Articles by Patrick Burnette
More Sugar on the Frosted Flakes, Please
by Patrick Burnette
The boys take a peek at four releases from 2025 sprawling all over the map. If you ever wondered what would happen if Dave Brubeck met an African percussion ensemble, you're about to find out. You'll also find out why evocations of the “young lions" period gives Pat PTSD, how a vocalist / trumpeter's new release deals with actual trauma, and why putting more sugar on your frosted flakes still won't help you catch up with a mononym keyboard wonder-woman.
Continue ReadingListen to Prestige Now, Think Later
by Patrick Burnette
Listening to Prestige: Chronicling its Classic Jazz Records, 1949-1972 Tad Richards 250 Pages ISBN: 979-8-8558-0495-9 State University of New York Press 2025 Most jazz histories end up focusing on individual musicians, understandably enough. Talk about movements in jazz all you want: dixieland, swing, be-bop, hard-bop. You will end up talking about Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet, Count Basie and Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Horace Silver and Art Blakey. A few towering ...
Continue ReadingTake the Smoove with the Rough
by Patrick Burnette
Every now and then the boys bring vocal albums into the mix, but vocal group albums--now those are rarities. This time, they take on two, at as opposite ends of the soul spectrum as it's possible to get. There's still room for releases led by instrumentalists, this time by a somewhat “out" bassist and a vibraphonist playing with how “in" he can get.Playlist Discussion of Mario Pavone's album Toulon Days (New World Records) 2:13 Discussion of Warren Wolf's ...
Continue ReadingFrom New Age to Nuclear
by Patrick Burnette
We try to cover a wide gamut of improvised music in the podcast, but today's episode must surely have the widest spread of any recent offering. We've got spiritual jazz from the late sixties, a quartet featuring clarinet from a few weeks ago, an album by a British mover and shaker that could easily be filed under New Age, and an encounter between a saxophonist and guitarist that will leave most listeners cowering under their sofas. In pop matters, Pat ...
Continue ReadingFour Quartets
by Patrick Burnette
Have no fear--the boys are not discussing just any four quartets. No, there's a couple of matching sets. An influential album from a certain “European Quartet" confronts its doppelganger from fifty years later; a recent leader date from a guitarist known for his electric work faces off with a work of his youth dating back forty-five years. And if that's not exciting enough, Pat leads Mike into the dark alleyway of Beach Boys bootlegs.Playlist Discussion of Keith Jarrett's ...
Continue ReadingFinal Four
by Patrick Burnette
It's too early for March Madness, but just in time for the bastards to wrap up their survey of the New York Times' Top Ten list of 2025 jazz albums. Some of the choices give the boys mixed emotions and some barely any emotions at all, but at the end of this journey we can all say one thing for certain-that sure was definitely ten albums of jazz. Pop matters stretches to include a discussion of a life-enhancing live set ...
Continue ReadingTwo from the Times, Two from the Bastards
by Patrick Burnette
It's episode two of three covering the New York Times list of Top Ten 2025 jazz albums, and since we generally cover four albums a show, and the Times only picked 10 for their top 10 list, we add a couple of our own picks to this “middle" episode to make the math work. We've got a drummer led live date that sounds studio bound, a duet veering towards new age, a bizarre and challenging disc from a long-running Underground ...
Continue ReadingNYT '25 Top 10
by Patrick Burnette
It's sort of nearly a yearly ritual--Pat and Mike pick an outlet's top 10 list for the previous year, work their way through it, and pass FINAL JUDGMENT. Because of course these lists are anything but subjective. Mike picked the list this year: the good old New York Times, whose choices have been discussed before in these parts. He's not as grumpy as sometimes about the paper's East Coast bias, but this episode covers only 4 of the 10, so ...
Continue ReadingLet There Be Lightsey!
by Patrick Burnette
Welcome to 2026! As what will certainly prove to be an interesting year kicks off, the boys dive deeply into little-discussed keyboard master Kirk Lightsey's discography, checking out a couple of leader dates, an unusual duet exploration of a single composer, and a sideman appearance in a saxophonist's band who at least one All About Jazz reader finds worthy of a box set. Playlist Discussion of Kirk Lightsey's album Isotope (Criss Cross) 3:46 Discussion of Kirk Lightsey and ...
Continue ReadingRevenge of the Son of Holiday Jazz: Koz and Effect
by Patrick Burnette
It's that time of year again, when Mike insists on a holiday music themed episode and Pat is too worried about upsetting Santa to say “no." This year's bag o' tunes has very little coal in it, unless you are allergic to smooth jazz. Mike, anyway, thinks his choice is one of the least offensive as the genre goes. You be the judge. Playlist Discussion of CCJO's album The Nutcracker Remixed (Self-Produced) 2:15 Discussion of Lincoln Center Jazz ...
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