Mark Christian Miller is part of a large and talented pool of jazz vocalists calling Los Angeles home. He rubs elbows with the likes of Mark Winkler. Cheryl Bentyne, Dolores Scozzesi, Judy Wexler, Robyn Spangler, Gary Brumburgh, Jeffery Gimble, Ada Bird Wolfe, and Lauren White. Miller releases his fourth album, Strange Meadowlark, which shows off his distinctive, warm, familiar voice and storytelling abilities. The release features material from composers including Johnny Mercer, Irving Berlin, and Oscar Brown Jr. This release follows Dreamer With a Penny (Self Produced, 2004), Crazy Moon (Self Produced, 2015), and Music in the Air (Self Produced, 2022). In 2011, Miller teamed with vocalist Betty Bryant (Lotta Livin’ (Bry-Mar Music, 2024 and Nothin’ Better to Do (Bry-Mar Music, 2026)) on Together (Self Produced).

An ensemble of noted musicians accompanies Miller: Chris Dawson on piano, Chuck Berghofer on bass, Joe LaBarbera on drums, and Robert Kyle on saxophone and flute, with Josh Nelson joining on one track. Miller produced the album and created its cover artwork, illustrating the singer’s long creative arm.

The album opens with Oscar Brown Jr.’s “Mr. Kicks” opens the recording, featuring Miller’s informed approach and Kyle’s sleek tenor work. The cheerful “You Make Me Feel So Young” with Kyle on flute, follows. The title track mashes up Dave Brubeck’s “Strange Meadowlark” with Hoagy Carmichael’s evergreen “Skylark” in what becomes the emotive heart of the album, magnifying Miller’s ability to inhabit lyrics and convey shifting moods from whimsical to melancholic. At this, he is unsurpassed.

Other songs include the after-hours environs of “Hello Love,” the comforting “Dream,” and the upbeat holiday piece “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm.” The coda is “Sometimes,” where Miller accompanies himself on piano in a tender reflection on love and memory. Miller has his own established style and approach that clearly sets him apart from the pack.

Michael Tilson Thomas (1944–2026), often known by his initials MTT, was a legendary American conductor, composer, pianist, and educator. He died on April 22, 2026, at 81, from glioblastoma. Initially diagnosed in 2021, MTT continued to work, conducting his last concert with the San Francisco Symphony almost exactly one year before his death. Michael Tilson Thomas made his final public conducting appearance on April 26, 2025, at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco.

The performance was a special 80th birthday celebration concert with the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus. He conducted a program that included Benjamin Britten’s Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell and Ottorino Respighi’s Roman Festivals. Longtime vocal soloists Frederica von Stade, Sasha Cooke, Jessica Vosk, and Ben Jones joined Thomas for his special evening.

This event served as his farewell to the podium. It brought his career “full circle” by featuring Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, the same work he conducted for his first gala as San Francisco Symphony Music Director in 1995.

Considered one of the world’s preeminent interpreters of Gustav Mahler, MTT recorded all nine Mahler symphonies and major orchestral songs with the San Francisco Symphony (SFS), winning multiple Grammy Awards for these recordings. MTT was a tireless champion of American composers, particularly those he termed “American Mavericks”—pioneering, often unconventional figures that included Aaron Copland, Charles Ives, Carl Ruggles, and George Gershwin. He maintained close collaborative relationships with living composers such as John Adams, Steve Reich, and Meredith Monk, frequently commissioning and premiering their works.

Michael Tilson Thomas is an American hero.

Wait! What?

Kip Winger?

Kip “Headed for a Heartbreak?” Winger?

Yep! That Kip Winger. In the 1980s, Winger performed with Alice Cooper, and then his own bands, Sahara, and then Winger, with whom Winger released seven albums between 1988 and 2023. Classically trained as a child (his parents were jazz musicians), Winger was never very far from his classical roots. Seemingly out of nowhere, in 2009, the San Francisco Ballet commissioned an orchestral piece eventually entitled Ghosts. In 2017, the Nashville Symphony under Giancarlo Guerrero performed the score, eventually leading to Winger being commissioned to provide the present symphony and violin concerto. The San Francisco Ballet Orchestra later recorded Conversations with Nijinsky (VBI Classical Recording, 2022), under the baton of Martin West, earning a Grammy Award nomination that next year.

The Violin Concerto “In the Language of Flowers” is a four-movement affair, with each movement named for a flower. Comprising four movements, the work integrates lyricism and dance rhythms with a virtuosic solo part developed in collaboration with Nashville concertmaster and dedicatee Peter Otto. Winger identifies the slow movement, “Ambrosia,” as his finest melodic achievement; evocative of the Barber concerto, the movement is notably beautiful.

Symphony of the Returning Light features dramatic, luminous orchestration and effective use of Morse code-based themes, despite an ambiguous connection to its title. The four-movement structure is well-paced, with each movement limited to under eight minutes to maintain a high level of inspiration. Recorded live, these pieces breathe fresh air, presenting Winger as a serious composer in the mold of Hector Berlioz, with his emphasis on autobiographic program music.

The soloist and orchestra are exceptionally well-matched. In his solo recording debut, Otto shows impressive virtuosity and musicality. Symphony of the Returning Light uses effective Morse code rhythms throughout its four well-contrasted movements. Winger’s orchestral writing is colorful and skilled, maintaining inspiration through concise movements that rarely exceed eight minutes.

This recording is a pleasant surprise, prompting this writer to anticipate Winger’s next release with no small amount of excitement.

What do the songs, “Feelin’ Alright,” “Hole in My Shoe,” “Pearly Queen,” “Just for You,” “You Can Join In,” Only You Know and I Know,” “Shouldn’t Have Took More Than You Gave,” "World in Changes,” “Sad and Deep as You,” and "Let It Go, Let It Flow,"

And the songs (-album),

“We Just Disagree,” “All Along the Watchtower,” “Crosstown Traffic,” “Street Fighting Man,” All Things Must Pass, “Listen to What the Man Said,” “Military Madness,” and “Save Me.”

have in common with one another?

Dave Mason.

Guitar-composer Dave Mason died peacefully at his home in Gardnerville, Nevada, on April 19, 2026, at 79.

Born in Worcester, England, Mason began his career in local bands like The Hellions and The Jaguars. After working as a roadie for the Spencer Davis Group, he co-founded Traffic in 1967 alongside Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, and Chris Wood. While his tenure with the band was fractured because of creative differences, he penned two of their most enduring tracks, “Hole in My Shoe” and “Feelin’ Alright.”

