Weckl's latest "Transition" might cause you to think you've found a "Weather Report" disc you'd never heard and even check the cover again to be sure. The music is all orig…

Sometimes a new face just seems to come out of the blue. A talent that wasn't there and just then was. For Debbie Deane, as with most talents, it was the usual decade plus …

"Anna is original, unique, different. She’s brave, she's modest, she’s open. She's a great musician. What she's been doing all her life is just trying to play the best notes. Trying to sound good. In that particular sense she's a lot like me and that's why I decided to work with her. Because she just cares for the music". - Pat Metheny Not surprisingly, It’s a rare thing for Metheny to endorse or to work with anyone who's not already a jazz icon or one in the making. We know the names alread …

"I was driving around Nashville when I stopped to get a Coke. I was only going to be a minute so I left my banjo in the car, but when I got back someone had broken in and left another banjo!" Ok, we’ve probably all heard that one a time or two and I’m sure Bela Fleck’s heard it an even thousand times now. He may have even made it up. But if the oft’ maligned banjo (like Southern accents or trailer parks) were ever a running joke, it’s certainly not in his hands now. It's often said that the …

The trumpet’s a strange, little instrument. A few feet of plated brass tubing on which legendary careers have been built. Yet like any instrument essentially a tool to produce sound - no two play are played alike. Consider and contrast the subdued, thoughtful delivery of Miles’ muted tone, the stratospheric blasts of Dizzy or the rich, burnished finish of Kenny Dorham; each distinctive and memorable, each pushing and exploiting various and separate boundaries of the instruments and music itself. …