Buy Now
Soul Serenade
(more) »rank: 8479by: The Derek Trucks Band
: :It would be wrong to pigeonhole Derek Trucks as a southern rocker despite his ongoing day gig as the Allman Brothers Band's second guitarist. On his fourth solo album (actually recorded before his third, 2002's Joyful Noise) the young slinger shows what he's made of, and it's not barbeque and bourbon. Instead Trucks caters more to the martini crowd, giving a sophisticated cast to his slide guitar, snaking it into elegant musical conversations with a rather frivolous flute, and some off time drumming that are reminiscent of the clean ...
Buy Now
Joyful Noise
(more) »rank: 14651by: The Derek Trucks Band
: :The third album from guitar phenom Derek Trucks resounds with joyful noise indeed, and amazingly, it seems as though Trucks and his band run through (at least) 10 distinct genres across these 10 songs. Trucks may venture all over the musical map--blues, soul, jazz, Eastern music, to name a few stops--but he does so with a confidence and assertiveness usually found in much older musicians. Then again, he is the nephew of Butch Trucks (a fellow member of the Allman Brothers Band, Trucks's moonlighting gig) and is married to ...
Buy Now
Combustication
(more) »rank: 8511by: Medeski Martin & Wood
: 's Best of 1998:The rather plainly named Medeski Martin & Wood have almost single-handedly returned the spotlight to the more out-there fusion between bop jazz and on-the-one funky rock music. Wheezing and huffing behind a bank of old-school keyboards, Medeski Martin & Wood plow into their songs with abandon. The drums of Billy Martin push the band out and away rather than gathering them neat and tidy, while bassist Chris Wood delivers the rhythms that somehow manage to keep every musical tidbit strapped to the deck. For his part, ...
Buy Now
End of the World Party (Just in Case)
(more) »rank: 9311by: Martin & Wood Medeski
: :With each successive album, Medeski Martin & Wood have become harder to pin down. Having long ago transcended their soulful organ-groove basics to enter a more expansive world of snappy beats and backbeats, eerie atmospheric effects, post-lounge riffing, and the occasional jazz overture, they occupy their own category. Produced by the Dust Brothers' John King (Beck's Odelay, the Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique), End of the World Party (Just in Case) is an agreeably varied effort, ranging from the spacey effects and Middle Eastern taint of 'Bloody Oil' (on which ...
Buy Now
Hand Jive
(more) »rank: 13651by: John Scofield
: :This 1993 recording is one of John Scofield's best, with a band that adds the soul-jazz veteran Eddie Harris to a group of the guitarist's regular associates, Larry Goldings on keyboards, Dennis Irwin on bass, Bill Stewart on drums, and Don Alias on percussion. Perhaps it's the mix of the familiar rhythm section with the novelty of playing with Harris, a player with a similar penchant for inside funk, outside approaches, and altered sounds, but Scofield is unusually animated. He digs into the rhythmic grooves and develops extended ideas ...
Buy Now
Friday Afternoon in the Universe
(more) »rank: 8027by: Medeski Martin & Wood
: :They may attract Sufi-dancing Deadheads to their rock-club shows and they may have connections to lower Manhattan's art-music scene, but when you get right down to it, Medeski Martin & Wood are just a jazz organ trio. Organist John Medeski, drummer Billy Martin, and bassist Chris Wood don't work a whole lot differently from the old Jimmy Smith Trio; they get a good groove going, add a catchy hook and then improvise changes on both the rhythm and the melody. They may take more liberties than Smith ever has, ...
Buy Now
A Go Go
(more) »rank: 7093by: John Scofield
:Album Details:Japanese Release featuring Two Bonus Tracks: Like it Or Not, and Hope Springs Eternal. :John Scofield's stature as a modern jazz master on electric guitar puts him in a sweet spot for this simmering, sexy collaboration with acid jazz pathfinders Medeski, Martin and Wood, Scofield's taut and spicy lines striking sparks against the soulful grooves pitched by drummer Billy Martin, keyboard colorist John Medeski, and bassist Chris Wood. Far from a cheap commercial shot, the leader's plunge into this reheated '60s style is appropriately redolent of its funk ...
Buy Now
Überjam
(more) »rank: 13184by: The John Scofield Band
: :Like his most famous employer, Miles Davis, John Scofield has had his own classic band eras. With Bill Stewart, Marc Johnson, and Joe Lovano he used his distinctive playing and compositional skills to bring a freshness to the sound of the straight-ahead jazz quartet; and on his 1987 Pick Hits Live, he and cohorts Dennis Chambers, Gary Grainger, and Robert Aries used a piercing intelligence to temper fusion's athletics. His more recent funk efforts have suffered; some from the sensitive but 'grease'-deficient work of Larry Goldings and some from ...
Buy Now
Freestylin'
(more) »rank: 45527by: Greyboy
: :If you were digging around for an aural answer to the question 'What is acid jazz?' you could probably do worse than Greyboy's Freestylin', a loose-limbed and breezily funky affair that could serve just fine as a blueprint for the entire genre. Released in 1993, Freestylin' predates the success of the Greyboy Allstars and Karl Denson (whose tenor sax is heard here on one track), but it's basically the same recipe. Featuring a mix of sampled drum loops and live musicians, Freestylin' rides one idea all the way through ...
Buy Now
Coolin' Off
(more) »rank: 81312by: Galactic
: :If you were digging around for an aural answer to the question 'What is acid jazz?' you could probably do worse than Greyboy's Freestylin', a loose-limbed and breezily funky affair that could serve just fine as a blueprint for the entire genre. Released in 1993, Freestylin' predates the success of the Greyboy Allstars and Karl Denson (whose tenor sax is heard here on one track), but it's basically the same recipe. Featuring a mix of sampled drum loops and live musicians, Freestylin' rides one idea all the way through ...
