Chick Corea, John McLaughlin, Christian McBride, Kenny Garrett & Vinnie Colaiuta - Five Peace Band Live

Chick Corea and John McLaughlin are icons of jazz and jazz fusion and this is clearly a CD for their many fans and dedicated fans of improvisational jazz fusion in general. If you're not a real fan you might consider a double CD a bit too much retro fusion, if it is possible to have too much of a good thing. Generically, this group may not be breaking new ground, but that's not necessarily meant as criticism. Nobody does what is done here better than Chick Corea and John McLaughlin. And there's plenty to enjoy in this 2-disc set recorded live during the band's 2008 tour. According to Corea, from the liner notes, the band is just playing the music they enjoy. They didn't see the need to define guidelines for genre or influences. There was no intent to do cutting-edge...MORE

The Subdudes At The Hard Rock Cafe-Cavern Club, Boston, MA, June 8, 2009

The Subdudes are a five-member New Orleans roots R&B vocal and instrumental group. They appeared Monday, June 8, 2009 at the Cavern Club at the Hard Rock Cafe in Boston.

The Subdudes are unusual in several ways making it somewhat difficult to characterize their live performance in a few words. It is largely acoustic (the bass and two guitars are lightly amplified) and accessible, but there's a musical flamboyance, richness and mastery of material. As accordionist John Magnie recently said (The Music Box, April 2009, Volume 16, #4, written by John Metzger), one way to characterize the band's sound is like a "...Led Zeppelin approach to folk."...MORE

Gary Burton, Pat Metheny, Steve Swallow & Antonio Sanchez - Quartet Live

This is what a live state-of-the-art modern jazz quartet should sound like after working together for decades: tight, attentive, reactive, and, of course, individually super talented. But this quartet was put together for a one-time performance by guitarist Pat Metheny for his By Invitation Series at the 2005 Festival International de Jazz de Montreal. Not that these jazz greats are unfamiliar to each other. They all have connections through Berklee College of Music and Burton, Metheny and Swallow were part of the memorable Gary Burton Quartet from 1974-1977 (Ring, Dreams So Real, Passengers). Although Sanchez was not part of that group he has played with Metheny for 10 years and appeared on Speaking of Now in 2002...MORE

Trey Wright Trio - Thinking Out Loud

From the first few softly fingered notes of the initial Trey Wright composition, “Rat Race,” the Trey Wright Trio surrounds the listener in an envelope that is moody and seductive. It holds you there expectantly until the final sustained notes of “Reprise,” another Trey Wright original. In between these bookends are five more original pieces by Mr. Wright and covers of songs by Soundgarden (“Blow Up the Outside World”), Marlon Patton (“Monty’s Joyride”—he’s also the trio’s drummer and the CD producer) and Thom York (“Analyze”)...MORE