Jazz/Blues
J. Reilly Lewis, Washington Metro Area Concertmaster and Organist, Dies at 71
Spike Wilner's 'Koan' Transcends Limiting Piano Trio Format on New Posi-Tone Release [REVIEW]
Man, those guys at Posi-Tone are on a roll! Spike Wilner's 'Koan' is as engaging a piano trio CD as you'll hope to hear. I thought I was done with basic piano trios but Wilner is so inventive, his originals so, uh, original, his covers so well-picked and performed, that if you have to hear yet another piano trio, let it be he. 'Good Days a Comin' for Ivas John Due to His Solid Fifth CD on Right Side Up Records [REVIEW]
If you didn't know any better, you might think, after hearing 'Good Days a Comin' (Right Side Up), that you're digging some itinerant flat- and finger-picking folk singer who rides the rails 1940s hobo-style like Woody Guthrie. Then you'd realize it's a Southern Illinois University graduate named Ivas John whose mastery of both Appalachian mountain music and Mississippi Delta blues coalesces within the soul of this one mighty fine singer-songwriter.
