Bassist Linda May Han Oh and tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana, two modern jazz powerhouses, have recorded one of 2026’s most delightful jazz surprises, the duet album Beneath Lifted Skies (Biophilia Records, 2026). Oh and Aldana are two of the music’s strongest contemporary players, potent in both overall skill as well as sound, and that intensity serves them well on the album. The atmosphere is robust without the forcefulness overwhelming the form.
The album consists mostly of standards that span the spectrum of mid-20th-century jazz music, along with a smattering of originals. All the factors involved here serve the songs well — the duo structure, the skill of the musicians, as well as Oh’s and Aldana’s unique perspectives…
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Communication often has multiple angles: at the beginning of Is affect real?, the third song on Frances Chang’s new album, she sings “Sometimes I want to wear / A head of light blonde hair / I don’t care if that’s unfair / Or makes me ordinary”, and she’s being vulnerable while also putting up a defence against being judged. It’s an interesting mix of defiance and insecurity, and Been Thinking Bout Confession sees Chang delivering this kind of lyrical material over idiosyncratic, contemplative instrumentals.
The piano melodies that run through I can feel the waves are sweet and playful, contrasting nicely with the song’s rickety, distorted drum machine loop. Strings add some harmonic layers, sometimes lush, sometimes uneasy, and Chang’s…
Continuing Doctor Bird’s comprehensive anthology series of Lee “Scratch” Perry-produced singles, Jungle Lion tracks the innovator’s studio output from the beginning of 1973, just before he established his storied Black Ark Studios and created much of his most celebrated work. During this era, he was making tracks that still sometimes bore a resemblance to older rocksteady rhythms, but he was pushing reggae firmly into the future through his studio experimentation, as well as his work with deejays and toasters such as Dillinger and Charlie Ace. While there are a few more traditionally sung love songs, most of the tracks with vocals feature playful, reverb-heavy toasting and chatting. Perry growls heavily on the truly wild “Jungle Lion,” one of his…
Tokyo-based large ensemble Minyo Crusaders take elements from Japanese working-class folk songs known as min’yō, and hypercharge them with rhythm, energy, and celebratory excitement. The group has grown progressively into this hybrid of the traditional and the new over the course of several albums, combining Japanese melodies handed down over generations with Latin flare, cumbia sounds, and other global cross-pollinations. From Japan with Love finds Minyo Crusaders in a mode that’s both fiery and playful, with powerful percussion, electrified horn arrangements, and group playing that emphasizes fun. The album starts off with a bang, kicking into high gear with the salsa-flavored “Hokkai Bonuta.” There’s a clash of uncanny…
Cover bands abound within contemporary music circles, both on stage and in the studio. But a chosen artist’s interpretation of the songs and music of another rarely matches (and never exceeds) the authenticity of spirit displayed by Christian Parker and those kindred spirits with whom he has been collaborating in recent years on the esteemed canon of that iconic American band, The Byrds.
Over the course of four albums now — the most outstanding of which is Change Is Now: A Tribute to The Byrds (2024) — Parker and company have pored through the catalog of the group from the start in 1965 to the finish in 1973. In so doing, the collective has begun to delve into that body of work created by the late Gram Parsons,…
…the deluxe edition includes two previously unreleased demos from Coe’s earliest Nashville recording sessions with Shelby Singleton.
Though Texas Moon wasn’t released until 1977 on Shelby Singleton’s Plantation label, it was actually recorded in 1973, then sold to Columbia with David Allan Coe’s contract. Needless to say, the recording and production budgets were considerably smaller than they were at the latter label. Well-known for its notorious cover photo, the set’s real merit is that it displays Coe’s ability as an interpretive singer, though on a few tracks he tries too hard. He wrote only two of the set’s ten songs — one of which, “Mary Magdeline,” (sic) is considered a classic. Texas Moon is lean, almost raw. Highlights include Coe’s readings of…
Now well into his sixth decade, Michael McDermott keeps on producing records of quality from his home city of Chicago. The eagerly awaited Flowers from the Graveyard features eleven songs written by the artist and played by a well-honed band of collaborators that includes his wife, Heather Lynne Horton, and most of the team who played on his 2022 dual-release Lighthouse On the Shore and East Jesus.
