Lonnie Smith Trio Purple Haze: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix (MusicMasters Jazz) The first time I saw Jimi Hendrix, at the Fillmore in San Francisco in 1967, he was just what his legend says he is: an exploding orgasm, pulling notes and sounds from places you could not see, leading…

Intrigue Acoustic Soul (Universal) Tony Toni Tone House of Music (Mercury) Think back to the abyss of early Eighties urban thump-thump music. New technology had yet to be mastered by artists like Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, black pop music was in assembly-line mode, and it seemed that maybe real…

Utah Phillips and Ani Difranco The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere (Righteous Babe) On “Bridges,” Utah Phillips intones: “I have a friend, a good folksinger and song collector, who comes and listens to my shows and says, ‘You always sing about the past. You can’t live in the past, you know.’…

Eddie Palmieri Vortex (TropiJazz) Spike Lee’s new film Get on the Bus is the story of a bus full of men on their way to the Million Man March. But it has another very important character: an African drum that plays a key role as a link between generations living…

John Mellencamp Mr. Happy Go Lucky (Mercury) When I first met John Mellencamp nearly fifteen years ago, he was a young buck awash in the success of Uh-Huh and its “Pink Houses” anthem, and on the verge of critical and commercial success with Scarecrow. But Mellencamp was already worrying about…

Scenic Acquatica (Independent Project/World Domination) Like Ennio Morricone on peyote, or Dick Dale after a couple of bong loads, Scenic makes dreamy, hypnotic instrumental music of operatic scope but minimal construction. The quartet — fronted by ex-Savage Republic mastermind Bruce Licher — build their evocative soundscapes around slinky twang-guitars and…