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Apple Cores from James Brandon Lewis is one of my favorite jazz saxophone albums of the last few years. It hits with a natural, primal feeling – at times fully relaxing and others full-throttle stimulation. The first and only time I’ve seen JBL live was at Newport Jazz Festival 2024 with The Messthetics and I found that set totally electrifying. So, when Apple Cores was released, I was keen to give a listen. The album definitely should be heard start-to-finish as it’s well organized and runs a course through a range of feelings. It’s a trio album with James onContinue Reading

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I became enamored of Artemis in August of 2024 when I first caught them live at the Newport Jazz Festival. Interestingly, Arboresque was recorded in New York City just two weeks after that event, so it’s fitting that I dive in with this review. The group’s bio is shown in the display box on the right and comments from the band are shown with each track. Arboresque is a great jazz album, full stop. The instrumentation configuration of drums, bass, keys, trumpet, and sax enables the sound to be both plush and full and at the same time highlight theContinue Reading

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Galáctico is the second studio album from the Joe Tatton Trio and it’s top notch. Joe’s made his bones as the keyboard player for The New Mastersounds for 18 years teams up here with guitarist Lucas De Mulder who released his first album on Color Red last year. This album is an excellent mix of uptempo funk and jazz as well as more dramatic cinematic pieces. It also comes full circle back to some of NMS’ roots, bringing in the Haggis Horns who played on early NMS albums. I’ve seen Joe’s impact on the NMS sound increase over the years,Continue Reading

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Nick Gerlach is an accomplished tenor saxophonist who as recently been features on albums from some of my favorite bands includng Lotus and Sunsquabi. Concrete Lullaby is his first solo release since the disbanding of his band Cosby Sweater in 2016. For this session he brought in Neal “Fro” Evans (Dopapod) and Tommy Shugart (Roosevelt Collier, The Groove Orient). In Nick’s words, “The instrumental album is a three-song journey that includes a dystopian allegory, a compelling cover of “Black Hole Sun” by Soundgarden, and a funk track inspired by 80s horrors soundtracks and organ trio funk.  Have a listen andContinue Reading

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Chris Bullock is perhaps best known as the sax player for Snarky Puppy, the 5-time Grammy-winning funk-world-jazz fusion band. Chris leans most heavily on tenor sax with the band but also hits flute regularly and occasionally on soprano sax and bass clarinet. His solos are always adventurous and powerful. On the recent Empire Central album, he penned one of the funkiest tunes called East Bay. On Chris’ prior solo release, Boomtown, he relied heavily on keys and electronic jams for a very modern musical journey. Now, with the release of his latest album, he takes it back to some straightContinue Reading

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M-A-C-E-O Parker is the most iconic funk sax player of all time, full stop.  He’s had a nearly 60-year career and has been on many of the most famous recordings of all time with James Brown, Parliament/Funkadelic, The JB’s and since the early 1990s his own albums.  He’s one of those rare musicians that can go by one name only, Maceo! I’ve been a fan throughout his career and now he’s come out with his first studio album in eight years.  It’s a great 10-track album with a definite New Orleans flair spanning eight covers and two Maceo originals. HeContinue Reading