Emmet Cohen

Vibe Provider

Mack Avenue Records II, LLC

Miami-born, New Jersey-raised, now New York-based jazz pianist Emmet Cohen self-released his debut when he was just 20, now at age 34 and with a dozen records to his name as a leader, and several sessions as a sideman (including a couple of Herlin Riley records, which I love), Cohen releases Vibe Provid…

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Justin DeHart

Towards: New Zealand Percussion Vol. 2

Rattle

Justin DeHart has played and recorded all around the world but for the last decade or so has made The University of Canterbury’s School of Music his home, heading up the percussion programme.

In a first volume, reviewed in the link above, DeHart commissioned well-known Kiwi composers to create dru…

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The Police

Synchronicity: 40th Anniversary Edition/s

Polydor Records, a division of Universal Music Operations

It took me a while to click that Sting was, largely, a terrible lyricist. Then he outed himself with a book:

Since then, I’ve struggled to care, anywhere near as much as I used to, about the music of either Sting or The Police. With his erstwhile b…

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Micky Dolenz

Dolenz Sings R.E.M.

7a Records Ltd.

It didn’t seem so long (five years now) that I saw The Monkees in concert; well, Dolenz and Mike Nesmith. It wasn’t much longer after that Dolenz was the last man standing.

A couple of years later, Dolenz paid tribute to his former bandmate by singing a selection of his tunes, it was Nesmith after all that wa…

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Emil Amos

Zone Black

Drag City

Zone Black started life as “library music”, you know the sorts of generic film/advertising/TV cues that sit in a vault and get used for licence-free work, or cheap gigs where the production cannot afford to pay a whole heap for music clearance. There’s been a boom in such things, ever since it started turning up in the work o…

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Little Richard

Little Richard: I Am Everything (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Craft Recordings, distributed by Concord.

Well, I guess I’ll start with the negative — you don’t need this soundtrack. You are better served by almost any of the compilations that exist giving you the essence of Little Richard. You are better off just buying his first two …

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MaXXXine

Director: Ti West

Motel Mojave / Access Entertainment / A24

When Ti West released X in 2022, it was part of a run of great new horror films for the cinema. The New Zealand-shot Lockdown project instantly spun over into a prequel film, Pearl. Mia Goth, the star of both films, absolutely carried Pearl — that film ending up stronger as a result; a un…

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John Cale

POPtical Illusion

Domino Recording Co. Ltd.

I’ve always been amazed by how John Cale manages to be at his subversive best when he’s hiding in plain sight, making music that isn’t at all abrasive, that is very nearly ‘pop’ music in the most conventional sense — all through his career, across every decade, are these albums, think Vintage Violence (…

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Melvins

Tarantula Heart

Liberator Music / Ipecac Recordings

Gosh, but I love the Melvins! And they can (pretty much) do no wrong. But, much as I’ve loved (and reviewed) many of their albums over the last decade it has all started to get a bit too gimmicky, covers albums, records with different line-ups, one with extra bass guitarists (Basses Loaded, great…

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Monty Alexander

D-Day

Peewee

The great jazz pianist celebrated his 80th birthday alongside the anniversary of World War II. And that means something — to him. For us, the result is this album, culled from two essentially live sessions (studio, but recorded for the take) featuring drummer Jason Brown and bassist Luke Sellick in support of Alexander through …

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Roger Kellaway

Live at Mezzrow

Cellar Live under exclusive licence to La Reserve Records, LLC

The great Roger Kellaway, 84, still kicking, was musical director for Bobby Darrin in the 1960s, he accompanied Liza Minnelli, Carmen McRae and, well, many others. He’s been a sideman to Sonny Rollins and Herbie Mann, and has made forays into the pop world, includ…

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Back To Black

Director: Sam Taylor-Johnson

Monumental Pictures / StudioCanal / Focus Features

People are out there saying this is not the film Amy Winehouse deserves, but hang on, the film she deserves is far crueller and tougher than this — and though she might have wanted that (the truth), a lot of her fans might not. Though that’s not to say they should…

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The Beach Boys

Directors: Frank Marshall and Thom Zimny

Disney

A story of in-fighting, drugs, and misguided genius, with some people in the team certain they’re of more value than others, but all smoothed over to give you a shiny, happy people feel…you could be forgiven for thinking that’s a documentary about Disney itself, but nope, just the way they ma…

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Lenny Kravitz

Blue Electric Light

Roxie / BMG

I haven’t listened to the last few Kravitz albums, but the first five were on high rotate, and sometimes they still are; certainly the first three. I can’t say I’ve cared about anything he’s done in the 21st Century — he never seemed like he was even supposed to make that particular leap, so rooted in the 20th …

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Keith Jarrett

Carl Philip Emanuel Bach

ECM

Last week, Keith Jarrett celebrated his 79th birthday. We are lucky to still have him, though it’s heartbreaking to think about how uncertain his future is, following the strokes of 2018 that have rocked his health. He can walk again, he can tinkle the piano one-handed, but he won’t likely perform in public ever a…

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John Carpenter

Lost Themes IV: Noir

Sacred Bones

A decade ago now, John Carpenter released the first in what is now a 4-part series, but what at the time might have been the product of frustration. Carpenter, a legend across the 70s and 80s for his horror, action, and sci-fi films, was known also for contributing the scores to most of them. In recent years…

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Saito Kinen Orchestra / John Williams / Stéphane Denève

Live in Tokyo

Deutsche Grammophon

This is just one of the many new releases pouring out with John Williams’ name on it. All official. All featuring not just his works, but his actual, living, breathing work, so often here’s there now, in his 90s, waving his wand literally to sprinkle this musical mag…

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Challengers

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Metro Goldwyn Meyer / Pascal Pictures

Luca Guadagnino specialises in love triangles, relationships where people are out on their own against the world, and taboo topics within that. Specifically complex layers (Call Me By Your Name), a woman caught between the power dynamics of two men (A Bigger Splash) and young peopl…

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Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

Director: Adam Wingard

Legendary Pictures/Top Story Spotlight/Warner Bros. Pictures

The stakes were low, sure. I remember thinking the first Godzilla vs. Kong film was a perfect bit of post-Lockdown putty; something to scrunch around in your mind while popcorn got caught in your teeth. And not much more than that. But, weird…

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Neil Young

Before and After

Reprise

The Neil Young train rolls on, regardless of whether you’re at the station. If you’re there for him to stop by, so be it. But he’s out on the tracks every year, working through his archive to release rarities, and creating brand new material too. This one is a bit of a hybrid, in that it’s a brand new set of recordings, …

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