Paul Bley's sixty year career has been primarily one where he's worked with some of the biggest names in the vanguard of jazz in the quest for experimentation and many times he's marched to the beat of his own drummer. For a good part of that career, it was also about him playing to the brilliant but often quirky songs of his then-wife, Carla Bley.

Even given Bley's nonconformist reputation, there was no telling what was going to come out of a session recorded for Bernard Stollman's far, far left field label ESP-Disk.

(More about ‘Music Review: Paul Bley Quintet – Barrage‘…)

Last year I reviewed an album that featured jazz harmonica (and it was actually my second review of the group's music) and I also reviewed an album that showcased jazz on a bassoon. So I guess it makes perfect sense for me to review a new release starring a couple of guys who offer jazz played on harmonica and Tuba. The aptly-named album is The Odd Couple, and it features the jazzier side of the tuba as played by Jim Self, along with the harmonica stylings of Ron Kalina. Self has several previous albums as leader and soloist on his tuba, and Kalina is an accomplished keyboardist in addition to his harmonica play. They're accompanied here by Larry Koonse on guitar, Tom Warrington on bass, and drummer Joe La Barbara.
(More about ‘Music Review: Ron Kalina & Jim Self – The Odd Couple‘…)

The tributes to Max Roach, who died August 16 at 83, are unlike any I’ve ever seen for a jazz musician—perhaps because of the era in which he died. Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, and Ella Fitzgerald passed in the ‘90s and were piled with praises and homages and memorials, but that was before satellite radio, digital cable, the blogosphere, or any other part of the Internet. Reading online obituaries and bloggers’ discussions of Roach, and hearing Columbia University’s WKCR broadcasting seven nonstop days of his music on the web (“The Max Roach Memorial Broadcast”) amounts to saturation coverage; I feel I’m finally seeing a departed jazz giant receiving the attention he’s due.

And yet, with the exception of WKCR (which has historian Phil Schaap on staff), I’m still not sure anybody gets Max Roach’s impact.

(More about ‘Jazz Workshop: Max Roach (1924 – 2007) – A Revised Retrospective’…)