Category: ESSENTIAL NEW MUSIC

The COVID virus may have owned 2020, but 2021 is the year of Don Cherry. The Oklahoma-born trumpeter, whose curious

People make records for a lot of reasons, and who are we to judge? Music lovers, that’s who we are,

Forty years ago, Flying Nun Records released its first single. The Pin Group’s “Coat” imagined a world of sound and

Loren Connors has dueted with many guitarists over the years, but he always presents them with the same challenge. The

How much does an album really matter? That all depends on who you ask. If you’re Neil Young, you have

Photo by David Zukauskas This album may be a first encounter, but it’s by no means a first impression. Guitarist

When you need to respond quickly, you might let your fingers do the walking. Wendy Eisenberg has the sort of

Time sure can do a number on status and perspective. In 2020, Makoto Kawabata is the ringleader of the celebrated,

When musicians revise their practices to achieve a new normal post-pandemic, they might want to take notes from Masaki Batoh.

This quartet gathered for the first—and so far only—time on a late summer night when everyone happened to be playing

Some devotees of two-wheeled navigation will argue that monoshock suspension is superior because it enhances stability. The music of Monoshock

No living musician relates more to space than Rafael Toral. He’s employed recordings captured by NASA and played music that

Bright Spot could be labeled “bar-band music,” but while that tag is often used pejoratively, it’s the highest of praise

A voice whispers. Some sticks dance on the rim of a drum. A couple contrasting guitars weave around some Bo

The Exposure Series is an annual Chicago event (years with global pandemics excepted) that draws together improvising musicians from the

If you had to sum up the relationship between magicians and their audiences in one question, it would be, “Do

In disasters lurk opportunities. The Dead C, a trio that’s operated out of various towns on New Zealand’s South Island

Cristina Marx/Photomusix If you spot a photo of Julia Reidy hefting her acoustic 12-string guitar, you might think she’s a