John Coltrane

Jazz Great Bill Evans Working at University of Houston Residency

Bill Evans, the saxophonist who worked with Miles Davis and the Mahavishnu Orchestra in the '80s and has explored the intersection of jazz and hip-hop on solo albums like Escape, will be working with University of Houston jazz students all week and perform with them at a concert next Tuesday, the un ... More >>

The Rocks Off 100: Tianna Hall, Singer of Sweet Songs

Who? You could argue that Tianna Hall is the best jazz singer in all of Houston. I mean, you could argue against it too, but it's like arguing that the moon landing was faked. Her smoky voice is a fine mix of skill and improvised magic, and it's landed her on the Grammy nomination ballot three time ... More >>

No Surprises: Rock Hall Set To Induct Guns N' Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beastie Boys

Photo By Marco TorresGuns N' Roses are Rock Hall bound, but which version of GNR will show up? ​This morning (well, it leaked last night) the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland announced their 2012 class of inductees. Included on the list are Guns N' Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beastie Bo ... More >>

Las Puertas: 10 Things You May Not Know About The Doors

"Hey Robby, don't try to look too not-stoned in our press still. Thanks, buddy."​On this day in 1965, The Doors began recording demos together, laying down some songs set to Jim Morrison's freaky poems. Nearly 50 years later, the band is an exalted classic-rock group, firmly implanted in that ... More >>

Uncovering Peter Case: The Rocks Off Interview

Julie EnsmingerPeter Case at Cactus Music last year​"I was always sort of not interested in what my generation was doing," Peter Case told Rocks Off 10 years ago after flipping through Louvin Bros. compact discs at a now-defunct bookstore in Sugar Land, surrounded by car dealerships, business ... More >>

Scott Stapp The Astros = Evacuation-Level Suck

Ed. Note: Unlike the Astros' season (darnit), Stapp's concert appears to have been canceled. Groovehouse​A few weeks ago, Rocks Off wondered if the real reason our hometown baseball club is having such a woeful season is because the music most of the players use to pump themselves up as they' ... More >>

Happy Birthday Stevie Wonder: The Cliff's Notes Version

​Today pop legend Stevie Wonder turns 61 years old, and to this day he continues to thrill audiences around the world with his pop prowess and ear for a hook. And damn, 61 is pretty young, but consider he's been in music since he was all of 12, back when he released The Jazz Soul of Little Ste ... More >>

Detroit Leanin': Who Is The Best Motor City Artist Ever?

detroitrockcity.altervista.org​Some places breed music. Due to sheer size, any big city will produce its fair share of talented musicians, and some - Memphis, New Orleans, Chicago - seem to have music in the water supply. But none, arguably, more than Detroit: John Lee Hooker, the Motown dias ... More >>

Tracy Nelson, Victim Of The Blues, Embraces Muddy & Lightnin'

Robert Hakins​Long acclaimed as one of the truly great singers of the modern era, at 66 Tracy Nelson still has the fire for performing great songs. Her latest project, Victim of the Blues, is a loving caress to her original passion: Old-school blues, particularly the Chicago variety. Nelson's ... More >>

Blinded by the Light

Sacred Steel gives Grandfather Child an epiphany.

Houston's Top Tweeting Musicians

​This week's Houston Press cover feature is about Twitter and its implications, for better or worse, within the social-media world. For "The Twitterverse," we spoke with Twitter stars from Houston and Dallas, asking them how they use the site daily and what could be different about their experienc ... More >>

Get Lit: Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original by Robin D. G. Kelley

​Though his stature as an icon of jazz is secure today, for much of his actual performing life, pianist/composer Thelonious Monk was not always so well-received by jazz critics or general fans. His personal eccentricities - the hats, the dancing, the attacking piano keys - and odd/unprofessional b ... More >>

Inquiring Minds: Mexican Global Groovers and World Travelers Plastilina Mosh

​Plastilina Mosh has a new CD out, All U Need Is Mosh, on Nacional Records, and brings its international sound to Houston Thursday for a free concert with Venezuela's Los Amigos Invisibles. That's right, it's free - all it costs is a very worthwhile trip outside the Loop. Rocks Off hasn't picked u ... More >>

Tonight: Dafnis Prieto Sextet at the Wortham Center

The Beaty Brothers, a duo formed by two Texas-born twins, has a story that seems right out of a TV movie - growing as part of a broken family with a troubled history of substance abuse, saxophonist John Beaty and trombonist Joe Beaty trombonist Joe Beaty struggled to get their musical education ... More >>

Houston's Jazz History

Music Deaths

The Greil Marcus Rock Death Meter returns

Art Capsule Reviews

A picture of our opinions on local exhibitions

Art Capsule Reviews

A picture of our opinions on local exhibitions

CD Reviews

Blues music releases

Texas Tenors Times Two

The Trinity Jazz Festival

Making Scents of the Stars

A buyer's guide to celebrity fragrances

Never Go to a Party in Friendswood

Where does your town rank in the Houston-area good-taste stakes?

Slanted Enchantment

A jazz quartet tribute to Pavement is, inexplicably, a roaring success

The Killers vs. the Killers

How do these pretty boys stack up against some real dealers of death?

Christmas in July

Six dozen of Houston's finest bands for a mere $7

Letters

Playbill

East Is East and West Is West

Except in the music of Indian-American DJ Navdeep

Mystic Pizza

Candiria's genre-bending urban fusion of ambient, hardcore, rap and jazz makes for a tasty organic pie

Skate or Die

In the 1970s, the Z-Boys were hell on wheels. Today, they're shredding the big screen.

Fightin' Words

Drifter's Craig Feazel hates jam bands, Ryan Adams, radio and a lot of other stuff

Eyes Half Open

Cameron Crowe takes Jerry Maguire on a dizzy trip through dreamland

Playbill

Susie Ibarra/Evan Parker

Drag King

Actor-comic Eddie Izzard just wants to be loved

Various Artists

Ken Burns Jazz: The Story of America's Music (Columbia Legacy)

Mix Master Mike

A different kind of groove

The "It" Guy

It's hard not to dig local saxophonist David Caceres

Space Truckin'

Traveling with the Sun Ra Arkestra has its perks: cigarettes and coffee

...Newman!

With a sound as fat as Texas, David "Fathead" Newman returns home

Jazzed Up

Feeling at Ease

Out of Africa

Catching Up with Gil

A new series of reissues reaffirms the genius of rap's granddaddy

Night & Day

April 16 - 22, 1998

Hard to Kill

Impure, and Proud of It

Rotation

Jazz Notes

All the Colors of Jazz

Kirk Whalum's sax paints with a broad palette of sounds

Press Picks