Frommer's New Orleans 2011, 4 Edition

Let Your Hair Down is a follow-up to Steve Miller's Bingo! from 2010, and the tracks for this new release were recorded at the same sessions at George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch studio with Andy Johns engineering and co-producing, and like Bingo!, Let Your Hair Down finds Miller re-exploring his Chicago blues roots. Miller and his band have always included a few old blues numbers in their concerts, so these are road-tested gems that are obviously close to Miller's heart and soul, and they include the last recordings of Miller's longtime collaborator (and harmonica whiz) Norton Buffalo, who died of lung cancer in 2009 shortly after these sessions. Miller has always had the ability to adapt blues forms into his pop work, but this outing, like Bingo!, is a full-fledged blues record…

The self-titled album debut of Zaz is one of the more exciting French revelations of 2010, boasting a refreshingly unique gypsy jazz style as well as plenty of contemporary pop appeal. Thirty years old at the time of her solo album debut, Zaz is a seasoned vocalist with years of experience as a performer, and her vocals are indeed a wonder to behold. She's a talented jazz vocalist, for sure, and her resemblance to Edith Piaf is striking. In addition to her singing, Zaz is a gifted songwriter credited with either writing or co-writing six of the 11 songs on her debut album.

Phenomenal saxophonist Steve Grossman, who replaced Wayne Shorter in the Miles Davis band and had great albums throughout the 1970s and the 1980s, has been living in Italy for the past 20 years, and his last recording was made in 2000 in Italy with Johnny Griffin. This CD represents his first recording in over 10 years. Appropriately named Homecoming, this album was recorded in October 2010 in New York, when Grossman came back to the Big Apple for the first time in more than 15 years for a four-day engagement at Jazz Standard. Supporting Grossman on this date were pianist Larry Willis, drummer Joe Farnsworth and John Webber who played with him at Jazz Standard, plus several other musicians including trumpeter Tom Browne…

Bibio's Stephen Wilkinson had such a major breakthrough with Ambivalence Avenue that anticipation about whether or not he could maintain such a breakneck pace of innovation was palpable. Mind Bokeh - whose title was inspired by the photography term for the way a lens renders out-of-focus points of light - is true to its name and Wilkinson’s hyperactive creativity, but not in obvious ways. Though the title track dapples sparkling electronics over a luminous haze of distant nature samples, the rest of the album isn’t exactly blurry. In fact, its sounds are often surprisingly hard-edged and chilly, especially compared to Ambivalence Avenue’s summery vibe. Yet Wilkinson's meticulous way of layering these crisp, immediate sounds with half-heard atmospheres is fascinating (especially under headphones), suggesting the intertwining of the present with dreams and memories, and the external world with the internal one…

Megadeth's 13th studio album, and first since 2001’s The World Needs a Hero to utilize the talents of bassist/founding member Dave Ellefson, was produced by Johnny K (Staind, Disturbed) and features a combination of newly composed tracks, along with older cuts written years ago but never put to tape. Darker, heavier, and more immediate than 2009's Endgame, Dave Mustaine's snarling vocals ride higher in the mix this time around, but fans need not fear, as his fleet fingers are still possessed with the power to conjure the dead. Much of the aptly named Th1rt3en feels vintage, from the familiar political themes on “We the People” and the tightly wound, Dio-esque riffing on “Public Enemy No. 1” to the soft, melodramatic military snare intro of “Never Dead,” which eventually explodes into a wicked blast of retro-thrash that feels positively invigorating, not redundant…

Bibio's Stephen Wilkinson had such a major breakthrough with Ambivalence Avenue that anticipation about whether or not he could maintain such a breakneck pace of innovation was palpable. Mind Bokeh - whose title was inspired by the photography term for the way a lens renders out-of-focus points of light - is true to its name and Wilkinson’s hyperactive creativity, but not in obvious ways. Though the title track dapples sparkling electronics over a luminous haze of distant nature samples, the rest of the album isn’t exactly blurry. In fact, its sounds are often surprisingly hard-edged and chilly, especially compared to Ambivalence Avenue’s summery vibe. Yet Wilkinson's meticulous way of layering these crisp, immediate sounds with half-heard atmospheres is fascinating (especially under headphones), suggesting the intertwining of the present with dreams and memories, and the external world with the internal one…