Mason moved to California in 1969 to pursue a solo path. His debut solo album, Alone Together (Blue Thumb, 1970), featured a distinctive “marble-patterned” vinyl and reached gold status in the U.S.. He followed this with a series of successful solo projects and hits, most notably: “We just disagree,” “Only You Know and I Know,” joining and recording with Fleetwood Mac, contributing to the 1995 album Time (Warner Bros, 1995).

Throughout his career, Mason provided crucial musical contributions to:

• Jimi Hendrix: Played the 12-string acoustic guitar on “All Along the Watchtower” and provided backing vocals for “Crosstown Traffic.”

• The Rolling Stones: Contributed the shehnai (an Indian reed instrument) and bass drum to “Street Fighting Man.”

• George Harrison: Played on the landmark 1970 album All Things Must Pass (Apple, 1970).

• Paul McCartney & Wings: Featured as a guitarist on the 1975 hit single “Listen to What the Man Said^.”

• Michael Jackson: Duetted on the 1980 track “Save Me” from the album Old Crest on a New Wave (Columbia, 1980).

Dave Mason was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 as a member of Traffic. He continued to tour and record late into his life, releasing his 21st album, A Shade of Blues (Barham Productions), in 2025. He died peacefully at his home in Gardnerville, Nevada.

Mal Waldron — Stardust & Starlight at the Jazz Showcase

Mal Waldron was a distinctive American jazz pianist and composer whose sparse, harmonically rich approach left an indelible mark on modern jazz. Born in 1925, he first gained prominence as Billie Holiday's final accompanist in the late 1950s, where his sensitive support showcased his exceptional musicianship. Following a heroin overdose in 1969 that temporarily halted his playing, Waldron rebuilt his technique and moved to Europe, where he spent much of his later career developing an even more personal sound characterized by his use of space, repetitive motifs, and a lyrical yet sometimes dissonant harmonic language. His legacy includes over 100 recordings as a leader and timeless compositions like "Soul Eyes," cementing his reputation as an uncompromising artist who could create profound emotional depth through minimalism and taste. Waldron’s time in Europe turned his playing inward, militantly introspective. He opens this disc with a brooding performance of his original “All Alone.” Its density is that of a black hole of introspection that continues through his similar reading of “‘Round Midnight.” Things even out by the end with Sonny Stitt joining the pianist for two bebop standards, “Old Folks” and “Stardust.” As commented by a fellow musician, “…had Bird never lived, there still would have been Sonny Stitt.” Simply sublime.

Joe Henderson - Consonance: Live at the Jazz Showcase

Joe Henderson was one of the most distinctive and influential tenor saxophonists in jazz history, renowned for his uniquely robust tone, angular improvisations, and remarkable harmonic sophistication. Emerging in the 1960s, Henderson quickly established himself as a formidable voice through his seminal work with Horace Silver and his iconic contributions to classic Blue Note albums, particularly his groundbreaking performances on Miles Davis’s landmark recordings. His playing style combined a powerful, sometimes gritty sound with an advanced harmonic language that allowed him to navigate complex chord changes with both intellectual rigor and emotional intensity. Beyond his prowess as a sideman, Henderson was a prolific composer, penning enduring standards like “Recorda Me” and “Inner Urge,” and later achieved remarkable commercial and critical success with his Verve Records albums in the 1990s, including his Grammy-winning tribute to Billy Strayhorn. Henderson is one of only a handful of tenor saxophonists who quietly expanded the tenor perimeter in jazz. He was not John Coltrane or Dexter Gordon. He was Joe Henderson. This recording and his State of the Tenor sides from Blue Note Records further define his long, and often unrecognised shadow.

Ahmad Jamal at the Jazz Showcase: Live in Chicago

Despite his enormous influence on the genre's evolution, many have often underestimated Ahmad Jamal, a revolutionary pianist, and his profound impact on jazz. Born in 1930, Jamal developed a distinctive minimalist approach characterized by his masterful use of space, dynamic contrast, and unexpected rhythmic displacements that created a uniquely suspenseful and engaging musical language. His 1958 live album Ahmad Jamal at the Pershing: But Not for Me (Argo) became one of the best-selling jazz recordings of all time, showcasing his trio's tight interplay and Jamal's ability to transform familiar standards through radical reharmonization and inventive arrangements. Miles Davis cited Jamal as a major influence, particularly admiring his economical approach and dramatic use of silence, elements that would shape Davis's own landmark recordings. This Record Store Day release comprises nine, often lengthy, selections spread over two CDs. In concert with bassist John Heard and drummer Frank Gant, Jamal surveys familiar ballad ground with inspired and inventive readings of “Have You Met Miss Jones,” the “Theme from M*A*S*H,” and “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square.” He opens the recital with a sprite performance of his original “Ahmad’s Song,” setting the tone for the rest of the concert.

Yusef Lateef - Alight Upon the Lake: Live at the Jazz Showcase

Yusef Lateef was a multi-instrumentalist and composer whose work transcended conventional jazz boundaries, earning him the title "the father of world music." Born in 1920, Lateef was a woodwind player who introduced instruments like the oboe, bassoon, and various flutes from around the world into the jazz lexicon, while also exploring Eastern musical concepts and scales long before "world music" became a popular genre. His approach fused jazz improvisation with global folk traditions, creating an aesthetic that incorporated elements from African, Middle Eastern, and Asian music, as evidenced in his landmark 1961 album Eastern Sounds (Moodsville, 1961 ). Additionally, Lateef was a prolific composer, educator, and author who developed his own musical philosophy he termed "Autophysiopsychic Music," which sought to integrate physical, mental, and spiritual dimensions in musical expression. His collaborations with jazz giants like Charles Mingus and Cannonball Adderley, coupled with his solo work for labels like Impulse! and Atlantic, established him as a visionary artist. “Straighten Up and Fly Right” and the original “I Remember Webster” rub elbows with the mammouth, half-hour,” tour-de-force “The Untitled” opening the set. Lateef’s playing is forward and probing whatever the instrument is.

Wild Mercury Rhythm is a small Substack existing to collect and display the fruits of my music writing. It commands the readership it deserves. Every once in a while, a reader will click the “like” button associated with an article, and I will know someone is reading. Never do I get over two likes. Until now.

The article, Lowell George Tribute Album - Rock and Roll Doctor, received nine likes, which is out of the ordinary. I have been writing about Lowell George and Little Feat for 30 years, several times in this Substack, and have not gotten this much attention. The band and its live recording, Waiting for Columbus, have been fixtures in my psyche since the release of Dixie Chicken (Warner Bros., 1973) Inspired by this interest, I assembled a Little Feat bibliography from my writing.

