By Rob Michaels
Contributing Writer
My favorite recordings acquired in 2025
Jazz - New
Patricia Brennan - Of the Near and Far (Pyroclastic)
Chicago Underground Duo - Hyperglyph (International Anthem)
Cosmic Ear - Traces (We Jazz)
Cosmic Tones Research Trio - s/t (Mississippi)
Sullivan Fortner - Southern Nights (Artwork)
Sinsuke Fujieta Group - Fukushima (SoFa)
Gustafson, Vandermark, Reid, Taylor - PIVOT (Silkheart) Read More
By John Bigelow
Contributing Writer
It was a century ago, 1925, the middle of the Roaring Twenties, in New York. The country was on fire. Captains of industry, titans of finance, and show business impresarios were creating fortunes and reputations and making American into a world powerhouse. The Great War was over and it seemed there was nothing but smooth sailing ahead. Optimism was in the air. Read More
This Friday’s featured recording: Pat Metheny’s 80/81 Read More
By Fritz ByersFritz exchanges thoughts with Aly Krajewski about the Song of the Week featured on Jazz Spectrum Saturday. Read More
By Fritz ByersI just finished James Kaplan’s recent book, 3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane and the Lost Empire of Cool. Read More
By Fritz ByersFritz exchanges thoughts with Aly Krajewski about the Song of the Week featured on Jazz Spectrum Saturday. Dear Aly, Yesterday while enjoying the ritualized mid-day traffic gridlock in old Maumee, I took respite in pondering the implications of the bumper sticker immediately before me: “Big Foot doesn’t believe in you either.” Fair point, really. And it set me to a-pondering’ about the ways the phrase “magical thinking” has radiated from Joan Didion’s book title through the culture in ways both banal and profound. Read More
By Fritz ByersFritz exchanges thoughts with Aly Krajewski about the Song of the Week featured on Jazz Spectrum Saturday.Dear Aly, The noted Sixteenth-Century jazz critic Martin Luther is said to have professed, “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant an apple tree today.” For reasons that are indistinct, this wise moral resolution is paired in my mind today with another psychological truth, which, like alarmingly many in conventional Anglo-American culture, can be sourced to Samuel Johnson: “When a man knows h Read More
