Robert Baird

And so what really were the great Stax/Volt albums after 1968?

It’s the day after the office Christmas party and yet Bloodshot Records founder Rob Miller gamely agreed to have a chat.

“Our party’s been at the same Mexican restaurant for the past 19 years and I have an incredible superstition that if the bar tab is not bigger than the food tab then we’ve had a bad year.”

Clearly, the concept of overexposure never enters Dave Grohl's mind.

“Jessica,” played by sideman Led Dudek, has launched a thousand air guitar solos.

This is not nostalgia. Far from it. The man still has much to say. His gifts have grown richer. And the devil is a waitin’

I know folks, dedicated jazz fans no less, who cannot be dragged into piano and bass duo gigs. Something about not having a drummer spells boredom for them. Not enough going on I guess. Or more likely, there isn't a horn at work. While jazz virtuosity is most often thought of in terms of the more ostentatious sounds of saxophones and trumpets, and the most common perception of jazz groups is quartets or quintets, it's the duo format, at its most pure piano and bass, that has always inspired a special vocabulary and sonic signature. Just a pair of instrumental voices and musical visions engenders the kind of special chemistry and quiet connections that can be heard on the new Kenny Barron and Dave Holland project, the appropriately named The Art of Conversation.