Reviews

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 don’t necessarily suggest a drummer-led band. Let’s take a listen to Ches Smith’s These Arches Hammered! Musical Genre: Jazz Where to buy: Clean Feed Records (Currently CD only through the site) Artist: Ches Smith’s These Arches Description: While my knowledge of Ches Smith comes from…

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 chorus is just pandering. So what does this have to do with Justin Timberlake? If you caught his performance on the Grammy Awards, you know he is pushing a retro feel, so let’s take a look at his new Justin Timberlake 20/20 Experience album to…

Spending my high school years playing electric bass in a series of jazz, rock and fusion groups meant quickly learning and adapting to different styles. Within rock there was the looser ‘arena rock’ style and also the much tighter and punchier style favored in New Wave music and by artists such as the Police. Jazz music required considerable harmonic depth, the ability to improvise and swing and communicate. Fusion required all of those things, and also needed the added skills of slap & pop techniques. For me that meant time listening to and practicing with the records of Stanley Clarke…