Trumpeter Dave Douglas has participated in so many styles of music that listing them all would be mesmerizing. Some of his best work has been performed in free style and hard bop jazz groups. Here, he charts a different path, albeit one that he has pursued successfully before, in a mellow, lovely vein. Douglas is the only horn, backed by Guy Klucevsek's eclectic accordion, Mark Feldman's gloriously sweet violin, and Greg Cohen's acoustic string bass. With some exceptions, the dynamics are generally low, the tempos slow, and the mood serene. There is almost a post-minimalism to it all, capped by the exquisite sound of Douglas' trumpet.
Shortly before his death in 1992, Dixon won a Grammy in 1988 for Hidden Charms. Not one of Dixon's stronger albums, Hidden Charms obviously gave the Grammy voters a chance to recognize someone who'd completely altered the blues. Not bad for roughly 70 years of struggle in the Depression, in the boxing ring, in jails, in recording studios, and in courtrooms. Dixon's ring career might have been short-lived, but he was a fighter to the core.
After spending the bulk of their career pioneering the soaring sonic brutality that is melodic death metal, In Flames find themselves continuing down the path of progressive alt-metal on their 11th studio album, Siren Charms. Given the blazing, fretboard-melting music the Gothenburg band has put out in the past, the pace, or lack thereof, of Siren Charms makes the album feel a bit too casual, and makes it another in a long line of increasingly tame outings from the band, who had been steadily changing their sound for years before going all in after the departure of primary songwriter Jesper Strömblad with 2011's Sound of a Playground Fading. Although this change, seen by some as the "Americanization" of their sound, has steadily taken root, the band's last couple of albums have really seen it start to bear fruit…