Little Feat Bibliography

Bailey, C Michael. “Little Feat: Chinese Work Songs.” All About Jazz. Allaboutjazz.com, October 2000. https://www.allaboutjazz.com/chinese-work-songs-little-feat-review-by-c-michael-bailey.

‌Bailey, C Michael. “Little Feat: Hotcakes and Outtakes-- 30 Years of Little Feat.” All About Jazz. Allaboutjazz.com, 2001. https://www.allaboutjazz.com/hotcakes-and-outtakes-30-years-of-little-feat-little-feat-rhino-records-review-by-c-michael-bailey.

‌Bailey, C Michael. “Little Feat: Extended Versions: The Encore Collection.” All About Jazz. Allaboutjazz.com, October 2001. https://www.allaboutjazz.com/extended-versions-the-encore-collection-little-feat-bmg-review-by-c-michael-bailey.

Bailey, C Michael. “Little Feat: Late Night Truck Stop.” All About Jazz. Allaboutjazz.com, December 2001. https://www.allaboutjazz.com/late-night-truck-stop-little-feat-pilot-review-by-c-michael-bailey.

‌Bailey, C Michael. “Little Feat: Waiting for Columbus, The Deluxe Edition.” All About Jazz. Allaboutjazz.com, May 2002. https://www.allaboutjazz.com/waiting-for-columbus-the-deluxe-edition-little-feat-warner-bros-review-by-c-michael-bailey.

‌Bailey, C Michael. “Little Feat: Raw Tomatos, Volume 1 & Ripe Tomatos, Volume 1.” All About Jazz. Allaboutjazz.com, September 13, 2002. https://www.allaboutjazz.com/raw-tomatos-volume-1-and-ripe-tomatos-volume-1-little-feat-hot-tomato-review-by-c-michael-bailey.

‌Bailey, C Michael. “Little Feat: An Acoustic Evening with Little Feat Live at the Rams Head.” All About Jazz. Allaboutjazz.com, November 19, 2002. https://www.allaboutjazz.com/an-acoustic-evening-with-little-feat-live-at-the-rams-head-little-feat-hot-tomato-review-by-c-michael-bailey.

Bailey, C Michael. “Fred Tackett: In A Town Like This.” All About Jazz. Allaboutjazz.com, July 25, 2003. https://www.allaboutjazz.com/in-a-town-like-this-fred-tackett-hot-tomato-review-by-c-michael-bailey.

Bailey, C Michael. “Little Feat Live at the Wildwood Park for the Performing Arts.” All About Jazz. Allaboutjazz.com, October 5, 2003. https://www.allaboutjazz.com/little-feat-live-at-the-wildwood-park-for-the-performing-arts-by-c-michael-bailey.

‌‌‌Bailey, C Michael. “Little Feat: Down Upon the Suwannee River.” All About Jazz. Allaboutjazz.com, September 25, 2003. https://www.allaboutjazz.com/down-upon-the-suwannee-river-little-feat-hot-tomato-review-by-c-michael-bailey.

‌Bailey, C Michael. “Little Feat: Kickin’ It at the Barn.” All About Jazz. Allaboutjazz.com, October 16, 2003. https://www.allaboutjazz.com/kickin-it-at-the-barn-little-feat-hot-tomato-review-by-c-michael-bailey.

‌Bailey, C Michael. “Little Feat: Little Feat: Highwire Act Live in St. Louis 2003.” All About Jazz. Allaboutjazz.com, May 4, 2004. https://www.allaboutjazz.com/little-feat-highwire-act-live-in-st-louis-2003-by-c-michael-bailey.

‌Bailey, C Michael. “Little Feat: Barnstormin’.” All About Jazz. Allaboutjazz.com, June 7, 2005. https://www.all, aboutjazz.com/barnstormin-live-volume-1-little-feat-hot-tomato-review-by-c-michael-bailey.

‌Bailey, C Michael. “Little Feat: Barnstormin’ Volumes 1 & 2.” All About Jazz. Allaboutjazz.com, May 7, 2006. https://www.allaboutjazz.com/barnstormin-live-volumes-one--two-little-feat-hot-tomato-review-by-c-michael-bailey.

‌Bailey, C Michael. “Little Feat in Little Rock.” All About Jazz. Allaboutjazz.com, June 30, 2007. https://www.allaboutjazz.com/little-feat-in-little-rock-little-feat-by-c-michael-bailey.

‌Bailey, C Michael. “Little Feat: Join the Band.” All About Jazz. Allaboutjazz.com, August 23, 2008. https://www.allaboutjazz.com/little-feat-join-the-band-by-c-michael-bailey.

Bailey, C Michael. “Phish: Halloween 2010, Atlantic City, NJ: Little Feat - Waiting For Columbus.” All About Jazz. Allaboutjazz.com, June 12, 2011. https://www.allaboutjazz.com/phish-halloween-2010-atlantic-city-nj-little-feat-waiting-for-columbus-by-c-michael-bailey.

‌Bailey, C Michael. “Little Feat: Waiting for Columbus.” All About Jazz. Allaboutjazz.com, April 29, 2012. https://www.allaboutjazz.com/little-feat-waiting-for-columbus-by-c-michael-bailey.

‌Bailey, C Michael. “Little Feat: Rooster Rag.” All About Jazz. Allaboutjazz.com, September 2012. https://www.allaboutjazz.com/rooster-rag-little-feat-hot-tomato-review-by-c-michael-bailey.

‌Bailey, C Michael. “Little Feat: Little Rock, AR, September 10, 2012.” All About Jazz. Allaboutjazz.com, September 30, 2012. https://www.allaboutjazz.com/little-feat-little-rock-ar-september-10-2012-little-feat-by-c-michael-bailey.

Bailey, C Michael. “Fred Tackett: Coming Home.” All About Jazz. Allaboutjazz.com, October 31, 2012. https://www.allaboutjazz.com/fred-tackett-coming-home-fred-tackett-by-c-michael-bailey.

‌‌Bailey, C Michael. “Ben Fong-Torres: Willin’ - The Story of Little Feat.” All About Jazz. Allaboutjazz.com, December 21, 2013. https://www.allaboutjazz.com/ben-fong-torres-willin-the-story-of-little-feat-little-feat-by-c-michael-bailey.

‌‌‌Bailey, C Michael. “Lowell George: The Last Tour.” All About Jazz. Allaboutjazz.com, January 30, 2016. https://www.allaboutjazz.com/the-last-tour-lowell-george-self-produced-review-by-c-michael-bailey.

