Hit the Road!
By Bill Milkowski
They are the offspring of Jimi Hendrix, forever changed by hearing “Purple Haze” and “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” while growing up on Long Island during the ’60s.
And though Hendrix may have provided the impetus for their respective guitar experimentation — the match that lit the fuse — Joe Satriani and Steve Vai would go on to achieve a kind of staggering virtuosity on the instrument, marked by unprecedented speed, mind-boggling technique, melodic invention and a willingness to push the envelope, that raised the bar for instrumental rock guitar in the ’80s and ’90s.
All that, and informed by jazz, too.
By John Murph
By Ted Panken
The band known as Butcher Brown has enjoyed the last half-decade basking in the glow from the twin engines of critical acclaim and popular appeal. They got to that spot through their unique blending of soul-jazz with funk, R&B and hip-hop, the latter thanks to saxophonist Marcus “Tennishu” Tenny’s secondary gift of verbalizing his rapacious knowledge of the spoken word. In April, the band was the headliner at the Reno Jazz Festival, where they agreed to take a live Blindfold Test in front of an audience of students and educators. Tenny, along with drummer Corey Fonville, guitarist Morgan Burrs, bassist Anthony Randazzo, and special guest keyboardist Jacob Mann listened to and commented on the selections below.
