Robert Baird

Although they were released twenty years ago, they are four albums possessed of a timeless beauty

WANTED: Jazz Hero. Must be willing and able to bring stunning new creative energies to a musical genre in danger of becoming stale and repetitive. Must be comfortable with a Marsalis level of celebrity. Saxophone or trumpet players preferred. Old men need not apply.

In 2011, jazz prayers were answered with the release of When the Heart Emerges Glistening, a brilliantly inventive mainstream jazz album led by Ambrose Akinmusire, a photogenic, 28-year-old trumpeter from Oakland, California. The young man had lots of fresh ideas, speed and dexterity to burn, and a unique tone, the combination of which brought back a flood of memories: Miles Davis, Clifford Brown, Pops.

A month ago, flying to South By Southwest 2014, the numbers on paper were grim.

On Saturday, April 12, John Atkinson and I fought our way through toll plazas, endless New Jersey traffic (is there any other kind?) and one really annoying traffic jam (but hey, it was only one!...)

The vinyl reissue wave gets smarter by the day...

In the tornado of music and gear better known as, let’s say, audiophilisma, there are a lot of guilty pleasures.

Once there was a band of brothers from East Los Angeles...