Bailey, C Michael. “Little Feat: Waiting For Columbus 45th Anniversary Tour.” Wildmercuryrhythm.com. Wild Mercury Rhythm, November 13, 2023. https://www.wildmercuryrhythm.com/p/little-feat-waiting-for-columbus?utm_source=publication-search.

‌‌Bailey, C Michael. “The 25 Best Live Rock Recordings.” Wildmercuryrhythm.com. Wild Mercury Rhythm, March 22, 2024. https://www.wildmercuryrhythm.com/p/the-25-best-live-rock-recordings-be7?utm_source=publication-search.

Bailey, C Michael. “The 25 Best Live Rock Recordings - No. 2: At Fillmore East --AND-- Waiting For Columbus.” Wildmercuryrhythm.com. Wild Mercury Rhythm, July 5, 2024. https://www.wildmercuryrhythm.com/p/the-25-best-live-rock-recordings-6d6?utm_source=publication-search.

Bailey, C Michael. “Little Feat - Sam’s Place.” Wildmercuryrhythm.com. Wild Mercury Rhythm, July 17, 2024. https://www.wildmercuryrhythm.com/p/little-feat-sams-place?utm_source=publication-search.

‌Bailey, C Michael. “The 25 Best Live Rock Recordings - The Recap.” Wildmercuryrhythm.com. Wild Mercury Rhythm, August 2, 2024. https://www.wildmercuryrhythm.com/p/the-25-best-live-rock-recordings-c5e?utm_source=publication-search.

Wild Mercury Rhythm. “Little Feat - Strike Up the Band.” Wildmercuryrhythm.com. Wild Mercury Rhythm, June 27, 2025. https://www.wildmercuryrhythm.com/p/little-feat-strike-up-the-band?utm_source=publication-search.

‌‌Bailey, C Michael. “Little Feat: Celebrating Waiting for Columbus at the Ryman.” Wildmercuryrhythm.com. Wild Mercury Rhythm, October 14, 2025. https://www.wildmercuryrhythm.com/p/little-feat-celebrating-waiting-for?utm_source=publication-search.

‌Bailey, C Michael. “Lowell George Tribute Album - Rock and Roll Doctor.” Wildmercuryrhythm.com. Wild Mercury Rhythm, April 14, 2026. https://www.wildmercuryrhythm.com/p/lowell-george-tribute-album-rock.

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Bill Evans — At The BBC

Pianist Bill Evans played such an integral part in the evolution of jazz that any previously unreleased music is a cause to celebrate and bring into the commercial realm. This year’s Record Store Day addition to the Evans discography is a two disc set presenting two British TV broadcasts from the 1965 BBC program, Jazz 625, hosted by trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton featuring Evan’s notable “second” trio with bassist Chuck Israels and drummer Larry Bunker. In March 1965, the BBC taped the broadcasts captured on this recording, airing them on May 12 and December 29 of the same year. The trio encountered had been performing together for two years, since the breakup of Evans’ famous 1961 Village Vanguard Trio (Bill Evans: The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961 (Riverside, 1961)) following the death of bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian’s 1963 exit. These two 30-minute performances find the trio is exceptional form as they perform the expected (“My Foolish Heart” and “Nardis”) and the unexpected (“Israel”). This is producer Zev Feldman’s 15th curation of Evans material for release.

Michel Petrucciani — Kuumbwa

French pianist Michel Petrucciani, with bassist Dave Holland and drummer Eliot Zigmund, appeared at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz, California, on May 11, 1987. Petrucciani had come to New York City three years prior and was just making a name for himself stateside with his Blue Note Records debut with Pianism (1986). Twenty-four years old at the time of this recording, the pianist was to have a short life, dying at 36 in 1999. Petrucciani’s short career was dense with accomplishments and a substantial amount of fabulous music. Petrucciani’s playing is full of mirth and invention. His ballad treatments, while influenced by Bill Evans, are strictly his own, with the pianist always having something different to say. The pianist’s vision on “Autumn Leaves,” “All the Things You Are,” and the frequent Evans vehicle, “Nardis” betrays a fertile mind and adventuresome spirit. The pianist’s support was empathic and attentive. Appropriately, Petrucciani’s grave is in Paris’ Le Père Lachaise Cemetery, one tomb away from Frédéric Chopin. Petrucciani is due an artistic revisit. Let this recording be the start of that.

Cecil Taylor — Fragments: The Complete 1969 Salle Pleyel Concerts

Before he took the stage at Salle Pleyel in 1969, Cecil Taylor had already spent over a decade dismantling the traditional architecture of jazz. A classically trained prodigy from the New England Conservatory, Taylor rejected the “swing” conventions of his era to treat the piano as a percussive battery of eighty-eight tuned drums. By the late 1950s, landmark releases like Jazz Advance (Transition, 1957) and Looking Ahead! (Contemporary, 1959) signaled the birth of a new avant-garde, while his 1966 Blue Note masterpieces, Unit Structures and Conquistador!, codified his “unit structures” philosophy—a complex, polyrhythmic approach to group improvisation that demanded psychic athletic rhythm from his collaborators. Throughout his formative years, Taylor’s radical vision drew in a tier of elite musicians capable of matching his intensity. He shared bandstands and recording studios with titans such as John Coltrane (on Coltrane Time (Blue Note, 1962)), Archie Shepp, and Steve Lacy, while forging a legendary, lifelong musical shorthand with alto saxophonist Jimmy Lyons and drummer Andrew Cyrille. By the time the Cecil Taylor Unit arrived in Paris for the performance captured on Fragments, Taylor wasn’t just a pianist; he was the lightning rod for a movement that had successfully pushed jazz into the realm of pure, high-energy abstraction. A historic artifact, to be sure, Fragments is bona fide avant-garde, free jazz and as such caveat emptor.

Freddie King — Feeling Alright: The Complete 1975 Nancy Pulsations Concert

Before commanding the stage at the Nancy Jazz Pulsations Festival in 1975, Freddie King—affectionately known as the “Texas Cannonball”—had already cemented his place as one of the “Three Kings” of electric blues guitar alongside B.B. and Albert King. Born in Gilmer, Texas, King moved to Chicago as a teenager, where he blended the open-string riffs of the Lone Star State with the raw, percussive bite of the West Side Chicago sound. By 1961, he had revolutionized the genre with his debut instrumental album, Let’s Hide Away and Dance Away with Freddy King, featuring the classic “Hide Away,” and the vocal showcase Freddy King Sings, which delivered hits like “I’m Tore Down” and “Have You Ever Loved a Woman”. Throughout his career, King’s explosive style—defined by his unique use of a plastic thumb pick and metal finger pick—made him a bridge between traditional blues and the burgeoning rock scene. His 1970s revival on Leon Russell’s Shelter Records produced high-octane favorites like Getting Ready... and the signature track “Goin’ Down,” while his final years saw him collaborating with Eric Clapton on the 1974 album Burglar. King’s appearance at the 1975 Nancy Pulsations Concert catches the guitars heading a potent sextet, winding through 16 corrosive electric blues with hot performances including a molten “Have You Ever Loved A Woman,” “Goin’ Down,” and a cover of Dave Mason’s “Feeling Alright.” King absolutely kills on this recording.

