Hearing Charlemagne Palestine’s magical approach to the piano live is one of the great “have to be there” experiences. As wonderful as his all-too-rare appearances on recordings have been, none really captures the total experience: …

Brovold gets a lot of mileage from a simple collection of instruments—guitar, bass, drums, violin, and a few saxophones—in crafting a hypnotic blend of droning jazz-rock. But for this title track, he adds tympani, which …

Feeling a severe lack of music performed solely on electric bass in your life? Worry not! California’s intrepid new music label, New Albion, comes to the rescue with Jeffrey Roden’s Seeds of Happiness. The stripped-down …

New Millennium Ensemble
Although the eight members of the Common Sense Composers’ Collective are spread all over the country, they mostly share a similar post-minimalist compositional aesthetic. And their shared sensibility has made the previous collective …

Whenever composer Dennis Kam hears the old saying “it takes two to tango,” he must be thinking to himself: Sure, but three would make things a little more interesting. Take his composition Trio. At any …

This piece brilliantly integrates a cello soloist into a big-band sound. It was written in tribute to a former member of the band who passed away, and a wide range of emotion—anger, agitation, surprise—can be …

Steve Evans, vocals; Jake Vinsel, bass; Noritaka Tanaka, drums; Leandro Lopez Varady, piano
According to the booklet notes on his new 2-CD set, jazz vocalist Steve Evans originally intended to release a live recording of his …

Peggy Pearson, oboe; Jo-Ann Sternberg, clarinet; Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra; Scott Yoo, conductor
I’m not a concerto fan. It all boils down to this: the huge chasm separating the sense of intimacy inherent to chamber music from …

William Kopecky, electric bass; Dan Maske, keyboards; Angela Schmidt, cello; Craig Walkner, drums
Although all of the tracks on this second CD of the primal Milwaukee-based post-prog outfit Far Corner are credited to keyboardist Dan Maske, …

What do you get when you cross Scottish indie rockers Mogwai with the Kronos Quartet? I’ll give you a hint: It’s languid, laidback, and darkly evocative, veiled with pathos but featuring the occasional turn-on-a-dime energetic …