Matthew Lutthans

1 month ago | trackingangle.com | Rudy Van Gelder |Matthew Lutthans |Morgan Enos

SHORT OF ONE PROHIBITIVELY RARE, EXPENSIVE PRESSING, THIS IS THE WAY TO HEAR ITIn Greenwich Village, directly across from The Red Lion on Bleecker Street, an unremarkable mixed-use building conceals an extraordinary legacy. From 1964 to 1970, the basement of the defunct Garrick Theatre housed the Café Au Go Go — a pivotal New York club that welcomed legends ranging from Jimi Hendrix and B.B. King to the Grateful Dead.

1 month ago | trackingangle.com | Matthew Lutthans |Morgan Enos

TROMBONE LEGENDS J.J. JOHNSON & KAI WINDING’S 1960 RAPPROCHEMENT SOUNDS SUPERB — BUT THE ORIGINAL PRESSING HAS ONE MAJOR STRENGTHTo Nick Finzer, the pioneering trombonist J.J. Johnson is often taken for granted. A standout among the new generation of trombonists, Finzer released Legacy — a full-album tribute to his hero, last year — “He’s one of those figures where people know and are familiar with his name,” he told me.

1 month ago | trackingangle.com | Matthew Lutthans |Morgan Enos

A LESSER-KNOWN ALBUM BY THE TEXAS BLUES LEGEND BENEFITS FROM SONIC CLARIFICATIONLightnin’ Hopkins was many things — a hauntingly personal guitarist, a casually riveting storyteller, and as the country blues tradition goes, a figure of resounding influence. Every scrape of a string, every craggy vocalization, every ribald bon mot, seemed to spring from the Texas soil itself. To put it plainly, the bluesman was real — about as real as it gets.