England’s Albert Lee provided one of Woodstock’s highpoints, with his band Ten Years After’s frenetic version of “I’m Going Home,” and Lee got caught up in the faster-is-better era. But as his sophisticated single-note and chordal work on Undead revealed, Lee had a solid grounding in jazz, revealing a familiarity with players like Barney Kessel [...]
Resurrected from Stefan Grossman’s Kicking Mule label of the ’70s (1977, to be exact), Stranger was the followup to Traum’s solo debut, Relax Your Mind. In lieu of beefing up the 30-minute set with bonus tracks, the album is paired with a 13-song DVD of Traum in concert in ’81. Also, the CD includes a [...]
Miller takes a number of risks here. First, he enlists six guest vocalists, not counting wife Julie, with whom he’s recorded a number of duo albums. Second, the repertoire consists mainly of country standards associated with everyone from Eddy Arnold to Lefty Frizzell to Dean Martin. Finally, an arsenal of egoless guitar accompanists has the [...]
It’s hard to say which event stirs more anticipation, a new Bill Frisell solo album or a new project featuring him in an accompanying role. The guitarist is in demand as much for the way he listens as for the way he plays. A “short list” of people Frisell has played with includes Jim Hall, [...]
There have always been singer/songwriters in rock (from Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry to the Beatles and Bob Dylan), but from 1968 to ’75, L.A.’s Troubadour helped launch the “singer/songwriter” as an entity, a genre, and a movement. This 90-minute documentary revolves around King and Taylor playing the venue’s 50th anniversary in 2007. Through interviews [...]
Following British Invasion bands like the Yardbirds and Rolling Stones, but mostly fizzling before 1967’s Summer Of Love, bands that straddled the transition from garage rock to psychedelia don’t get much respect. These one-hit wonders weren’t even invited to the party at Monterey Pop. Though they were no threat to Jeff Beck, Keith Richards, and [...]
In 1973, the Stooges were newly reformed yet seemingly on their last legs. Their early attempts at Raw Power, their third and last album before breaking up again, were rejected by management, although tracks surfaced on subsequent bootlegs. James Osterberg, better known as Iggy Pop, enjoyed a successful solo career, especially in Europe, before the [...]
After appearing on record with David Grisman and Martin Taylor and having a documentary short about yourself nominated for an Oscar, all before turning 13, what do you do for a second act? If you’re Julian Lage, you record with vibes icon Gary Burton, jazz-piano phenom Taylor Eigsti, and others, and release your solo debut. [...]
There’s never been a time when Jim Hall wasn’t at the top of his game. From his days as a member of the Jimmy Gi uffre 3 and Chico Hamilton Quintet, collaborations with Bill Evans, and sideman stints with Ella FitzgThis article originally appeared in VG‘s June ’11 issue. All copyrights are by the author [...]
By 1996, when this album was originally released, the English guitar virtuoso had already been a member of Tony Williams’ groundbreaking Lifetime and Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew band, further melded jazz with rock as founder of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and then acoustic jazz with Indian music as leader of Shakti – not to mention collaborating [...]
