Blues For Allah

Made up of seasoned players like Jimmy Herring from the Aquarium Rescue Unit, former Santana bassist Alfonso Johnson, and Dixie Dregs alums keyboardist T Lavitz and drummer Rod Morgenstein, Jazz Is Dead doesn't function so much as a Grateful Dead cover band than as an outfit that uses Dead gems as jumping-off points for a sonic journey that leads the listener not into well-traveled grooves, but into an enthralling soundscape without rules, vocals, or fixed time signatures. Superior playing and that special brand of ESP that all good jam bands possess further enrich these adroit and artful reinterpretations of Dead songs. "St Stephen" and "The Eleven" come out sounding like a cross between Indian bazaar music and the Allman Brothers (Herring spent a year filling in for an ailing Dickie Betts in the Allmans). Recorded live at the IMAC Theater in Huntington, New York, this disc captures all the nuances and guitar wizardry that Herring can wring out of his instrument, but one suspects that this band is even more spectacular live.

Less a homage than an interpretation, less a rereading than a resurrection, Deadjazz gives new life to the music of the Grateful Dead, the legendary group of the psychedelic era. Drawing inspiration from a cult repertoire, played by musicians who have had an unwavering bond with the Belmondo brothers for decades, this collective project is an immersion in a crucial moment in the history of music: when jazz became electric to the rhythms of rock and rock freed itself from the constraints of the song format through improvisation.

Duck Baker is an internationally acclaimed American acoustic finger-style guitarist who plays in a variety of styles: jazz, blues, gospel, ragtime, folk, and Irish and Scottish music. He has written many instruction books for guitar, famously released several albums on Stefan Grossman's Kicking Mule label in the 70's, and later recorded for Windham Hill and Shanachie among others. Les Blues Du Richmond is a collection of previously unreleased early demos recorded for Grossman in the 70's.

Abdullah Ibrahim (born Adolph Johannes Brand on 9 October 1934 and formerly known as Dollar Brand) is a South African pianist and composer. His music reflects many of the musical influences of his childhood in the multicultural port areas of Cape Town, ranging from traditional African songs to the gospel of the AME Church and ragas, to more modern jazz and other Western styles. Ibrahim is considered the leading figure in the subgenre Cape jazz.

On their fourth LP, LAHS (after Allah-Las, Worship The Sun and Calico Review), drummer Matt Correia, bassist Spencer Dunham, and guitarists Miles Michaud and Pedrum Siadatian A.K.A Allah Las turn their collective gaze outward and toward the horizon. Simply referencing a common misspelling of the band’s name, this release on Mexican Summer finds the band turning in their most cohesive and ambitious work yet - a record inspired less by time, but by place.