JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
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First off, I should point out that the title of this Miles Davis release is a little misleading. Half of the tunes on Live Evil (released on the Columbia label) were recorded in the studio. The other half were indeed recorded live at The Cellar Door in Washington, D.C. I suspect that […]

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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When I came across Something Else in the used record bins, it was irresistable to me: I had never heard of flautist Jeremy Steig, but I most definitely was familiar with the work of keyboardist Jan Hammer, bassists Gene Perla and Eddie Gomez, and percussionist Don Alias.
Jan Hammer and Gene Perla had […]

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
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I’m not generally a big fan of jazz compilations. Nine times out of ten, the people who are compiling the set have their taste in their ass. The problem is compounded when you try to whittle down a major jazz artist’s oevre to one CD. It’s practically impossible.
The Essential Larry Coryell […]

JAZZBO NOTES RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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When Bill Connors starting putting out releases like Step It and Double Up, legendary guitarist Allan Holdsworth was appalled. Holdsworth objected to Connors aping Holdsworth’s Road Games era style in lieu of Connor’s own style, which was unique and interesting.
You see, Bill Connors wasn’t just some punk who decided to forgo […]

JAZZBO NOTES RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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The Killer Bees project was born as a result of legendary percussionist Airto Moreira’s desire to revisit the days back in the early 70s when the cream of Manhattan’s musicians used to gather in lofts to jam with each other. Such luminaries as Chick Corea, Dave Liebman, Jan Hammer, Dave Holland, […]

JAZZBO NOTES HIGHLY RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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Why do I like Barefoot Boy so much? It sure isn’t because of the complexity of the tunes. Gypsy Queen and The Great Escape are basically both one-chord wonders, and Call To The Higher Consciousness has a big three chords. You would think with the length of these tunes (the […]

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
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The Breckers were often dismissed as shallow R&B fusion at the time these recordings were waxed, which is understandable given the music’s rock star swagger and Michael Brecker’s propensity to play as many notes as humanly possible.
However, that doesn’t take into account Randy Brecker’s innovative horn […]

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
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Probably the single greatest jazz/fusion release of the 70s, Wired combines the talents of Jeff Beck’s band from his previous album, Blow By Blow, with two members of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Jan Hammer and Narada Michael Walden. The result is magic.
Jeff Beck’s brute power and mastery of […]