Music
Porter-Batiste-Stoltz, Moodoo (Highsteppin’ Productions)
From the start, one of Porter-Batiste-Stoltz’s strengths was their lack of a keyboard player. The power trio format is fresh territory for funk and PBS has worked wonders with it, […]
Joe Krown/Walter “Wolfman” Washington/Russell Batiste, Jr., Live at the Maple Leaf (Independent)
Every Jazz Fest seems to bring another stack of one-off, local supergroup, live jam albums. What’s different about this one? For one thing, it wasn’t made during the Fest, but […]
Grayson Capps, Rot ‘n’ Roll (Hyena)
Early in this rural travelogue of an album, Grayson Capps finds an arrowhead in the dirt and makes you care about that for three and a half minutes. Finding meaning […]
Jon Cleary, Mo Hippa (FHQ)
You know exactly what to expect whenever anyone strikes up the opening riff to Professor Longhair’s “Go to the Mardi Gras,” right? Not quite. That riff opens Jon Cleary’s first […]
The Radiators, Wild & Free (Radz)
The concept of linear time just doesn’t exist when it comes to the Radiators. Their live shows always felt like slices of one, never-ending gig; you show up and get […]
Walter “Wolfman” Washington, Doin’ the Funky Thing (Independent)
The post-Katrina record has become its own genre by now, but what of the post-Katrina party record? Not as crowded a field, but Walter “Wolfman” Washington pretty much owns it […]
Tab Benoit with Louisiana’s LeRoux, Night Train to Nashville (Telarc)
On paper, this live set has all the makings of a supremely excessive blooze-rock rave-up. Always a mean guitar-slinger, Tab Benoit is backed up here by Louisiana’s LeRoux, who’ve had […]
Big Sam’s Funky Nation, Peace, Love and Understanding (Independent)
Whenever someone tries to fuse brass-band music with anything else, the brass band sound usually overwhelms, as if it’s just too cocky to move onto other turf. Trombonist Big Sam […]
North Mississippi Allstars, Hernando (Songs of the South)
For much of their career, the North Mississippi Allstars have strived to avoid doing the obvious blooze-rock thing. They’ve chased after new directions, whether adding studio polish on Polaris, jamming […]
Maceo Parker, Roots & Grooves (Heads Up)
If you’d downloaded this double CD from your favorite illicit site, you’d probably think it was the best 64 cents (for the two blank CDs) that you ever spent. As […]
