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Reviews

Reissued Rankin

Sunday, September 20th, 2009

On September 1, Sly Dog Records, an imprint of the Mack Avenue label, made Kenny Rankin’s first seven albums digitally available online (iTunes, Rhapsody, eMusic, etc.). Physical reissues of those albums on compact disc will be released on November 3. Rankin, a fine tenor vocalist and gifted guitarist who handled [...]

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Lester Young’s Centennial

Friday, August 14th, 2009

Were Lester Young still alive today, he would be a couple weeks short of his 100th birthday. As it is, the trailblazing tenorman died just over 50 years ago, in March 1959. Still, the very fact that the saxophonist would’ve turned 100 on August 27 was reason enough for the [...]

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Joe McBride: A Changed Man

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

Shortly after the release of his first album on the Heads Up imprint in 1992, singer/pianist Joe McBride became a smooth-jazz star. Since then, McBride has gently pushed the boundaries of the genre now and then – most notably perhaps on 2000′s Texas Rhythm Club – but for the most [...]

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Miles and Sonny: The Early Years

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

From January 1951 to March 1956, trumpeter Miles Davis and tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins played together on five recording dates for the Prestige label. Historically speaking, these were important, formative sessions, especially the ones in the early ’50, when both artists were busy assimilating the fundamental elements of bebop and [...]

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Mariachi Real de San Diego: Flame Keepers

Monday, July 20th, 2009

“The mariachi tradition goes back over a hundred years,” says Mariachi Real de San Diego’s guitarron player Mauricio Gonzalez. “It came from the people, it came from the hills, from the ranches. It was a different lifestyle back then.” Mauricio is one of six musicians in Mariachi Real de San [...]

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Soulive – Available Now

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

Up Here, the latest album from the funk-groove trio Soulive, has been available as an MP3 download for a while now. Last week, the album was released on both CD and 12″ vinyl on the band’s newly formed label, Royal Family Records. The CD includes a bonus DVD of footage [...]

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