Russell Carlson
Russell’s Contributions
January/February 2006 Albums
Sixty Six Steps
Leo Kottke and Mike Gordon
You'd never suspect that a cover of Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotion" is coming but, whoomp, there it is: track six of 14 on finger-picking wiz Leo Kottke and ex-Phish bassist Mike Gordon's second collaboration on disc. Prior to reducing the classic '70s rocker...
January/February 2006 Albums
Harrison on Harrison
Joel Harrison
Jazz guitarist Joel Harrison plays the music of rock guitarist George Harrison. That's one helluva dubiously concocted concept. Does the slight novelty of a shared surname justify paying jazz tribute to a rock god? About half the time it does. In league...
January/February 2006 Albums
Unearth
Jonathan Kreisberg
It's little wonder that Mel Bay's Guitar Sessions label would follow a disc by the acclaimed Vic Juris with one by Jonathan Kreisberg, a guitarist with a similarly hazy tone and solid command of the postbop style. Leading a quintet for the first time on...
11/08/05 Concerts
Tampere Jazz Happening 2005
Mikko Innanen is the star of Finnish jazz. At least that’s how it appeared to me, while visiting Finland for three drizzly November days to witness the 24th International Tampere Jazz Happening. Before I left the U.S. for the festival, stateside journalists...
November 2005 Albums
East West
Bill Frisell
This two-disc set of live trio performances caught in Oakland, Calif., and New York City posit guitarist Bill Frisell as an artist at his best in the raw, when his imaginative explorations don't succumb to overworked studio arrangements. Coming off last...
October 2005 Albums
Live at the House of Tribes
Wynton Marsalis
With Wynton Marsalis' multimillion dollar JALC compound finally built, the trumpeter could have easily made this live recording an advertisement for the acoustics of its swanky Allen Room or Rose Hall. Instead he recorded in the modest surroundings of the...
October 2005 Albums
Occasion
Harry Connick Jr.
Despite its overuse, the notion that great jazz sounds like a conversation between its makers continues to ring true, and Harry Connick Jr.'s latest is further evidence. Returning to the Marsalis label for the second installment of the Connick on Piano series...
September 2005 Albums
Swingin' on a Seven-String
Lenny Breau
Raised by a pair of country entertainers, and ultimately seduced by Tal Farlow’s cool, the late virtuoso guitarist Lenny Breau was a little bit country and little bit Jazzbo Jones—or actually, he was a lot of both. Country tunes regularly infested Breau...
September 2005 Albums
Back to Back
Tiny Moore & Jethro Burns
It’s hard believe that Jethro Burns and Tiny Moore hadn’t met each other until the rehearsal for the 1979 session that yielded Back to Back. You’d think the two master mandolinists, both 59 at the time, would have crossed paths long before producer and fellow...
08/11/05 News
JALC Offers Adult Jazz-Ed
Maybe you’re a lifelong jazz fan looking to force some jazz-ed on a friend; perhaps you’re a jazz know-nothing who came to this Web site looking for a clue. In either case (and if you’re local to New York City), you might wanna steer yourself toward Jazz...
July/August 2005 Guitartistry
Signature
Roni Ben-Hur
Roni Ben-Hur came to America from Israel in 1985, and his playing is imbued with a yearning quality that hints at his heritage. His fourth leader disc follows 2001's bebop-oriented Anna's Dance and sees the guitarist heading into more impressionistic territory...
July/August 2005 Guitartistry
Homage to Jobim: Live at the Fujitsu-Concord 26th Jazz Festival
Charlie Byrd
You'd think the last thing we needed is another set of Brazilian Byrd, but this live set from the 26th Fujitsu-Concord Jazz Festival in 1994 offers an uncommon collective sound in the Charlie Byrd discography. Just do what you're bound to do anyhow: Skip...
July/August 2005 Guitartistry
Bayshore Road
Peppino D'Agostino, Stef Burns
That especially pungent cheese known as guitar wankery, whose smell is ubiquitously generated in Guitar Centers around the nation by jean-shorts-clad ax-slingers auditioning news ways to impress commission-hungry salesman, can be sampled in great stinking...
July/August 2005 Guitartistry
Pork Chop Blue Around the Rind
Fast 'n' Bulbous
With one-time Magic Band guitarist Gary Lucas in tow, this instrumental salute to Captain Beefheart comes off like a Frank Zappa-directed jazz excursion, minus the tyrannical control-freak element. These tunes fly much like the wounded birds they were on...
July/August 2005 Guitartistry
66 2/3
The Frank & Joe Show
Just like a Hollywood studio attempting to make the magic happen again with a sequel, the Frank and Joe Show follow up last year's 33 1/3 with 66 2/3, another brilliant display of technical mastery and showmanship. Part deux it very much is, right down to...
July/August 2005 Guitartistry
Cosmic Hug
The Fareed Haque Group
Cosmic Hug sports album art depicting two Indian women fondling each other's breasts, nearly giving away roughly half the album's game-plan: to excite with tabla-underpinned, sitar swarming grooves. But the sitar turns out to be a sitar-guitar-played by...
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