"Scott Amendola, who has toured with Charlie Hunter, T.J. Kirk, Madeleine Peyroux and many others, presents his third CD as a leader, featuring guitarists Nels Cline of Wilco and Jeff Parker of Tortoise. Also featured is violinist Jenny Scheinman...

Poised somewhere between mid-1970's King Crimson and electric Miles with John McLaughlin, this new project by drummer Gregg Bendian, guitarist G.E. Stinson, violinist Jeff Gauthier and bassist Steuart Liebig explores angular groove and subtle soundscap...

After decades of toiling away in obscurity, guitarist Nels Cline's boat has definitely come in. He's released a number of high-profile albums, all of which deserved their heightened attention and he joined Wilco! This is by his long standing...

"Alex Cline continues in the spirit of his ECM release The Lamp & the Star, with this percussion-voice-violin-guitar-keyboard-bass-lineup. Drummer/percussionist Cline has worked with jazz greats Charles Lloyd, Charlie Haden, Julius Hemphill...

"The Other Shore by drummer/percussionist Alex Cline, violinist Jeff Gauthier and electric guitarist G.E. Stinson is a reference to the Diamond Sutra, the ancient Chinese Buddhist text pictured on the cover of the CD. The album title and many of the...

This is a beautiful - I mean beautiful, solo album (with overdubs/layers) from this great guitarist who got lucky a few years ago when he got picked to play in Wilco and went from being an amazing, uniquely talented guitarist who nobody ever heard of...

"Perhaps it will be a letdown for me to say this, but this is not a 'tribute record' in the conventional sense. It is a view -- ONE VIEW -- into the music of Andrew Hill, an artist whose music has continued to change and expand its parameters. Mr...

"Mark Dresser is a remarkably innovative bassist who has few equals in the downtown jazz scene. He's carved out this reputation through his work in Anthony Braxton's great quartet from the '80s and early '90s and through countless sideman gigs with...

Really excellent new-jazz album by this fine cellist and now member of the Vandermark 5. "Erik Friedlander is the foremost jazz cellist in the world today, a consummate artist that Billboard Magazine has lauded as "One of today's most ingenious and for...

"Mask features Jeff Gauthier on electric violin, Nels Cline on guitars, David Witham on piano, Joel Hamilton on bass and Alex Cline on drums. This is Gauthier's third CD as a leader and first for Cryptogramophone. Mask features works by Gauthier, Nels ...

Clarinetist Ben Goldberg is a member of Tin Hat (formerly Tin Hat Trio). His new CD The door, the hat, the chair, the fact is a loving tribute to the late, great saxophonist Steve Lacy, a longtime mentor of Goldberg's. This inspired work of art also fe...

"Jazz legend Bennie Maupin follows his highly acclaimed 2006 CD Penumbra, with Early Reflections, a beautiful recording of Maupin’s European quartet featuring pianist Michal Tokaj, and guest vocalist Hania Rybka. Early Reflections is another brilliant...

Darek “Oles” Oleszkiewicz is, quite simply, a musician’s musician. He is a virtuoso bassist, a wonderfully evocative composer, and a mature and lyrical improviser of the first order. Darek’s bass sound is full and warm, and unlike many of his...

Keyboardist Alan Pasqua is best known as the keyboards in the second edition of the Tony Williams Lifetime (with Allan Holdsworth), where he performed really well. This album has him playing a lot of Fender Rhodes and is generally 'Milesian' in tone of...

"Active Vapor Recovery combines extreme Jazz, avant funk, liquid Americana and skronk blues. Think - James Brown meets Sun Ra on a front porch somewhere in rural Montana. The Scot Ray Quintet features Scot's amazing multiphonic trombone, Nels Cline on...

"Grand melodies, shifting textures, and thick rhythms radiate from Todd Sickafoose's music. On Tiny Resistors, the bassist/composer matches his 8-piece New York band with a pair of guests, Andrew Bird and Ani DiFranco, to create a jazz record with the...

"Los Angeles bassist Eric von Essen was a topnotch sideman in the city's jazz scene until his untimely death in 1997. Turns out he was also a stellar composer of lyrical blues, elegant laments, and sweet ballads. Of course, his colleagues knew that all...

"This series of tributes to Eric von Essen has hipped people outside the Los Angeles music scene to the work of this gifted composer and bassist. But at the same time, the series is excellent and gives a nice overview of L.A. jazz, which, according to...