Masters of the musically and lyrically unpredictable, offbeat and quirky yet wildly insightful raw indie rock, the Austin based unit Matthew Squires & The Learning Disorders popped out a whopping total of eight critically acclaimed albums between 2013 and 2019. During that prolific era, lead singer/songwriter Squires earned the music site Ovrid’s praise as “the best successor to Austin’s late great Daniel Johnston,” a local legend whose home recorded music (originally on cass

Now well into his incredible fifth decade as a recording artist, Grammy winning Swiss electroacoustic harpist Andreas Vollenweider has worked over the last decade with British producer Andy Wright (Eurythmics, Simply Red, Simple Minds) on the music for a fascinating conceptual trilogy based on musical moods. In my Music Connection review of his beautiful, intimate and gently relaxing 2020 album Quiet Places, I wrote that the stellar work set the stage for the “next two albums

Some fourteen years after raving enthusiastically about Russ Hewitt’s stellar debut album Bajo del Sol, it’s delightful to realize via his years in the making, perfectly titled fourth album Chasing Horizons that the veteran Dallas rocker turned Latin influenced acoustic guitarist is as melodically creative, rhythmically diverse as ever and still working with an incredible array of collaborators on music as intimate, romantic and soulful as it is inventively exotic. At the tim

A wildly talented composer and multi-instrumentalist who’s made his greatest impact in the competitive and lucrative gaming market, Richard Williams has been saving up a long time to bless us with Hollywood Christmas, one of the most generous traditional jazzy, big band and orchestral holiday gifts ever. With his interest in recording sparked by a master class with legendary arranger Chris Walden, and inspired by the classic holiday albums of The Carpenters and Michael Buble,

While engaging collections of expertly arranged standards are somewhat of a common go-to for emerging jazz artists, on occasion we’ll be drawn in emotionally by a powerful golden voiced interpreter who draws on standards (and occasional obscurities by legends) to create meaningful and artful narratives that invite us to experience the stories of their lives. A popular and charismatic presence for years in his hometown of Chicago, Paul Marinaro achieved this nearly a dccade ag

For all its obvious shortcomings when it comes to fair artist compensation, Spotify offers a tantalizing opportunity to create a unique time-traveling musical opportunity when listening along to a magnificent tribute album like veteran ASCAP award winning vocalist Roberta Donnay’s cleverly titled BLOSSOM-ing! More than a few times while taking in her exquisitely and eclectically arranged re-imaginings of a generous 16 gems from the multi-generational discography of the legend

John Daversa and Tal Cohen’s fun and freewheeling, expansively artistic and powerfully intuitive and conversational collection The Art of Duo Volume One proves that when musical soul mates are destined to join forces and create jazz transcendence, nothing can stop them. In fact, at a time when the pandemic stopped their larger solo engagements cold, Daversa (trumpet, EVI, vocals) and Cohen (piano) found creative refuge in exploring a fresh musical relationship that, if the al

In 2011, flush with the recent critical acclaim for and commercial success of his jazz trio and orchestra driven album Blue Bolero and its #1 Billboard hit single “Bossa Blue,” guitarist Chris Standring offered something equally outside the box for the holidays – Send Me Some Snow, a Christmas themed collection featuring all-originals performed as vintage pop styled duets with award winning pop folk singer-songwriter Kathrin Shorr. As bold and refreshing (and truly revolution

In my comprehensive review of Liquid Mind: Musical Healthare, a compilation of the some of the more recent representative recordings in the musical relaxation/meditation series, I went into great detail about the hows, whys and origin story of the globally popular, spiritually and emotionally impactful brand launched by keyboardist Chuck Wild in 1994. Even as I reflected on the way he began composing this type of ambient music as a coping response to his struggle with panic a

In my review of Stephen Wallack’s masterful 2021 album Colors, I mentioned one of the more interesting musical influences in his life – Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready. The solo pianist’s bio continues with the admittedly cooler narrative that McCready was his first guitar teacher, but the truth (as shared by Wallack himself) is that when Wallack was 18, McCready bought him his first axe and told him to learn how to play it, then provided a few lessons. As obsessed as Walla

All us kids who took piano lessons can relate to at least the beginning of Ed Bazel’s extraordinary musical journey, those many years when his parents forced him “kicking and screaming” to take instruction. Obviously blessed with an innate gift for performance, composition and interpretation most of us didn’t have, the latest leg of Bazel’s multi-faceted, adventurous musical and entrepreneurial life is one that usually only happens in dreams. With two highly acclaimed previou

Though he launched his recording career putting his fascinating trademark sandpaper and soul vocal spin and fanciful arrangements on highly recognizable standards, the ever-evolving Allen Austin-Bishop achieved a grand breakthrough with his most recent album Why Go? That collection included a handful of familiar songs, all rendered in his unique style, but was blissfully dominated by re-imaginings of tunes so delightfully obscure you might have thought Austin-Bishop’s version