyra, a charge that tends to stick, thanks to the godawful fuzak the Yellowjackets trafficked in during most of the 80s and 90s.
But the Yellowjackets’ debut album (on the Warner Brothers label) is anything but namby. The arrangements are spacious, […]

DON’T BOTHER
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If the inclusion of multiple musical genres and thematic cohesiveness were enough to make a piece of music a masterpiece, Bob Moses’ The Story of Moses would surely qualify. A cursory analysis of The Story of Moses would reveal hip hop, funk, salsa, rock, and traditional Yiddish musical influences. No less an authority […]

WORTH A LISTEN
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I love Elvin Jones, but I’ll be the first to admit that Earth Jones (on the Quicksilver label) is a mixed bag.
The first sign of trouble is the opener, Three Card Molly. Elvin has elected to double the tempo at which he played this tune on his 1971 date Genesis. At the old tempo, […]

WORTH A LISTEN
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Musicians are human beings like anyone else. They like to work with their friends, people they feel comfortable with. Obviously, this often works out. But sometimes, people who probably should have played together somehow never do.
For example, it would seem natural for saxophonist Michael Brecker and keyboard legend McCoy Tyner, both Philadelphia […]

WORTH A LISTEN
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I remember hearing the tune Line Down, taken off of Paul Bley’s Fragments date, on the car radio late at night back in the 80s on National Public Radio. I was stunned by how well the piano of Paul Bley, John Surman’s bass clarinet, Bill Frisell’s guitar, and Paul Motian’s drums managed […]