This was the first complete album of The Beatles that I heard. At the time, I was familiar with their early pop influenced hits on the radio like “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” and “Twist and Shout,” to their symphonic mixtures like “Hey Jude,” and “A Day In the Life.”[…]

Since today is Miles Davis’ birthday, I thought I would like to share with you one of my favorite albums of his. Around the time I began exploring the music of John Coltrane, I had been familiar with Miles’ earlier modal jazz like Kind Of Blue and Sketches Of Spain.[…]

This is one of my favorite synth-driven albums from the Emerson, Lake & Palmer discography. I first heard “The Endless Enigma,” and “Trilogy” at our friend McCrea’s house when I was nine, while our family was moving from San Bernardino to Oxnard. I played some classical pieces by Bach and[…]

One day while I was taking a break from my piano lessons, my teacher Grant Horrocks played me the opening track of this album. At the time, I had never heard most of these instruments played in this style before. I first thought the kalimba, bells, violin, and guitar harmonics[…]

I like surprising you with albums from musical genres you might not be as familiar with, so I wanted to find an album that combines multiple styles together. Along with Frank Zappa, Joe Jackson creates music that combines elements from multiple genres. Zappa’s music is pretty wild, and often takes[…]

Recently, I wanted to explore some jazz vocalists who came before my favorite contemporary artists like Esperanza Spalding and Gretchen Parlato. I’ve also been fascinated by the different approaches to vibrato. For a while, I never really studied the early jazz singers, mainly because their vibrato was unusual. Then once[…]

This was one of the first albums of Stevie’s I heard from start to finish. Mom would play it in the car while driving me to piano lessons. From listening to this album I learned a lot about improvisation in extended vamps in songs like “Love’s In Need…,” “Joy Inside[…]

My favorite conceptual jazz album, composed and recorded during the transition from his technical modal era to his spiritual explorations. The last track always brings me to tears, due to the emotional quality of Coltrane’s playing.