Morgan Enos

1 month ago | talkhouse.com | Morgan Enos

“Who said we’re staying sane? That’s an assumption.”Laura Jane Grace and Paris Campbell Grace burst out laughing on the back porch of their Chicago abode, enveloped in roiling plumes of spliff smoke. It’s a moment of calm — however botanically induced — before chaos descends and they hit the road for a long stretch of spring and summer dates as Laura Jane Grace and the Mississippi Medicals.

2 months ago | talkhouse.com | Morgan Enos

Despite critical enthusiasm, John Lennon’s “New York City” is decidedly not one of his most iconic tunes. It’s conspicuously absent from best-of collections like Shaved Fish, Power to the People, and Gimme Some Truth: The Ultimate Mixes; on the blue John Lennon Anthology box I’ve had since childhood, it only appears in a 55-second snippet. Yet this barreling, Chuck Berry-channeling goof on the Liverpudlian’s new home base has always been among my very favorite Lennon songs.

2 months ago | trackingangle.com | Morgan Enos

WHEN IT COMES TO THIS SLATE OF ARCHIVAL JAZZ RELEASES, THE VINYL BEATS THE CD EVERY TIMEHere are my reviews of three new Resonance Records offerings: Charles Mingus’s In Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts, Kenny Dorham’s Blue Bossa in the Bronx: Live from the Blue Morocco, and Freddie Hubbard’s On Fire: Live from the Blue Morocco. All three are due out on Record Store Day, April 12; you can pre-order them now. It’s not Charles’ Mingus’s final set of performances, but it’s close.

2 months 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.

2 months 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.