The songs bear many of the hallmarks of a McDermott album and it bristles with opening chords that grab the attention and hold it until the very end. Choruses have an anthemic quality that sounds easy to create but probably isn’t and the overall sense is of a band hitting the open road with a couple of gas stops along…
…includes the original album tracks supplemented by rare B-sides, remixes, and a pair of previously unreleased instrumental tracks.
Maps & Atlases’ second EP, You and Me and the Mountain, found the band moving in a lighter direction than the mathematical frenzy of their first EP Trees, Swallows, Houses. Their first full-length sees them fully morphed into a sophisticated indie pop group. Perch Patchwork is a bold debut, filled with bombastic arrangements, twisting modal progressions, and percussive layers. The skill set is high, but it’s far less showy. Guitarists will still be enthralled by Dave Davidson’s and Erin Elders’ fingertapping, but acoustics take precedent, and moderately slow tempos maintain the album’s balladic feel.
As impressive as blues rocking guitarist Joanna Connor’s studio albums are, it’s onstage where she burns the brightest. Perhaps that’s why she has released a handful of live recordings after 1989’s debut, the first being Living on the Road (1993). But it has been sixteen years since 2019’s Live 24, and even though Connor’s most recent releases shepherded by longtime fans Joe Bonamassa (2021’s fiery 4801 South Indiana Avenue) and Mike Zito (the terrific Best of Me from 2023 [not a greatest hits collection]) have been impressive, they only hint at the power and exuberance she delivers for a typically blazing gig in a club full of blues lovers.
That’s the setup for Live on 11/11, recorded at a single show on the titular date in 2025 at…
John Williams’ place in the canon of film music, Hollywood history and American popular culture is well solidified. The 94-year-old composer just saw the release of Disclosure Day, his 30th soundtrack for director Steven Spielberg – a collaboration that’s yielded three Oscar-winning scores in JAWS, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial and Schindler’s List plus memorable themes to classic films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the Indiana Jones film series and Jurassic Park. Next year, his Oscar-winning work on 1977’s Star Wars – a musical odyssey that’s yielded a trio of film trilogies and multiple spin-off streaming shows and theme park attractions bearing more of his compositions – turns 50. Even with a diminished presence due to health issues that have…
The Huntertones, the powerhouse funk-soul group and the second coming of sorts of Tower of Power, waste no time establishing an irresistible groove on Transmission, their sixth album. If you are new to the band, chances are that you’ve heard them before. Their high-profile collaborations include Jon Batiste (when he was bandleader on Colbert), Stevie Wonder, Ed Sheeran, Snarky Puppy, Charlie Hunter/Kurt Elling’s SuperBlue, and most recently, backing Lake Street Dive at this year’s Newport Jazz Festival. They reciprocate some of those honors by inviting Elling and Rachael Price of Lake Street Dive to sing on a track each.
The group began as the Dan White Band at Ohio State University in 2014 but is now located in NYC. They are: Dan White (tenor and baritone…
On August 20, 1976, KISS performed in front of over 42,000 fans at Anaheim Stadium in California. It was the then-rising band’s largest audience to date; only three years earlier, the band had been performing to audiences of ten people. The band are now commemorating the 50th anniversary of a seminal concert with a new collection titled Destroys Anaheim ’76.
Eddie Kramer, who originally recorded the concert, has newly mixed the material from the original multi-track tapes. The album features liner notes by Ken Sharp, who has authored multiple books on the hard rock group, including the New York Times bestseller Nothin’ to Lose: The Making of KISS. The special collection includes unreleased photos and memorabilia imagery.
With her new album Trespasser, Grace Potter introduces a beautifully unruly cast of characters who step into forbidden spaces with absolute abandon. As the spiritual sequel to 2023’s Mother Road, the four-time Grammy nominee’s seventh studio LP continues the kaleidoscopic storyline shaped by her many road trips from her Topanga Canyon home to her part-time residence in her native Vermont (a journey she’s made eight times in the last five years, usually on her own). But while Mother Road was born from a desperate need for solace in the midst of emotional freefall, Trespasser reveals an artist firmly anchored in her singular vision. Produced by her husband and frequent collaborator Eric Valentine (Queens of the Stone Age, Weezer, Slash)…
Sounds Like Art is an exciting new concert initiative that invites musicians to perform amongst works of art in a European museum of their choice. World-renowned artist Sting performs in the beautiful surroundings of Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum amongst paintings by Rembrandt, Vermeer and Judith Leyster, and reflects on the works of the old masters.
