At Mike's suggestion, today's podcast explores the truncated career of hard bop trumpeter Carmell Jones.  We listen to four albums featuring the little-known musician and talk about the arc of his career, his work with running buddy Harold...

The venerable bastards have made it to their twelfth anniversary, so time to dress us in silk and pearls (if you weren't already in your fantasies).  While you attempt to scrub that hideous image from your minds, we'll mention that today's...

Normal service resumes with a podcast devoted to tributes celebrating the still-obscure pianist and composer Herbie Nichols.  Nichols spent his truncated career in the shadow of Thelonious Monk (a big guy who cast a big shadow).  He r...

As we noted so succinctly way back in 2014:  Some trios play nicer together than others - Pat and Mike investigate.   Duke Ellington – MONEY JUNGLE; Terri Lyne Carrington – MONEY JUNGLE PROVOCATIVE IN BLUE; Jean-Michel Pilc – WELCOME ...

All lists come to an end at some point (often after ten entries) and this third and final podcast on the New York Times' selections for best jazz albums of 2024 considers the final two entries plus two more 2024 releases which the boys - spoile...

The boys are back to take on four more entries from the New York Times' Best of 2024 list and Mike especially is happy with these selections.  "Spiritual Jazz" leaves a imprint on several of this episode's albums and bastard number 2 loves...

At the end of the year, media outlets make lots of lists, so many lists that there's even one for best jazz recordings.  At the start of the following year, the bastards pick one lucky list to listen through and question every step of the ...

There's a new Record Store Day ritual in the jazz world - archival live releases from one of the many labels Zev Feldman has a hand in running.  This year's two RSD days saw several releases on labels like Resonance, Reel to Real, and Elem...

To start off what is certain to be an interesting new year, Mike and Pat look at leader dates by the deepest of the regularly-used saxophones, the baritone.  All four leaders are specialists on the unwieldly horn, though some do dabble in ...

Every musician, it seems, does a holiday album sooner or later, and visions of residuals dance in their heads.  But given the flood of releases each year, it's hard to stand out, and the canon of Christmas favorites is already pretty crowd...

A couple releases exploring older repertorie, a out-ish excursion that goes all over the map, a young woman singer with our time on her hands.  Yep, it's a classic mixed bag courtesy of eclectic Mike, with the bastardy mostly courtesy of P...

Jazz has gone some pretty wacky places - Russia, South America, the White House - but believe it or not, sometimes it even invades that princess-industrial complex we know and love as the Disney corporation.  Listen and learn as Mike leads...

Halloween's in the rear view mirror but the boys still have a mixed bag of treats on offer, including an album whose cover boasts the best costumes of the year.  A piano playing Duke makes his appearance on the 'cast for the first time in ...

Podcast 301 picks up where 300 left off, looking at albums from 1993, 2003, 2013, and 2023.  Jazz trends get a little harder to pick out once the new millennium begins, but at least our 1990's selection is REALLY 1990's, right down to the ...

Three hundred podcasts is the kind of milestone worth of an echo chamber at the very least and a themed episode at the very, er, leaster.  Pat had the bright idea (he thought) of reviewing albums from 1953, 1963. 1973, and 1983.  Mike...

Back in the saddle again, the boys look at three recent releases and one cute little two-year-old.  Two of the recordings are lead by bassists and two by drummers, so you could say all four were led by a member of the rhythm section - if y...

Never mind what your podcast feed may seem to imply - the bastards haven't recorded a podcast together in two months, and this one got completed by the skin of their teeth.  In this episode we look at two alto sax players from two very dif...

Summer's winding down.  How'd you spend yours?  Pat spent his immersed in the music and life of Sonny Rollins, one of the greatest improvisers to grace the story of jazz.  In this podcast, which is kind of an upcoming article in ...

Those crazy hazy lazy days of summer got us in their thrall and scheduling's been tough, so please enjoy this flashback to episode 81:  Mike and Pat discuss Walk on the Wild Side; Shine On You Crazy Diamond; Aja; Waiting on a Friend; Baker...

What's the most famous jazz album in the world?  Don't say Duke Ellington Plays Mary Poppins unless you have a really good excuse, like you work for Disney.  And please don't name some album by Kenny G even if that's sort of true.&nbs...

A lot of listeners worry that jazz has ossified in the last, say, fifty years or so, but Mike decides to do something about it, terminological speaking, anyway.  So this fortnight's episode explores the difference between curating a tradit...

Jazz releases these days fight a game of inches.  Almost everybody releasing music in the genre is technically accomplished and the rules have been laid out so long that almost everybody knows how to meet the listener's basic expectations....

The boys warned you things were going to get eclectic, but they may have outdone themselves this time, as the selections run the gamut from a jazz trio reimagining Bach preludes to a cutting edge big band arranger/composer tipping the cap to Ca...

In the last (for a little while, at least) of our one-artist focused podcasts, the boys take a deep dive into bassist/composer/bandleader Ben Allison's latest four releases.   Ben's an exact contemporary of our intrepid podcasters, if a bi...

The record store day madness continues as the boys take two Cannonball Adderley air-shots from France for a spin.  Whether he's Poppin in Paris or Burning in Bordeaux, the listener can hear Adderley's group transitioning from the sixties t...