Eddie Muller, Eddie Muller’s Noir Bar: Cocktails Inspired by the World of Film Noir (Turner Classic Movies, 2023)

André Darlington, Forbidden Cocktails: Libations Inspired by the World of Pre-Code Hollywood (Turner Classic Movies, 2024)

Christmas brought a library of books for consideration here. We have already considered André Darlington’s Booze & Vinyl Country: 100+ Spirited Music-and-Drink Pairings (Running Press, 2025) in these electrons. Darlington has made a cottage industry of matching booze with music: Booze & Vinyl: A Spirited Guide to Great Music and Mixed Drinks (Running Press, 2018), Booze & Vinyl Vol. 2: 70 More Albums + 140 New Recipes (Running Press, 2022) (both cowritten with his sister, Tenaya Darlington), and A Booze & Vinyl Christmas: Merry Music-and-Drink Pairings to Celebrate the Season (Running Press, 2023).

Two recent books from Turner Classic Movies address the best of black & white cinema: film noir and pre-code Hollywood. TCM’s own house critic, Eddie Muller, takes on the best of 1940s through 1960s film noir and tipples inspired by the genre. The aforementioned Darlington ops for earlier films, those made between 1930 and 1934, a period of film history where the American film industry that occurred between the widespread adoption of sound in film in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines (popularly known as the Hays Code) in 1934. Although the Hays Code was adopted in 1930, its oversight was poor, and it did not become rigorously enforced until July 1, 19341.

Booze may pair better with cinema than with music. Both books introduce newly inspired drinks and return to some old standbys. The movies directly inspired many of the drinks, while providing historical significance to the tried and true. It is not just drinks highlighted. Both books provide movie lists to peruse and enjoy, with or without alcohol. The films are almost only in black and white, with the pre-code movies just postdating the silent film era. Both are fun reads from which the reader can learn much.

Music’s memory, Omnivore Records, has released Rock and Roll Doctor: Lowell
George Tribute Album. This is a re-release of the 1998 Rock and Roll Doctor: A Tribute to Lowell George (Sanctuary Records). As the band celebrates the 50th anniversary of its early catalog in real-time, it is proper to reconsider the man who started it all.

Today, Lowell George has been gone from Little Feat six times longer than when he helmed the band in the 1970s. After the decade following the death of George, Little Feat reformed and have toured together for the past 40 years as they approach their last tour in the summer and fall of 2026. The original 1998 tribute came out nearly 20 years after George’s death. Now, nearly 30 years after that, it is nice to consider the recording again.

Tribute recordings are commercially dicey animals. The scenario goes like this: a bunch of well-meaning friends get together, prepare stock arrangements of the repertoire, divvied up the music among artists, who record the material catch-as-catch can. The results, with notable exceptions, are often homogenous and bland. While Rock and Roll Doctor: Lowell George Tribute Album is not an exception from this, but does host several notable contributions.

But this is getting ahead of ourselves.

In the eight years that the Lowell George Little Feat existed, George was everywhere. Besides producing the bulk of LF’s material and his own solo recording, Thanks I’ll Eat It Here (Warner Bros, 1979), he also produced Robert Palmer’s Pressure Drop (Island Records, 1975 - uncredited), Valerie Carter’s Just a Stone’s Throw Away (Columbia Records, 1977), and the Grateful Dead’s Shakedown Street (Arista, 1978).

When not in the control booth, George contributed his iconic slide guitar to Harry Nilsson’s Son of Schmilsson (RCA Victor, 1972), John Cale’s Paris 1919 (Reprise Records, 1973), Bonnie Raitt’s Takin’ My Time (Warner Bros, 1973), Robert Palmer’s Sneaking Sally Through the Alley (Island Records, 1974) and a definitive solo on “Your Bright Baby Blues” from Jackson Browne’s The Pretender (Asylum, 1976). George’s slide guitar, punctilious and medicinal, soothes the song’s restless protagonist.

George’s unique slide guitar technique developed following a freak accident where the guitarist sliced the palm of his left hand while working on a model airplane. While forced to use a slide for an extended period while his hand healed, George developed and mastered his unique, “clean” slide sound. George’s slide choice was a heavy 11/16-inch Sears Craftsman wrench socket, which provided a dense and long-lived sustain that became a hallmark of his playing. The guitarist achieved his “Lowell tone” by using high compression, a Fender Stratocaster fitted with a Telecaster bridge pickup. George favored specific hybrid open G and A tunings. The musician who studied George’s slide style, benefitting the most from it, is Bonnie Raitt.

At his most inspired, Lowell George embodied that heady blend between R&B, Delta blues, country, and rock and roll. His use of the slide guitar in his music made a white man playing this funky mixture suddenly legitimate and appealing to all audiences. His body of work is unbelievably deep and varied, and his talent appreciated by many-a lot of musicians he worked with independent of Little Feat. Many appear on this disc, including Bonnie Raitt, JD Souther, and Jackson Browne, to name a few. This is an uneven lot of music, with some contributors hitting the center of the bullseye while others never even registered within the last Lightyear.

As my mother always encouraged me to err on the positive, here are the songs that work best. Bonnie Raitt’s “Cold, Cold, Cold.” Raitt’s clotted, bluesy vocal style along with her excellent slide work make for an aching and well-realized version of this melancholy tale of a man down on his luck and out of time. Also appearing on slide guitar is the late Paul Barrere, who stayed true to George’s original vision of Little Feat, but developed his own unique slide guitar playing, one arguably superior to that of George’s, but lacking in that magic that made George—George.

The Bottle Rockets, with David Lindley on slide, turn in an overdriven performance of “Rocket in My Pocket” off 1977’s Time Loves a Hero (Warner Bros). Lindley’s powerful finger work has just the right heated, corrosive feel, barely containing the intended sexual innuendo of the lyrics and music. Another successful cut is “Roll Um Easy,” covered by George’s close friend JD Souther. Souther’s sweetly seductive interpretation betrays his close association with George.

