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Pete Prown
Chase Bliss Onward
Glitch Niche
These days, there’s a litany of “glitch” pedals on the market – boxes that deconstruct guitar signal into 8-bit bleeps and lo-fi bloops. Chase Bliss’ entry is the Onward. Unlike similar pedals, the Onward is remarkably accessible; just plug in and start twiddling knobs; Mix blends natural guitar tone with effect, while Octave adds synth-like…
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Pete Prown
Jerron Paxton
Country-Blues Scholar
Hailing from Los Angeles, Jerron Paxton is a remarkable bluesman, able to conjure sounds of the rural, interwar South through his voice and fingerstyle guitar, as well as banjo, harp, accordion, and piano. But don’t fob him off as another Robert Johnson wannabe. Paxton is a scholar of country-blues and early jazz music, owing to…
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Pete Prown
Freddie Salem
Freddie Salem, who joined The Outlaws as they were rising to headliner status in 1978, died September 23 from complications of cancer. He was 70. Born in Akron, Ohio, Salem played in local bands while growing up and later became a session guitarist in Los Angeles studios, including playing acoustic guitar on a Barbra Streisand…
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Pete Prown
Richie Kotzen
Venn Master
If a Venn diagram reveals a surprising truth between overlapping concepts, Richie Kotzen is the Venn core of heavy rock, fusion, and soul-funk guitar. This multiple-threat instrumentalist plays almost all the instruments on Nomad, including drums, delivering a tour-de-force of rockin’ funky jams. With strong writing, the album also showcases Kotzen’s powerhouse voice and guitar…
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Pete Prown
Weller El Dorrado
Rock-and-Roll Screamer
Tucked away in southwest Illinois near St. Louis, luthier Steve Weller is making interesting instruments. His El Dorrado model is a solidbody with nods to the angular shapes of the Firebird, Explorer, and Iceman, but amped-up with the kind of detail and precision you expect from a custom plan. The El Dorrado has a three-piece…
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Pete Prown
Frank Zappa
Apostrophe (’) 50th Anniversary
Great googly-moogly! Frank Zappa’s potty-mouth masterpiece is a half-century old and now fêted with a 75-track box set. The original LP has been expertly remastered to increase separation between tracks without sacrificing analog warmth. Audibly improved, Frank’s wah-wah shred on “Nanook Rubs It” and “Cosmik Debris” still eviscerates after all these decades. Beyond the LP…
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Pete Prown
LA LOM
The Los Angeles League of Musicians
It’s Latin, it’s surfy, it’s twangy – okay, what the heck is it? LA LOM is an instrumental trio that mines a vein of electric South and Central American music known as “chicha.” With sometime-folkie Zac Sokolow picking National electrics, this album is strangely transcendent; the opener, “Angels Point,” is a good example, the perfect…
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Pete Prown
Mike Stern
Echoes and Other Songs
Mike Stern’s smokin’ new album is the last with longtime keyboardist and producer Jim Beard (Steely Dan), who died in March. Thus, Echoes becomes the capstone to a near-40-year collaboration. Then there’s the music itself. You can hear Stern’s trademark hard-bop shred mixed with sick blues bends on “Connections.” “Where’s Leo” starts with a speedy…
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Pete Prown
Russell Malone
Jazz lost one of its six-string luminaries when Russell Malone died on August 23, after suffering a heart attack in Japan while touring with bass legend Ron Carter. According to family, he’d been suffering from kidney failure for several years. Malone’s blend of bop phrasing, blues and soul mastery, and flawless technique won admirers all…
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Pete Prown
Zac Sokolow
LA LA Land
LA LOM rekindles of the sound of “psychedelic chicha” – a south-of-the-border reaction to the electrified 1960s. Picture the Ventures or Belairs with the hippest Latin percussion known to mankind. The trio features Zac Sokolow on guitar, the son of folk journeyman Fred Sokolow. On LA LOM’s debut album, The Los Angeles League Of Musicians,…
