Album Reviews

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Album Reviews
Bill Evans Live Set Issued For First Time
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 14, 2012  |  3 comments
Over the past few years, jazz fans have been treated to some astonishing, heretofore unreleased treasures. Unlike in the rock world, where such finds, along with “bonus tracks” usually tell you why they weren’t released in the first place (with Bob Dylan being a notable exception), these jazz releases have felt like un-mined diamonds, only occasionally in the rough.

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Album Reviews
Bill Evans The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 09, 2014  |  9 comments
If you already own Sunday at The Village Vanguard and Waltz For Debby you have two album's worth of material from that magical afternoon and evening of June 25, 1961 that the producer Orrin Keepnews deemed worthy of releasing.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Bill Evans Trio’s Seminal 1961 Live Album Sunday at the Village Vanguard Shines on New 180g All-Analog Cohearent Audio-Mastered, RTI-Pressed 1LP Edition From Craft Recordings
Mark Smotroff  |  Dec 08, 2023  |  0 comments

It’s almost an impossible task trying to “review” an iconic album like Bill Evans Trio’s October 1961 live masterpiece, Sunday at the Village Vanguard, but a new 180g 1LP edition under Craft Recordings’ revival of the Original Jazz Classics series umbrella is most definitely worth a closer look — and listen. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see why this AAA edition of an all-time jazz classic belongs in your collection. . .

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Album Reviews
Bill Frisell's Valentine  Gets to the Heart of the Musical and Sonic Matter
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 25, 2020  |  8 comments
Last year, producer Lee Townsend brought guitar-great Bill Frisell’s trio, fresh off the road and shortly after concluding two weeks at The Village Vanguard where almost 60 years ago another famous trio made an indelible record or two, into Tucker Martine’s Portland, Oregon studio for three days of recording.

The result is a first for Frisell—a trio recording with long time accompanists, bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Rudy Royston that is simultaneously densely packed with musical ideas and yet throughout, window wide open to the spaces between the notes.

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Album Reviews
Black and Blue Catalog Winner Will Amaze You!
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 01, 2007  |  0 comments

If you buy only one LP this year on faith because of what you read on this website, please make it this one that comes from so far out in left field, it’s in the bleachers.

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Album Reviews
Black Pumas' Psychedelic Soul Eponymous Debut
Evan Toth  |  Jun 29, 2020  |  2 comments
Great music doesn’t exist, nor is it created in a vacuum. It evolves from years of being influenced by composers, performers, producers and genres. We don’t reward musically mediocre derivatives; rather, we celebrate musicians who manipulate their favorite influences to create a composite that results in something new and exciting— like Black Pumas’ music.

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Album Reviews
Black Reissue Retains Its Musical and Sonic Beauty On This Pure Pleasure Reissue
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 01, 2006  |  0 comments

The Irish folk/pop singer Mary Black, a genuine superstar at home, has built a worldwide following on the strength of her mesmerizing, crystal clear voice and an uncanny ability to wring every drop of meaning from the lyrics she interprets.

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Album Reviews
Blakey With Marsalis Brothers Highlights This Live Set From 1982
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 01, 2006  |  0 comments

The great drummer Art Blakey, still playing ferociously at age 62 when this Keystone Korner live set was recorded January, 1982, was a great believer in giving young talent gigging opportunities. He also was an excellent judge of the up-and-coming, and over the years he helped develop many major jazz artists, including Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard and Hank Mobley, as well as Wynton and Branford Marsalis, both of whom are spotlighted on this record. In fact, it was Branford’s recording debut.

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Album Reviews
Blind Pig Re-enters Vinyl Market With Eyes Open
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 01, 2008  |  0 comments

Recorded live on June, 28th at the 1974 Montreux Jazz Festival, this hot session features Wells and Guy backed by a last minute “pick-up” band consisting of ex-Rolling Stone bassist Bill Wyman, Otis Spann’s Muddy Waters band replacement Pinetop Perkins, ex-Manassas drummer Dallas Taylor, best known for peeking (or peaking) out the door on the back cover of Crosby Stills, Nash (on which he also played) and his brother Terry Taylor on rhythm guitar.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Blood, Sweat & Tears "Bloodlines" Box Set From Analogue Productions
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 22, 2017  |  0 comments
BS&T fans fall into 4 camps: the 1st which prefers the Al Kooper led original group and the album Child is Father to the Man, the 2nd that prefers only the second eponymously titled album, which was the group's most popular, the 3rd camp that loves the first two albums and the 4th camp that loves all of the group's albums. This box is definitely for them.

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Album Reviews
Blue Cheer's Debut Reissued in Heavier Metal Mono
Michael Fremer  |  May 01, 2010  |  0 comments

The Bay area based Blue Cheer issued this raw blues-psych record that runs a little more than a half an hour on the Philips label back in January of 1968.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Blue Note "Tone Poet" Series Launches With Wayne Shorter's "Etcetera"
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 21, 2019  |  6 comments
Blue Note's new "Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series" is part of the company's 80th anniversary celebration. Wayne Shorter's Etcetera is the first release in the series. Joe Harley, well known among audiophiles for his work with AudioQuest both as a press liaison (among other tasks) and especially for the series of all-analog AudioQuest LPs he produced back when vinyl was "dead", "hand picked" these "Tone Poet" titles and oversaw their production.

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Album ReviewsFeatures
Blue Note's Bi-Annual Blue Note Review Box Set Reviewed
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 26, 2017  |  11 comments
Don Was, community organizer. Who would have thought? There's long been a Blue Note "community" but it's a loose knit, worldwide group of like-minded label enthusiasts that have kept the Blue Note flame glowing. The fans remained true even as the company changed hands, lost artistic focus, engaged in self-exploitation and occasionally tried to re-invent itself into something it was not.

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Album Reviews
Blues Breakers: Another Sonic Viewpoint
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 29, 2012  |  1 comments

  Randy Wells' recent review of this Sundazed reissue may have seemed thorough and matter-of-fact to most of you and judging by the emails, well appreciated, but the folks at Sundazed were anything but pleased, which kind of surprised me, though Wells did prefer the Audio Fidelity release so perhaps I should not have been surprised.

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Album Reviews
Blues Classic Better Than Ever
Mark Schlack  |  Sep 01, 2010  |  1 comments

It was 1965 and Junior Wells was no longer the precocious teenager who had gotten the likes of Muddy Waters, Elmore James and Otis Spann to back him up on his 1953 and 1954 hit singles. Now 30, he was a fixture of that generation of electric Chicago bluesmen. He toured, and worked regularly at Theresa’s on the South Side. And he was about to make an album that has long been a staple of any modern blues collection.

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