Music
Freedy Johnston, Rain on the City (Bar None Records)
I’ve long believed that you can measure an artist by the duration of the period during which he or she is making his or her career-defining art. In Freedy Johnston’s […]
Lifetime Achievement in Music Business: Quint Davis
The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival has become the sun at the center of the city’s musical galaxy. It and Mardi Gras are the events with the largest impact […]
Lindsay Mendez, Reaching Out (Rabadash)
Reaching Out by Lindsay Mendez is full of good songs, good singing and good playing. At the same time, it’s hard to imagine who’d be made happy by it. That’s […]
Carla Bley: “Carla’s Christmas Carols”
Jazz composer Carla Bley’s spent a career examining American vernacular music, so it’s just as weirdly inevitable that she’d eventually get around to Christmas music as it was for Bob […]
Various Artists, A Very Threadhead Holiday (Threadhead)
The artists that cut or are cutting albums for Threadhead Records came together to record A Very Threadhead Holiday, a charming, often irreverent Christmas album. The album succeeds in being […]
Bonerama, Hard Times (High Steppin’)
Hard Times is Bonerama’s first studio recording after three live albums, and moving the band to the studio poses a number of challenges beyond maintaining the groove and vibe that […]
Garage a Trois, Power Patriot (Royal Potato Family)
Part of what has set Garage a Trois apart from other jam/jazz/ funk aggregations is its intelligence and ability to follow through on a concept. 2005’s Outre Mer presented itself […]
Neil Diamond, A Cherry Cherry Christmas (Columbia)
For the title cut of Neil Diamond’s third Christmas album, he worked the titles of songs from his catalogue into the lyric. That sounds jokey, but the song is charming […]
Sugarland, Gold and Green (Mercury)
Christmas albums are often about the artist as much as the season. They’re exercises in image maintenance/creation, and sometimes it’s more obvious than others. On Sugarland’s Gold and Green, it’s […]
Ray Charles, The Spirit of Christmas (Concord)
Originally released in 1985, The Spirit of Christmas is one of the great Christmas albums. It’s adult—a rarity—and musically sophisticated. Where many artists caricature themselves when they cut seasonal music, […]
