Gear Diary

Similar to video games, I will often buy music on impulse. Most times I do this, it is like my recent Kris Davis or Ches Smith purchases where there was limited ability for me to preview – and based on previous experience with the artists I had confidence. Or something like Justin Timberlake, where I [...]

The piano trio format is one of the classic modes of jazz composition and improvisation, going all the way back to Jelly Roll Morton in the 1920s and becoming a mainstay of popular jazz starting with Errol Gardner and Bud Powell in the late 1940s. The modern piano trio space was defined by Bill Evans [...]

Ches Smith caught my attention as drummer for Mary Halvorson in her various projects, so when I heard he was releasing a new album I knew I’d have to check it out. The project features familiar names as these artists often help each other out, but the instrumentation is non-standard and the songs and arrangements [...]

There is a line somewhere between drawing inspiration from the past and simply leaning upon the work of others as a crutch; so while Stray Cats or Adele took what came before them and reimagined it through the lens of a new era, Bruno Mars basically doing an 80′s era Police knock-off with a crappy [...]