Jeshinational Lottery

J.J. Johnson finds himself at the helm of a dream band here - a full brass orchestra with French horns, euphoniums, tubas, and a harp - and gets to exploit its possibilities wherever they might lead. The results are beyond category, where the veteran trombonist's writing has a feathery richness, urbanity, and a depth charge in the bass reminiscent of, but not really indebted to, Gil Evans. There is plenty of straight-ahead jazz grooving but also several episodes of formal, almost classical writing, as in the suitably joyous "If I Hit the Lottery," and rigorous combinations of both, like the angular tribute to Béla Bartók, "Canonn for Bela." The generous Johnson doesn't even appear on a piece he commissioned from Robin Eubanks called "Cross Currents" - Eubanks performs the sputtering trombone solo - nor on Slide Hampton's blazing "Comfort Zone"…

Don Dixon - Romantic Depressive (1995) {Sugar Hill Records SH-CD-5501}
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© 1995 Sugar Hill Records | SH-CD-5501
Rock / Jangle Pop

Don Dixon is known primarily as a producer, but this rock-solid collection of original songs will make you wish he'd step out from behind the board more often. Nothing on this album is especially groundbreaking – not his gravelly baritone, not his Memphis soul beats or his late-'50s chord progressions – but everything here sheds new light on old traditions. A multi-instrumentalist as well as a fine songwriter, Dixon plays almost everything on the album, and the sound is dense without being muddy, snappy without being shallow.

For a Few Fuzz Guitars More is the sequel to A Fistful of Fuzz and like the first volume, features plenty of fuzz guitar. The feel of this collection is garagier (if that's a word) than A Fistful of Fuzz, but both volumes draw primarily from the late 1960s…

With his riveting performance in the inaugural Sequesterfest online festival in April 2020, Ken Vandermark inspired the Black Cross Solo Sessions. Already in the early days of lockdown, making good on the promise – or threat – of protracted off-road time, Vandermark had dedicated himself to the creation of a new book of works for solo reed instruments, which he debuted that day. The result of this watershed moment for the Chicago-based improvisor and composer was a body of works that reassert his seriousness and test his ability to reflect and reevaluate. The compositions, which are platforms for invention, are dealt with in relatively economical, almost stripped-down fashion, ringing with a kind of bell-like clarity and focus. Most tracks are on the shorter side, straight to the point, featuring the rippling intensity that is a Vandermark hallmark, but with an altogether reborn sense of purpose.