Had I heard it when it first came out last fall, saxophonist Brian Scanlon’s brilliant, rhythmically varied, continuously compelling debut album Brain Scan would not only have been a shoo-in for my Top 10 of 2019 – it may have made #1.

It’s the kind of fun and fiery cre...

A seminal force in and influential and enduring treasure of new age music, pianist/composer Scott Cossu - one of the first artists on Will Ackerman’s groundbreaking Windham Hill label - was a creative force and guiding light when the genre was in its infancy. During hi...

In 2018, The Persian Leaps, the raucous and quirky St. Paul based indie rock/power pop band with the playfully inscrutable name, unleashed the pleasurable collection Pop That Goes Crunch as a grand summary of their five popular, super brief EPs released annually like c...

“Invite Me Over,” the infectious, wildly synthy retro 60’s pop/folk meets 80’s new wave/light punk influenced new single from emerging indie singer-songwriter Neill Maclean, is that rare track that can make an ongoing lament about alienation and being shut out also see...

Because composer/musicians and their fans tend to compartmentalize their passions into strict genre trappings, it’s rare to find artists bold enough to transcend commercial considerations and expectations and present all of their passions on a single project. You won’t...

In my enthusiastic write-up  review of Michael Kollwitz’s Billboard charting early 2019 release Serenity III: More Peaceful Music on the Chapman Stick® – the third in a successful annual series of relaxation collections that began in 2017 – I used terms like “mysticall...

Though they are rife with dreamy pop elements and delightfully fuzzy guitars, You can’t exactly call Chattanooga based Telemonster’s vibe pure “shoegaze.” Yet led by the visionary sonic fusion of founders and cousins Ben VanderHart (guitar/vocals) and Josh Barrett (dru...

Back in 2011, Billboard chart-topping contemporary jazz guitarist Chris Standring and award-winning pop/folk singer/songwriter Kathrin Shorr pulled off a remarkable musical coup for the holidays. Collaborating on a recording for the first time, the L.A. based artists c...

If the only way you’ve ever experienced legendary poet T.S. Elliot’s verses set to music is “Cats,” allow the beautiful, Astrud Gilberto styled Hungarian jazz singer Rozina Patkai take you into the darker, haunting realms with her ambient and hypnotic musical adaptatio...

It’s probably a good bet that master jazz guitarist and all-around Renaissance Man John Basile played his share of Christmas music while touring throughout his lengthy career with everyone from Count Basie and Peggy Lee to Rosemary Clooney and Michael Brecker. And sure...

From the get go on her latest, perfectly titled album Stronger Now, pianist/composer Carol Albert takes us on a soaring, optimistic journey reflective of the own spiritual/emotional breakthroughs she has made in the wake of great personal loss. She sets the gorgeous, s...

Throughout his illustrious career as a sideman, veteran percussionist amped up the grooves behind everyone from The Manhattan Transfer and Aretha Franklin to Tania Maria. Yet the release of his multi-dimensional musical experience Latin Lounge – much too rhythmically e...