Amy Shook & Shook/Russo Quartet: Oh Wow!

Profile by Tara Nurin of bassist Amy Shook and her group, the DC-based Shook/Russo Quartet.

Maysa: Incognito No More

The slow and steady rise of Baltimore-based jazz/soul singer Maysa

Burton Greene: Merging the Internal and External Spirits

Lyn Horton profiles the free form pianist and learns the basis for his explorations

January/February 2009 By Bill Milkowski

Tim Ries: Not Only Rock ‘N’ Roll

Saxophonist Tim Ries turned some heads back in 2005 with The Rolling Stones Project, which featured jazzy interpretations of Stones staples like “Satisfaction,” “Gimme Shelter,” “Street Fighting Man” and a greasy organ trio rendition of “Honky Tonk Women”...

December 2008 By Michael J. West

Mary Halvorson: Fractured Guitar

Mary Halvorson’s music is best described as “slightly off.” Indeed, that’s how she herself describes it: “I would say about my compositional style, and I think it’s true for my guitar playing as well, that I like to have things that are slightly off. Chords...

December 2008 By Christopher Loudon

Charmaine Clamor: Filipino Fusion

When cultures clash, there is typically friction, but occasionally unexpected harmony. Musically speaking, vocalist Charmaine Clamor orchestrated the latter when she combined her two greatest loves—the traditional kundiman of her native Philippines and American...

December 2008 By David R. Adler

Francisco Mela: Free Jazz Latin

Like many musicians, drummer Francisco Mela is impatient with categories, but he’s willing to pin down his mercurial concept as “free jazz Latin.” With his second album as a leader, Cirio: Live at the Blue Note, the New York-based Cuban native continues...

November 2008 By David R. Adler

Rebecca Martin: Post-Pop

I think all my records have a roundness to them,” says singer-songwriter Rebecca Martin. “Some records are angular, but I think of my records as big circles.” On The Growing Season, her fourth solo release and her debut on the Sunnyside label, Martin widens...

November 2008 By Bill Milkowski

Chick Corea & John McLaughlin: Dream Team

In 2008, fusion came back in a big way through two tours—Chick Corea with the triumphant Return to Forever reunion and John McLaughlin with his 4th Dimension Band. Those two jazz-rock stalwarts will join forces this fall for a European tour with their Five...

November 2008 By Jeff Tamarkin

Southside Johnny: Big-Band Time

John Lyon has never been interviewed by a jazz magazine—until now. But then Lyon, since the mid-’70s the leader of the New Jersey-based soul-rock collective Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, has never cut a record remotely like Grapefruit Moon: The...