Allen Touissant and Leo Nocentelli conjure a fun, uptempo version of “Two Trains,” highlighting the New Orleans feel and sound central to many of George’s original compositions with Little Feat. Also, a gas is Taj Mahal’s take on “Feats Don’t Fail Me Now” from the 1974 Little Feat release of the same name. The presence of a crack horn section is the gravy on this performance.

Lowell George certainly rated an homage recording, and Lowell George Tribute Album - Rock and Roll Doctor fits the bill, just not completely. Might I suggest a new one featuring Sonny Landreth, Derek Trucks, Ariel Posen, and Rick Vito. These are the slide guitarists of the present.

In 1903 he moved to Clarksdale to become the director of a black band organized by the Knights of Pythias. In that same year, he documented one of the most well-known observations ever made about the beginning of the Delta Blues form. While waiting for a train in nearby Tutwiler, Handy observed:

“A lean loose-jointed Negro had commenced plunking a guitar beside me while I slept… As he played, he pressed a knife on the strings of the guitar in a manner popularized by Hawaiian guitarists who used steel bars….The singer repeated the line three times, accompanying himself on the guitar with the weirdest music I had ever heard.”

Handy lived in Clarksdale for six years, then he moved to Memphis to form the W. C. Handy Orchestra. Some of his most known songs are “Memphis Blues,” “Beal Street Blues,” and “St. Louis Blues.” He was a founding father in elevating the blues out of the Delta into what became one of the most significant forces in American music ever.

WMR takes a couple of days to attend the 23rd Annual Juke Joint Festival - 2026 in Clarksdale, Mississippi. We will have something for readers when we get back.

Giving his crack band, the 400 Unit, a season off, Jason Isbell embarked on a solo concert tour on January 14, 2026, in Durham, NC. The tour, primarily in North America, with dates extending through August 13, 2026, his last scheduled appearance in Seattle, WA. These performances are to support his solo acoustic album, Foxes in the Snow (Southeastern, 2025).

Following Isbell’s rehabilitation for alcoholism, the listening public eagerly awaited Foxes in the Snow, released after his 2025 divorce from Amanda Shires, expecting it to be a watershed recording like Southeastern (2013), released following his rehab. The recording is exceptional: angry, intimate, sorrowful, and contrite. Foxes in the Snow immediately summons Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska (Columbia Records, 1982). Both recordings are starkly solo recordings, plumbing emotional interiors with a bright light. The major technical difference between the two recordings is Isbell’s virtuosity. Where Springsteen’s guitar playing is as functional as necessary, Isbell creates an acoustic work of art, revealing Isbell’s excellent guitar form in genres as varied as delta blues to bluegrass.

Isbell brought his one-man act to Little Rock’s Robinson Center, Thursday, March 26; the show sold out. “This is a beautiful room,” said Isbell as he sat down and played. The Robinson Center had received a major upgrade a decade ago that vastly improved and updated the venue. There is a keen science to establishing a setlist to consume 90 to 120 minutes long. In his previous solo shows, Isbell has been performing about eight or nine of the new album’s 11 songs coupled with an additional 10 more selections from his growing catalog.

Isbell kept with this trend in this performance, kicking things off with an older song, “Alabama Pines” from his 2011 recording with the 400 Unit, Here We Rest (Lightening Rod Records). This song translates perfectly into an acoustic solo format, as did: “Tour of Duty,” “Dress Blues,” and “24 Frames.” No surprise there. Where one’s ears perked up was in his anthemic electric concert regulars: “The Last of My Kind” and “The King of Oklahoma.” These songs achieved a certain quiet majesty when stripped of their original electric finery. Isbell concentrated the sentiment of each song, the nostalgia of the former and slow-motion loss of the latter. Isbell was in good voice, faithfully captured and transmitted by the Robinson Center’s sonic environment. He closed with two touchstones, “Cover Me Up” and “If We Were Vampires.” No finer songwriter lives.

Setlist: Alabama Pines; Live Oak; Open and Close; Dreamsicle; Foxes in the Snow; Only Children; Streetlights; Eileen; Crimson and Clay; Last of My Kind; Traveling Alone; Relatively Easy; Elephant; 24 Frames; King of Oklahoma; Cast Iron Skillet; Tour of Duty; Dress Blues; Ride to Robert’s; Maybe It’s Time; Cover Me Up. Encore: Outfit, Beth/Rest, If We Were Vampires.

Instruments: For his 2026 solo acoustic tour supporting Foxes in the Snow, Jason Isbell primarily plays his new signature Martin 0-17 and its performance-focused counterpart, the 0-10E Retro. Matin engineers modeled these guitars after the vintage 1940 Martin 0-17 he used to record the new album.

Stevie Holland is a multifaceted American jazz and cabaret singer, playwright, and actress known for her sophisticated vocal style and lyrical intelligence. With a background in musical theater and a career spanning over two decades, she has earned critical acclaim for her “effortless elegance” and ability to bridge the worlds of jazz standards, pop, and original songwriting. Her latest project, Talk to Your Tomatoes (2025), continues her long-standing collaboration with award-winning composer and husband Gary William Friedman, blending classic storytelling with her signature warmth and wit.

Since Holland’s last recording, Life Goes On (150 Music, 2015), the singer has focused heavily on musical theater and developing multimedia adaptations of her stage work, including Love, Linda: The Life of Mrs. Cole Porter, her one-woman homage to Linda Lee Thomas. The singer spent several years developing the musical, Platinum Dreams, alongside her husband, Gary William Friedman. Many tracks on Talk to Your Tomatoes, including the title song and “You Pull Through,” were originally written for a film project that was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, she “reconstructed” these songs for the new album. Holland has most recently been developing a new “theatrically conceived” piece focused on the work of Kurt Weill.

Holland’s art has always been full of fun and whimsy. The singer’s gentle sense of humor seasons her music with quiet and calm. The phrase, “Why so serious?” comes to mind. Holland infuses her music with carefree intelligence that stealthily draws the listener into something greater than a mere “hearing” experience: the enjoyment of her art. The singer’s voice reflects her playful sense of humor as well. As Michael Bublé's singing comes from the tradition that gave us Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, so Holland’s singing comes from the stage-informed singing of Doris Day and Dinah Shore. Holland’s voice is as bright and clear as spring. Add the string sections used, and this becomes more pronounced.

