Category Archives: Music

Hans Kjorstad’s Dålågjel

Listening to this album is like sitting on the perimeter of an after hours fiddle jam at a Scandinavian folk festival. Five fiddlers sawing away at hoary old Norwegian dance tunes, each of them occasionally swapping out the fiddle for … Continue reading

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Sekvoya’s Gathering of Enchanted Herbs, and The Magic of Slavic Rituals

I’m not sure how I missed this one when it came out, except to say it was the summer of 2025 and stuff was weird. But when the second release in this planned trio of EPs from the Serbian psychedelic … Continue reading

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Jon Irabagon’s Focus Out, and Jon Irabagon and Dan Oestreicher’s Saturday’s Child

American saxophonist, composer and band leader Jon Irabagon (a Down Beat certified rising star) gathered members of his quartet to lay down a wide ranging set of modern jazz that reflects his current reality as a working musician and parent … Continue reading

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Lena Jonsson & Johanna Juhola’s The Power of Polska

A Swedish fiddling icon and a Finnish accordion innovator come together to explore the deep and wide tradition of the polska in Nordic music on Lena Jonsson & Johanna Juhola’s The Power of Polska. I’ve covered both of these musicians … Continue reading

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Nicole McCabe’s Color Theory

I know it’s early in the year but I’m going to name Nicole McCabe’s Color Theory as one of the sleepers of the year. This album by a rising player in the Los Angeles jazz scene slipped in under my … Continue reading

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Ingrid Jensen’s Landings

I have no idea where or when I have previously heard Carla Bley’s lovely tune “Ida Lupino,” but this homage to the British American movie actor, director and producer was immediately familiar to me as soon as I heard Ingrid … Continue reading

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Melissa Carper & Theo Lawrence’s Havin’ A Talk

Whether fronting her own band on three acclaimed solo albums or part of a collaborative group like Sad Daddy, chronicling humorous human foibles or lovelorn heartache, or even celebrating the winter holidays in down home country style, Melissa Carper is … Continue reading

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Woody Shaw’s Love Dance

The second run of releases in the Muse Master Edition Series includes Love Dance, the 1976 masterpiece by legendary trumpeter Woody Shaw. It’s part of the second batch of releases from Time Traveler Recordings, the new archival label founded by … Continue reading

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Alex Sturbaum’s Windjammer

Last time I caught up with Alex Sturbaum they had just released their excellent 2022 album Slash on which Alex played guitar to accompany a bunch of players of the fiddle, banjo, and nyckelharpa, most of them from the Pacific … Continue reading

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Los Super Seven’s Los Super Seven

Brendan Foreman wrote this review for Folk Tales. It was music producer Dan Goodman who envisioned gathering together a wide variety of musicians to cut an album that would show the wide influence and universal appeal of Mexican traditional music … Continue reading

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