The boys are sticking to recent releases for the foreseeable future and this episode, inasmuch as it has a discernible theme, is about how different jazz musicians are trying to reach audiences in 2026. Feel free to listen, though, if you are against cerning in any form. Tigran Hamasyan – MANIFESTE; Ben Wolfe – ANY TIME AFTER NOW; New Jazz Underground – HOODIES; Lakecia Benjamin – WE DREAM.

A nice, straight-forward jazz album caught Mike's ear, so he decided to do a podcast devoted to new releases that don't over egg the pudding, or as google suggested, "go all around Robin Hood's barn"? (Google's been drinking again). Anyway, while he came up with two fine straight-ahead examples, Pat's offerings ended up a little thornier, if still on the right side of "academic brain-ouch inducer." Jesse Davis – REFLECTIONS; Ize Trio – GLOBAL PRAYER; Emily Kuhn – FEATHERED THINGS; Seamus Blake – THE ELECTRIFYING SEAMUS BLAKE

Mike is swamped in Spain (with homework, not water), so Pat does an intermediary episode that is .5 by name, .5 by nature. He takes a look at five box sets in three completely made up categories and when he's done you'll still have time to go out for a nice dinner. John Coltrane - THE COMPLETE 1961 VILLAGE VANGUARD RECORDINGS; Charles Mingus - THE COMPLETE 1970s STUDIO RECORDINGS; Miles Davis - MILES IN FRANCE 1963 & 1964: THE BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 8; Various Artists: NEWVELLE RECORDS SEASON FOUR: COMPLETE BOX SET; Various Artists: COMPLETE KEYNOTE COLLECTION. 

Those of a certain age remember the early eighties, and those with adventurous ears remember it wasn’t all about young lions and retro-cool on the jazz front. A personal hero of Pat’s from this era recently passed, and so here’s another episode devoted to a fallen giant of the music – James Blood Ulmer. Or, as Mike calls him, James High-Blood Pressure Ulmer. Dig him or not, no one brought his kind of harmolodic, cross-over energy to the electric guitar – and no one sang so many syllables most listeners could never hope to decipher. 

 In this installment, the boys look at some albums by the great Sonny Rollins after the second and best-known of his several sabbaticals, when he spent hours honing his craft on the Williamsburg Bridge. (We talk about the iconic album named after that period on Episode 34.) Mike asks us to tackle these in reverse chronological order - tune in to see why. (How do you "tune" a podcast? You tell me.) Sonny Rollins - THE SOLO ALBUM, DON'T STOP THE CARNIVAL, EAST BROADWAY RUN DOWN, SONNY MEETS HAWK!

The great Sonny Rollins left this dimension on May 25, 2026, and the boys find it only fitting to devote two episodes to the jazz colossus. This first installment looks at four albums from the magical 1950s, when every album Sonny released was an event and even John Coltrane was just an up and coming challenger. Sonny Rollins: TENOR MADNESS!, VOLUME 2, NEWK'S TIME, SAXOPHONE COLOSSUS. 

Back on Episode 247.5 Pat gave an overview of Creed Taylor's famous (infamous?) CTI label that bestrode the first half of the nineteen seventies like a jazz colossus. Now we've got both members of the 'cast weighing in on four of the label's better productions. So comb your sideburns (and your shag rugs) and settle in for a discussion of the best jazz-oriented baby-making label of the first half of the "me" decade. Milt Jackson – SUNFLOWER; Antonio Carlos Jobim – STONE FLOWER; Joe Farrell – OUTBACK; Airto – FREE.

We've done vocalists before, but never devoted an episode to the Chairman of the Board. Now we have, so that's off the bucket list. Listen as the boys discusses five of fantastic Mr. Frank's platters, and opine where newbies should get to know this cultural shibboleth. Frank Sinatra - SWING AND DANCE WITH FRANK SINATRA, IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS, CLOSE TO YOU, I REMEMBER TOMMY, FRANCIS ALBERT SINATRA AND ANTONIO CARLOS JOBIM.

A common canard about jazz is that the acoustic variety was unsaleable during the 1970s, and while there's a germ of truth in it, lots of exceptions prove that particular rule. This podcast looks at three releases from the early seventies and a little-known English gem from the late sixties. Two of the releases are tasty treats from Manfred Eicher's ECM label, though Mike has a more graphic way of putting it. Mike Taylor – TRIO; Bennie Maupin – JEWEL IN THE LOTUS; Catalyst – PERCEPTION; Paul Bley – OPEN TO LOVE.

As this Spring’s Record Store Day flood of releases floats past our wondering eyes on the stream of time, Pat and Mike discusses four selections you might want to pluck out of the metaphoric water to add to your own collections. Let’s hope we don’t damp your enthusiasm too much. Among other insights, we learn the piano tuner at the Jazz Showcase didn’t have perfect pitch, because he didn’t exist. Michel Petrucciani – KUUMBWA; Cecil Taylor – FRAGMENTS; Mal Waldron – STARDUST AND STARLIGHT AT THE JAZZ SHOWCASE; Buster Williams – PINNACLE.