The 17-time Grammy Award winning artist performs a unique concert amongst masterpieces in the Gallery of Honour. Playing a rare 17th century guitar, Sting, managed by Martin Kierszenbaum/Cherrytree Music Company, reveals his love for the Old Masters and revels in the power of books and reading, while performing in the museum’s spectacular library.
Dreamin’ Of is Pieta Brown’s ninth album and her second recorded with Bon Iver alumni S.Carey and Mike Lewis producing with her and forming the rhythm section, and with Jeremy Ylvisaker returning on guitar too. Her previous album, Freeway, released in 2019, met with critical acclaim and recognition from eminent peers Ani DiFranco, whose Righteous Babe imprint released the record, and Don Was, who wrote the sleeve notes. Although there has been a lengthy gap between records, this continuity of label and band gives a palpable assurance to the album.
The record is predominantly indie-folk styled, with a production feel not unlike Daniel Lanois, with a sparse and open feel, additional instruments layered in sparingly and to add texture,…
…Almost a decade ago, when the Minnesota-born Brennan Wedl was a college student living in Boston, she shared vocal duties with bandmates Lea Jaffe and Otto Klammer as a member of the short-lived queercore outfit Dazey and the Scouts, whose 2017 EP Maggot found a new cult fanbase on TikTok in the early 2021. A lot has happened since Dazey and the Scouts amicably disbanded — according to Wedl, they still maintain a “pretty active” group chat. Wedl grew up, moved to Nashville, signed to ANTI-. She amassed a star-studded crew of collaborators, including labelmates MJ Lenderman and Katie Crutchfield, sought-after alt-country and indie rock producer Brad Cook, and grunge revivalist Lindsey Jordan, all of whom have contributed to Wedl’s debut.
Ever wished you could be someone else? Ok Cowgirl’s Leah Lavigne surely has. The Brooklyn indie rock outfit’s second LP, Rhinestone Cowgirl, is preoccupied with “what if”’s and “why”’s, ruminating on the burnout and precarity in an artist’s path. Lavigne opens the record with what initially seems like an explicit expression of disillusionment: “Rock n Roll Ruined My Life” runs through the safer, more domestic scenarios that touring musicians forego for their art. But it’s the heartbreak and adventure that make it worth it, she explains as moody arpeggios simmer in the backdrop. It’s both a mourning of what could have been, and an acceptance that there’s something beautiful about putting everything on the line for self-expression. Ruining your life…
On his previous album 2022’s Avatars of Love, Sondre Lerche hit on a sound that really worked for him. Super sophisticated with loads of strings, smooth textures, and intricate instrumentation, the backing was perfect for his wistful tales of love and heartache. It was such a perfect amalgam of sound, emotion, and performance that it makes sense that for his next album Lerche would want to keep things roughly the same.
2026’s Acrobats brings back the strings and smoothness, as well the pristine arrangements that frame the songs, sometime with sensitive grace, other times with almost bombastic power. It’s a bit of a shift from Avatars of Love in that the songs and sound are a little more insistent. “Drive Me Away From You” is strident and pulsing…
…a digital deluxe edition of the album with three bonus tracks.
The U.K. band Wolf Alice have been making eclectic pop-rock for a decade, specializing in textural music that swings big emotionally while moving within different sonic settings, proving what a guitar band can do to stay on its game in a post-guitar world. They’ve never put it together with the sweep and depth of their fourth album, The Clearing, steeped in classic Seventies and Eighties influences yet never feeling like they’re just firing up a playlist of old bangers.
Singer-guitarist Ellie Rowsell goes all-in on huge rockers while delivering serious personal impact on this album’s softer stock-taking moments. Musically, they’re sharp as ever.
Art is rarely as orderly as a gallery — or a rock album, for that matter. Even when restraint is involved, even when it’s finished, shit’s all over the place in the studio. That’s kind of the point, really: There’s always a bit of chaos in getting the ideas down. Tyondai Braxton understands this. Those who existed, perhaps lived through the late 2000s, recall his stint as frontman of experimental wunderkinds Battles. But his path was never truly meant to be with a rock band, as the aftermath of his exit indicated. Rather, it was to revel in the discord of music in different forms through composition. He’s the type of guy who fits in more with collaborators Kronos Quartet and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma than, say, Grizzly Bear. Braxton was more at home with orchestras and museum…