Review Explosion

In retrospect, Tom Waits’ trajectory from singer/song writer to down-beaten jazz-fueled street person scowling at the piano in the 1970s made perfect sense. But when he came out of the gate in the early 1980s, his transformation was almost as dramatic as David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust reinvention. Five new of-era 180g 1LP reissues from Island/UMe — namely, 1983’s Swordfishtrombones, 1985’s Rain Dogs, 1987’s Franks Wild Years, 1992’s Bone Machine, and 1993’s The Black Rider — all seek to remind us of just how fertile this period was in Waits’ overall canon. Read Mark Smotroff’s Short Cuts combo review to see if any or all of these new wonderful Waits reissues belong in your collection. . .

Welcome back to the third installment of our ongoing Review Explosion series, Short Cuts edition! This time, we have three new jazz releases sharing some common threads that connect the artists in question, yet are about as different as night and day. Read on to see what Mark Smotroff has to say about a pair of excellent new AAA Bill Evans Trio and Miles Davis Quintet OJC studio 180g 1LP reissues, plus a legendary lost archival live John Coltrane With Eric Dolphy 2LP set — but note that the latter release comes with one important caveat. . .

We got that jazz-jones thing already going again, so we’re back with another jazz-centric triple-play review. Read Mark Smotroff’s Short Cuts combo take on a trio of jazz classics — both old and newly discovered alike — from Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd, Wynton Kelly Trio & Wes Montgomery, and Sun Ra. . .

Our latest Review Explosion Short Cuts serving tackles a trio of fine new LP sets thematically connected by a common love of British rock of the 1960s and ’70s. Included herein are an archival 2LP live set from The Flaming Lips circa 2003, a recent 1LP studio offering from the ever-prolific Guided By Voices, and the first official solo sojourn LP from acclaimed Irish singer/songwriter/producer Thomas Walsh. Read on to glean Mark Smotroff’s take on these wonderful LP sides that are collectively chock full of melody and imagination. . .

It’s not often you get new titles from three legendary artists of yesteryear like gospel icon Sister Rosetta Tharpe, piano virtuoso Art Tatum, and soul-jazz organ pioneer Brother Jack McDuff all released on the same day. But this year, all three of them are being celebrated on Record Store Day 2024 — this year’s first installment of which happens to fall on this upcoming Saturday, April 20 — with newly unearthed, previously unreleased, multidisc live concert recordings on 180g black vinyl. Read Mark Smotroff’s review of all three of these releases to see which one, or ones, belong on your “must have” RSD 2024 shopping list. . .