News - Page 213

Pianist Art Hirahara has released his fourth solo album, called Sunward Bound. This time he called upon a killer group to fill out his quartet with saxophonist Donny McCaslin, drummer Rudy Royston, and bassist Linda May Han Oh. The lineup helped to fulfill the bandleader’s artistic vision over the 11-track collection. “I actually wrote this record with all these musicians...

Paul Simon is currently on his farewell concert tour, which may be part of the reasoning for his new semi-retrospective album, In The Blue Light. The 10-song album features fresh perspectives on some of his lesser-known songs from his catalog with tracks taken from seven records. “This album consists of songs that I thought were almost right, or were odd...

Jazz bassist Katie Thiroux is taking her trio on the road for an international tour this fall. The journey kicks off with a leg on the West Coast before heading to Europe for the majority of October. Thiroux is a bassist in the stylistic vein of the great Ray Brown. Her latest album, Off Beat, featured and was produced by...

The all-star project Metal Allegiance has just released their second album entitled Volume II: Power Drunk Majesty. The group is comprised of guitarist Alex Skolnick, drummer Mike Portnoy, and two bassists: Mark Menghi and David Ellefson. Even though each member is busy with their own bands, they come together as a unit to write and record with tons of special...

Clutch has returned with their twelfth studio album, entitled Book of Bad Decisions. While fans can expect the same heavy grooves the band is known for, they also expanded their sound a bit. Bassist Dan Maines explained that working with producer Vance Powell pushed their musical palette. “He came out on the road with us for about a week right...

Fifty years ago, on September 7th, 1968, the quartet of Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Bonham, and John Paul Jones performed their first concert together as The New Yardbirds. Of course, we now know they would become the massive rock band, Led Zeppelin. The remaining members of the band are celebrating the anniversary with a remastered reissue of the soundtrack...

Former Beatle Paul McCartney has returned with Egypt Station, which marks his 18th solo studio album. Recorded between Los Angeles, London, and Sussex, the album gets its name from one of the bassist’s paintings that also serves as the album artwork. It ties thematically ties the record together as the Fab Four did back in the day. “I liked the...

Most of us know the late Ronnie James Dio as the legendary lead vocalist for Dio, Rainbow, and Black Sabbath. Tracks like “Holy Diver” and “Rainbow In The Dark” are part of the fabric that makes heavy metal history. What many don’t realize is that he was also originally a bassist. Dio’s first bands, notably Elf, featured him on the...

After working in different band formats for the past decade, jazz pianist Tord Gustavsen has gotten back to the piano trio format. The Other Side features his longtime drummer Jarle Vespestad as well Sigurd Hole, who joins the band for the first time. A bandleader himself, the Norwegian bassist fits right into the trio’s sound by drawing on folk influences...

UK singer/songwriter Passenger, AKA Mike Rosenberg, has released Runaway, an album that draws its sound from America. Rosenberg’s father was American and took him to the United States every summer while he grew up in Brighton, UK. “While some songs point to specific locations such as Yellowstone or Detroit, Mike imagined all the new songs unfolding against a backdrop of...

Alkaline Trio has returned to release their first album in five years, entitled Is This Thing Cursed? The pop-punk band took a new direction by writing the album almost entirely in the studio, but it also draws a comparison to their 2000 album, Maybe I’ll Catch Fire. “The songwriting process is almost like what it was back in the day....

Rock legend Alice Cooper is still going strong. After releasing his 27th studio album, Paranormal, last year, he took his band on the road in support of the release. The massive tour culminated in an over-the-top show at the Olympia in Paris, France that is now available as a live album. A Paranormal Evening at The Olympia Paris captured the...