Those vocal attributes are well on display in the original title track, where Holland summons lyric inspiration from the great Dave Frishberg’s bag of tricks. It is a clever song that walks the edge of Guy Clark’s “Homegrown Tomatoes” (from Better Days (Warner Bros., 1983) except more anthropomorphized. The Day-Shore influence is clearest on Lane and Lerner’s “On a Clear Day” and “Pure Imagination.” Her clarity is evidence of her stage work—few vocal gymnastics with well-behaved scat singing. The recording’s heart lies within “‘Round Midnight” in a quiet duet with guitarist Ben Monder. The singer and Monder give the standard a twenty-first century pressure washing. Both artists are spectral in the piece, performed as if from the memory of a recurring dream.

Stevie Holland provides a very enjoyable listening experience—at once a throwback and a jump forward. Hopefully, she will not wait as long to continue this music.

Discography

• Do You Ever Dream? (150 Music, 2000)

• Almost Like Being in Love (150 Music, 2003)

• Restless Willow (150 Music, 2004

• More Than Words Can Say (150 Music, 2006)

• Before Love Has Gone (150 Music, 2008)

• Love, Linda: The Life of Mrs. Cole Porter (150 Music, 2010/2018)

• Life Goes On (150 Music, 2015)

Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Bill Evans; it is among these musicians that John Coltrane belongs. Coltrane’s shadow remains a long one nearly 60 years after his death. Coltrane would be a visionary and, as such, propelled himself into confused irrelevance. The saxophonist’s late music, that found on recordings like (every ship launched after the epochal A Love Supreme (Impulse!, 1965), Ascension (Impulse!, 1965), Live At The Village Vanguard Again! (Impulse!, 1966) and Expression (Impulse!, 1967) is challenging. While not lacking artistic merit, the music is an acquired taste.

Thankfully, Coltrane admirer and percussionist Ian Dogole pays homage to the saxophonist with Last Train to Africa, a simple live performance that morphed into something else altogether. What started as a concert celebrating John Coltrane’s birthday on September 23rd, 2023, at the Oaktown Jazz Workshops, mushroomed into a full-blown recording project.

Percussionist/bandleader Ian Dogole brought together a band with pianist Frank Martin, bassist Fred Randolph, drummer Kendrick Freeman, saxophonist and vocalist Richard Howell, saxophonist and bass clarinetist Sheldon Brown, and trumpeter Darren Johnson to pay special homage to Coltrane. What Dogole brings to the Coltrane conversation is a deep, percussion-laden bottom where Elvin Jones performed his rhythm ruthless magic. Dogole performs on a variety of African percussion instruments and other indigenous percussion instruments, increasing the artistic focus on Africa and its contributions to Coltrane’s music.

The performance comprised six lengthy pieces either composed by Coltrane or closely associated with him. The Coltrane compositions include “Africa,” “Tunji,” and “Dahomey Dance” coupled with John Lee’s “John Coltrane,” Harold Arlen’s “Out of this World” and frequent Coltrane vehicle, “Afro Blue,” composed by Mongo Santamaria. “Dahomey Dance” includes a length solo by Sheldon Brown that recalls Coltrane’s musical soulmate, Eric Dolphy. Dogole shows off his percussion skills amply on the piece.

“Tunji” and “Afro Blue” make up the closing diptych, driven by the percussion of Dogole and Kendrick Freeman. Frank Martin approximates McCoy Tyner’s block and fragmented chords, while Howell and Brown effectively captured the Coltrane spirit. Dogole’s percussion underpins the project with a wink and a smile to Jones. This project highlights Coltrane’s tactile connection to Africa and his importance to jazz in the second half of the twentieth century.

Sound & Color Arts is a social impact company connecting communities to the visual and musical arts through education, special events, and philanthropy. Dana Shaw-Bailey is the founder and curator. She focuses on artists in Central Arkansas, providing informational and promotional support and outreach. Dana has a graduate background in instructional design, which she combines with her love of music and the visual arts in Sound & Color Arts.

I will cover live performances associated with Sound & Color Arts, the first being an appearance by Central Arkansas singer/songwriter/podcaster Townsend (Townsendtmusic.com) and her fine band at the Blue Canoe in Tupelo, MS. Townsend’s recent performance at Little Rock’s Town Pump was a beautifully and organically presented treat. Please check back to these electrons for more details.

While too early to call Mood Ellington the album Paul Marinaro has been working up to all his life, it is not too early to call it his finest and most completely realized release among his previous albums that include Without a Song (Self Produced, 2013), One Night In Chicago (Self Produced, 2015), Not Quite Yet (Myrtle Records, 2022), The Bowie Project (Origin Records, 2023).

These previous releases had a logical evolution. Marino’s first three albums were standards warm-ups (something many new jazz singers do) to his first focused concept recording, The Bowie Project. Marinaro included two Bowie compositions on the previous recording, Not Quite Yet, planting the seeds for the ambitious follow-up. After experimenting with his unique Bowie Project, Marinaro took a considerable risk with Mood Ellington, a sprawling homage to the music created by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn.

Marinaro has no problem imagining the scope of his project, as best evidenced by The Bowie Project. The singer’s process is exacting and well conceived. For this Ellington disc, the singer first curated 25 selections from the Ellington band book. Next, Marinaro accumulated a passel1 of crack arrangers to tidy up the 25 songs selected, each christening the compositions assigned to them with their unique tonal touch. Marinaro and his production team divided the songs among three performance “sets.” Set One is the big band; Set Two are the ballads; and Set Three rounds up tunes with lyricists other than Strayhorn. A true miscellany, the project features Ellington favorites, well known, and not so much.

Other writers have noted Marinaro’s debt to Nat King Cole on this album. Rather, the singer comes into his own voice with this material. He is comfortable at all tempos and designs. “I’m Beginning to See the Light” and “In a Mellow Tone” reveal the breadth of Marinaro’s delivery from sotto voce to full-throated delivery. The band delivers with a nosebleed swing that is infectious and devastating. Among the ballads shine “Mood Indigo” and a stunningly beautiful “Azure.” Strayhorn’s masterpiece, “Lush Life,” finds the singer less in the cups of the song than on the concert stage singing an art song. “Caravan” is a revelation of crack arranging and singing, representing an advance in Ellingtonia.

Mood Ellington sets the standard, and listeners will compare every future vocal Ellington recording to it. Kudos, Paul Marinaro.

Last August, I revealed I would be splitting my time between Wild Mercury Rhythm (WMR) and All About Jazz (AAJ). I will continue to post an article to WMR each Friday but will refocus my Tuesday drops to an AAJ article published every two weeks. Michael Ricci, AAJ’s publisher, will decide when to publish these, so they may show up anytime.

I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to each of these outlets and to you as the community consuming my writing.

