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The passing of guitarist/folk archivist John Fahey last year makes this new compilation even more poignant. A tireless innovator who re-introduced the lost beauty of the finger-picked, acoustic steel-sting guitar (by way of several samplers on his own Takoma label), Fahey was credited for launching the careers of Leo Kottke, ...

Someone said recently that jazz, while flourishing as an art, is dying as a business. This, regrettably, is true. There are any number of talented young jazz instrumentalists out there who are struggling to earn a living. The problem is radio. Jazz on commercial radio is for the most part ...

This album is quite a sizable step outside for the celebrated Latin trumpet player, as Arturo Sandoval sets his main axe aside for a session of straight-up bop and blues tunes behind a grand piano. While he has never been shy with the brass, Sandoval plays with a similar verve ...

Last year's disc by Sweden's Esbjorn Svensson Trio (E.S.T.) - keyboardist Svensson with double bassist Dan Berglund and drummer Magnus Ostrom- shared favorable comparisons with Nor'eastern groovemasters Medeski Martin & Wood. While the gang in MMW are perpetually lacquered to '60s-era soul-jazz jaunts, EST's American debut (actually a compilation of three ...

That tenor saxist Gato Barbieri is still releasing albums into his 70s is one of the few real marvels in modern jazz. A remarkably charismatic figure with a scarf always draped around his shoulders and floppy hat cocked to shadow his face, Barbieri was at the forefront of Latin jazz ...

Hot Tuna's acoustic sets were copiously speckled with medleys of worn-out rural blues and refried newgrass. Ironically, those were the initial influences that guitarist Jorma Kaukonen brought to the first, pre-Grace slick/folk-rock rendition of the Jefferson Airplane. As the versatile fretman notes on the cover, this disc closes a long-arched musical ...