Peach

Sweet Georgia Peach is one of 1998's most compelling mainstream jazz releases. Guitarist Russell Malone (b. 1963), known better for his sideman roles with Jimmy Smith, Harry Connick, Brandford Marsalis, Diana Krall and Mose Allison, has produced quite a fine jazz document here, in only his third effort as a leader. He's a musician of many gifts, who never seems consciously influenced by any particular guitarist or even a direct musical style. Indirectly, he can suggest the moodswings of Larry Coryell. But such a declaration subjugates the quality of Malone's individual conceptions…

This album by Dixie Peach, "Blues With Friends", is all new, all original material. The bluesy mix of guitars, keyboards, and vocals capture the current state of a band that has played together since 1972. The band's influences are obvious; but, this album shows their own originality. Electric blues guitar is prominently featured. In addition to the lead and slide guitars of Ira Stanley, the album includes guest apprearances by guitarists Lee Roy Parnell, Jack Pearson, Scotty Bratcher, and Lee Swisher. Etta Britt's vocal guest appearance is another highlight of the album.

Tributes to fallen icons don’t come any more poignant or illustrative than Eat a Peach. Released in early 1972, slightly more than three months after guitarist Duane Allman died in a motorcycle accident, the double album honors the musician via sides he recorded in the studio as well as several live performances that didn’t fit on the mammoth At Fillmore East. The Allman Brothers Band, determined to press on, also contributes a trio of songs completed after their soulmate’s passing. Its execution is near perfect, its concept timeless.
In all probability, the Allman Brothers Band would’ve leapt to the fore of music’s commercial and critical elite had it not been for Duane’s fateful motorcycle accident that altered history and the trajectory of the group’s course…

A tribute to the dearly departed Duane, Eat a Peach rambles through two albums, running through a side of new songs, recorded post-Duane, spending a full album on live cuts from the Fillmore East sessions, then offering a round of studio tracks Duane completed before his death…

The Peach Orchard is a two-CD set showcasing bassist William Parker's work with an ensemble consisting of composer/instrument maker/pianist Cooper Moore (who limits his involvement in music to Parker's groups), improvisational saxophonist, Rob Brown and percussionist extraordinaire Susie Ibarra (Assif Tsahar, Matthew Shipp Trio, Davis S. Ware Quartet, One World Ensemble). This cream of the New York, contemporary, free jazz scene veers from such challenging, busy compositions as the explosive first track "Thoth" to such reflective pieces as "Moholo," basically a study in rhythmic intricacy featuring a five-minute introduction led by Ibarra to the 19-minute piece. ~ AllMusic