“In October 2024, keyboardist/composer Yelena Eckemoff began rolling out singles in anticipation of her new recording, Rosendals Garden, with the title piece. A park of the same name, which is on Djurgården, an island in Stockholm that belongs to the Swedish royal family, as well as Eckemoff’s rhythm section, bassist Svante Henryson and drummer Morgan Ågren, inspired the eleven tracks suite of songs making up Rosendals Garden album. She followed that release with “Strandvägen Pier,” “Ruins of Älvsborg,” “ABBA Museum,” “Gamla Stan”, and now - “Öresund Bridge.”

This is not a traditional jazz piano trio as Svante Henryson plays both bass and cello ... one supercharged with shamefully abundant talent, vision and a twenty-first century zeitgeist. Eckemoff has a solid sight on the horizon, composing music with this rhythm section in mind.

Her sixth single is decidedly autumnal and edgy, maybe even spooky. The song is angular, with sharp, marching edges. The head figure is complex and ancient. Eckemoff’s organ and Henryson’s cello lend a decadent minor-key flavor to the piece, decadent in the sense of supernatural romanticism. The composer plays an extended piano solo, leading back into her baroque broken counterpoint idée fixe. Fragrant with Fall, “Öresund Bridge” could be an early ‘60s Halloween theme. Smart and swinging in an advanced mathematical manner, “Öresund Bridge” begs that more of this music.

Breaking hearts you are ruling, little Coquette
True hearts tenderly dreaming of you

—Gus Kahn, “Coquette” (1928)

What the Brooklyn-based guitarist, singer, and songwriter Dida Pelled has is an abundance of confidence that never brags because it, and she, don’t have to. A native of Tel Aviv, Pelled showed up, fully realized, in New York City at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in 2008. Trumpeter Fabio Morgera saw Pelled performing in New York, offering her the opportunity to make her first recording with Italy’s Red Records (for whom Morgera was recording at the time).

Pelled’s meeting with Morgera resulted in her debut recording Dida Plays and Sings (Red Records, 2011) with Morgera and the late Roy Hargrove contributing trumpet spots. The singer next released Modern Love Songs (Self Released, 2015) with its popular single “Jack Nice,” followed by her second and final Red Records release, A Missing Shade of Blue (2016). The singer took a hard left in 2022 with her Love of the Tiger (Self Released), a far-reaching work that dramatically reframes love songs in both strange and fantastic ways. While not exactly jazz, the recording is beautifully musical and contemporary, all original compositions that amply reveal Pelled’s keen sense of humor and observation.

The artist’s promotional material states that Pelled, “…has a knack for finding and playing songs that feel like secrets worth sharing…” and that is exactly what she does. The singer explores her love of the blues on I Wish You Would, dialing up the pure sensuousness, wit, and astute observations to eleven. Make no mistake, this is a beautifully sexy recording, set off by Pelled’s complex, coquettish delivery.

Featuring an exceptional jazz piano trio comprising pianist Sullivan Fortner, bassist Tony Scherr, and drummer Kenny Wollesen, the album is a blues recording, but one with that huge dollop of jazz that would make a listener wonder which came first, the blues, jazz, or did the two arise symbiotically. No matter, though, Pelled commands these blues standards with her confident and informed way.

Pelled began rolling out this recording with the John Lee Hooker chestnut, “Dimples,” and the blues standard, “Hesitation Blues.” While these songs have jazz in the basement, it is the blues live upstairs in the house. The singer is organically flirtatious and coy, singing with a perfectly coiffed delivery of honey and morphine. Pelled’s “Dimples” is playfully dissolute and “Hesitation Blues,” demurely decadent. Pelled practices an alchemy that makes these songs wholesomely sexy. “Hesitation Blues” has no acknowledged composer, handed down in the Delta's blues tradition of each performer injecting their own lyrics. Pelled does this with true style, witness:

“She says, ‘Touch my bonnet, touch my shawl, but do not touch my waterfall"‘…”

Right when one would expect Pelled to sing “jelly roll.” But she is not this base. Too clever by half, Pelled folds innuendos three deep and still keeps the pot simmering. The title song is a 1955 composition by Billy Boy Arnold. The singer presents the song as a toned-down Howlin’ Wolf rumba, softened by Fortner’s use of an electric piano, which the pianist also employs on the wonderfully languid “I’m Sittin’ On Top of the World” that may be the most “down home” of the blues on the record. She does the same with the Frank Sinatra vehicle, “Blues in the Night,” giving it some blues bona fides.

Dida Pelled treats us to a masterclass on how one transforms the old, making it not only new but transcendent and freshly definitive.

We could see the release of Yunchan Lim’s Goldberg Variations performance recorded at Carnegie Hall, Friday, April 25, 2025, a light-year ahead of its February 2026 release date. So prevalent were the social media advertisements, proclaiming the performance “phenomenal,” “iconic,” “a historic event.” That is so much sunshine blown up the 21-year-old’s backside that his face should shine like Moses’ descending Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments.

Can this recording be all that?

Yes, and no.

This is an excellent recording entering a market clotted with excellent Goldberg performances. There are so goddamn many Goldberg Variations recordings existing that a poor performance or recording would never make it to a major label. It’s like that adage about pizza and sex—even the worst one has is still pretty good.

Teeming with measured and untethered articulation at once, Lim’s Goldbergs are a satisfying listen. It’s Bach. No more needs saying or inferring. The beauty of Bach is inherent to Bach’s music and not necessarily in its performance. New recordings reveal little that hasn't already shown us, though varied performances are certainly welcome. Bach stands, as himself, on his own terms. Period.

It is worthwhile to consider Goldberg Variations recordings with the aperture widened. Lim performs the music on a modern piano. The modern piano Bach began with Glenn Gould and his Goldbergs (Columbia, 1955 and CBS Masterworks, 1981) are a great place to start. Get a snootful of these performances and then move on to Wilhelm Kempff’s 1970 Deutsche Grammophon set, which has been described as,

…a marked exception. Among the hundreds of unremarkable and homogenous recordings of Bach’s legendary keyboard cycle, this one belongs to a select group of interpretations which are radically different. In fact, in terms of its potential to split the audience right down the middle, it is second only to Glenn Gould’s performances of the piece – people generally rank this either as their favourite or their most despised rendition1.

Kempff’s opening Aria is jarring and not for the faint of heart. His performance is workman like. Kempff was not cowed to the point of apoplexy by Bach, rather he sat down and performed the variations as a piano piece. Both Bach and the pianist shine in the performance.

What I consider the finest recording is Murray Perahia’s 2000 Sony Classical performance. Perahia added water to his Bach to open it up, and it opened perfectly. Listen to this and move on to Lim’s fine performance so one can know the difference between “great” and “exceptional.”