Matthew Stevens is state-of-the-art jazz guitar in 2020, someone who is at home with a huge range of the best musicians of the moment—recently recording with Dave Douglas, Terri Lyne Carrington, Esperanza Spalding, and so many more. His approach and… Read More
Afia Atakora’s debut, Conjure Women, is a vivid exploration of the bondage and power of women. A work of historical fiction, the novel is set in the interbellum rural South. Building a town on the ruined plantation of Marse Charles,… Read More
Nashville-based singer-songwriter Jerry Castle releases his latest album, Midnight Testaments, on 28 August. The record includes the veteran musician’s latest single, “Pick Up Your Guitar”. With his ambitious 2018 concept album, Brand New Hello behind him, Castle returned to the… Read More
Brooding in the reflections of a relationship gone awry, the Danberrys’ “Undertow” sees lead singer Dorothy Daniel take the reins with a fiery vocal performance that makes it a standout song. Her booming vocals hold the arrangement together, surrounded by… Read More
Is it too early to announce my favorite comic of 2020? Obviously. So I’ll just say Weng Pixin’s Sweet Time is one-hell-of-a contender. Though the art of Sweet Time is by definition comics art, it stands impressively far above most… Read More
Old Crow Medicine Show entered 2020 a different band than they had been in 2019. Founding member Critter Fuqua left the group for the second time after a New Year’s Eve gig at the Ryman in Nashville. Ketch Secor, who… Read More
For all its Yiddish inflection, Netflix’s 2020 miniseries Unorthodox is plainly a thriller. Esty (Shira Haas) a young, recently married woman, makes a shocking and sudden break from her insular Hasidic world in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She bides her time until… Read More
The Y2K anxiety around the turn of the calendar on 31 December 1999 seemed to come to nothing when the sky didn’t cave in on 1 January 2000. Technology did not fail, leading to government and business catastrophes, as many… Read More
The first time I heard guitarist John Scofield, he was playing on an unusual date on CTI Records, working as a sideman with Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker on a Carnegie Hall concert that reunited that saxophone/trumpet duo along with… Read More
In 1977, Belgian avant-rock group Aksak Maboul went on hiatus for three decades while founding member Marc Hollander dedicated his time and efforts to overseeing his wonderfully eclectic Crammed Discs label. While thus hardly a break from music itself, the… Read More