While perhaps best known for his 16 years recording and touring with Santana (starting with the iconic Grammy winning album Supernatural), veteran Bay Area trumpeter Bill Ortiz is a true multi-genre force of nature with a resume spanning 40 years – including a hip/hop R&B splash in the 90s when a resume already bustling with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea and Pete Escovedo added Tony Toni Tone, TLC and En Vogue to the mix. Considering his passion for and expertise

The dynamic, inspiring story of how drummer/percussionist Jimmy Branly went from a rock and roll and obsessive learning his craft on makeshift drums made out of spare parts, forming the drum skins out of X-ray film, in his native Cuba to becoming one of L.A.’s first call session and touring masters is one for the ages. Yet his fascinating journey and all-star multi-genre resume seem only like a sweet, grooving prelude to the edgy and exotic vibes he’s creating now on The Meet

In the era where CDs were the predominant form of music consumption, it was fairly common for artists to create artful, sometimes eyepopping packaging to more intensely engage the listener and encourage a deeper dive into album concepts as they ventured into the music. On Ester Wiesnerova’s exquisite, rhythmically and harmonically eclectic debut album Blue Journal – a truly international affair featuring musicians from the U.S., UK, Japan and her native Slovakia, the emerging

In 2019, I had the privilege of hearing and reviewing (actually, raving!) about “Sweet Onion,” the soulful and infectious debut single by Swiss born guitarist (and freewheeling citizen of the world) Lars Taylor. I’m thrilled to see he’s dropped a bunch of excellent tracks since then, including “Smile” (2021), another acoustic gem (with a distinctive flamenco touch) that has aired multiple times on SiriusXM’s Watercolors. While equally remarkable and melodically and rhythmical

Since Rihanna burst into pop consciousness in the mid-2000s, she’s been such a pervasive force not only in music but in our culture in general that the mere thought of the Caribbean island of Barbados brings to mind only her and her staggering statistics – 250 million records sold worldwide, 14 #1s and 31 top-ten singles, nine Grammys, 13 American Music Awards and being named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world twice. Since Rihanna’s been around, j

The Lord of the Rings by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien is one of the bestselling trilogies ever written; published in 1954, it began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book The Hobbit. Decades later, it was turned into the OSCAR®-winning epic film series by Peter Jackson. It has been called the most widely read and influential epic fantasies of all time. David Arkenstone, a Tolkienite now for quite a few decades, very precisely recalls the time in his youn

Generally when we reflect on lengthy and successful careers in music, it’s customary to frontload with length of discography and important industry accolades. So as we listen to veteran synthesist/composer Meg Bowles' exquisite, transcendent and deeply contemplative and spiritual new collection Pilgrimage, it makes perfect sense to mention that the project is the culmination of 30 years as a recording artist – a journey that began with her first two releases in 1993, Inner Sp

Formed by trombonist and JPL spacecraft engineer Jim Lewis in the 2000s, the multi-faceted, high energy horn fired funk and jazz ensemble San Gabriel 7 has, over the course of over 10 albums since 2006, lived up to its trademarked motto: “Music the Way It’s Supposed to Feel.” Somewhere in the mid-2010s, they blissfully evolved from an inspired and eclectic instrumental only band into a unit whose driving purpose seems to be glorifying the great, sometimes underrated female ja

Considering that he’s been one of the contemporary urban jazz’s most consistent, sure fire hitmakers – with nine #1 and 17 Top 10 airplay hits – over the past 20 years, it was inevitable that Chris Standring, one of the genre’s most melodic, grooving and sonically adventurous guitarists, would quickly follow-up his lovely orchestrated standards excursion Wonderful World with yet another set chock full of soulful, funky and delightfully trippy potential smashes. True to form a

From a promotional standpoint, it makes sense to entice listeners to experience extraordinary new (though deeply old soul) artists like indie folk/Americana duo Wood Willow with stylistically relatable comparisons. So as you let the powerful individual lead vocals and insanely heartwarming and soaring harmonies of the Oklahoma based, bluegrass-fueled Joel Parks (vocals/guitars) and Becca Herrod (vocals/mandolin) wash over your senses throughout the duo’s sparkling and eclecti

With the release of his socially conscious, pop, soul and gospel influenced ballad/anthem “The Greater Good,” veteran singer/songwriter caps a powerful, incredibly moving and thought provoking and inspirational trifecta in capturing the American Zeitgeist these past few years. His string of indie singles began in 2018 with “My Brother’s Shoes” (a powerful reminder about choosing loving over judging) and continued on the prayer-like “Times Like These,” a rallying cry to put ou

Closing in on ten years since he unleashed his wildly adventurous, sonically intricate, groundbreaking and musically mind bending Refractor Piano™ vibe on the world with the live album Falling Through Clouds, Vol. 1, pianist, composer and inventor Peter Manning Robinson takes his vision to a fresh level of transcendence with his cleverly titled 10 track opus Celestial Candy. Though the seven “refracted” improvised experimental pieces on the set seem more designed to demonstra