It’s been a long, long time, but the real Van Halen is back! After 22 years of pretending that they didn’t need or want each other, the Van Halen brothers and David Lee Roth are getting back together to rock the world. The band has announced twenty-five dates so far for what promises to be the biggest tour this fall. In their press conference, they seemed to be together for the long haul, and it will be awesome to hear new songs from one of the greatest bands of all time. What’s sweet is that Eddie’s son, Wolfgang, is the new bass player for the band. Michael Anthony was a decent bass player, but I always found him a bit annoying. Really, nobody listens to Van Halen to hear the bass lines. It’s all about Diamond Dave and Eddie Van Halen. Alex Van Halen is no slouch either. Wolfgang should bring new life to the band and bring a younger perspective. I’m sure he’ll learn a few things on tour with his dad, uncle, and DLR. It should be a great show to watch!

We were back in Chicago over the 4th of July holiday to visit our families and friends. One of the nice things about going back to Chicago is that we actually get to listen to good radio stations like WXRT. Well, on one of our drives, one song just blew me away. Why hadn’t I heard this great new song on the stations in Saint Louis? It turns out the song was called Nobody by a new artist named Ryan Shaw. When we got back home, I downloaded the album, This Is Ryan Shaw, and have been listening to it ever since. Ryan reminds me a lot of the old time soul singers like Marvin Gaye and Al Green. He’s a really good mixture of old school soul mixed in with new school rhythms. Nobody is a perfect example of that.

I’m not sure what it is that draws me to his music. Maybe it was all of those summers spent at Probst Glass and Screen Shop listening to the oldies station with my dad and Bobby, or maybe it’s just because he’s a really great artist. Whatever it is, the album is definitely worth a listen. Check it out when you have a chance.

For those of you who know me well, you know I do a little beat box from time to time. Having played trumpet for a bazillion years, I can make some fairly strange noises with my mouth. A couple weeks ago, my buddy, Paul, hipped me on to this video on YouTube. It’s Rahzel from The Roots doing some crazy cool beat box. He breaks into Iron Man towards the end. Now, this is must see TV.

Apple launched a great new feature in iTunes on Thursday called Complete My Album. The basic concept is that you now get credit for the singles you’ve bought when you buy an album. This works really great when you’re checking out a song or two from a new band and you decide that you want the entire album. I tried the feature yesterday and got the remainder of a Wynton Marsalis album (five songs) for a couple bucks. Although the feature will benefit all of the artists selling music on iTunes, I think this will be a huge benefit for new bands. Listeners can buy a song or two to check things out and go back for the album for a reduced price. Complete My Album will be a great opportunity for artists to sell more albums and for consumers to expand their musical horizons.

Okay, I admit it. I watch American Idol, and I can’t wait to see what happens every week. One thing has been really bothering me this season. It’s the continued presence of Sanjaya on the show. This guy is clearly the worst singer and performer on the show, and he’s wasting space. Last night, Chris Sligh got booted off the show. He really blew it the night before, but he has actual talent. Sanjaya, on the other hand, has a lot of learning and growing to do as a singer. He’s just not ready to perform at this level.

Now, to all of you American idiots out there voting for this guy, stop and think next week before you vote for Sanjaya. So far, three insanely talented singers have been voted off the show. Let’s prove to the rest of the world that Americans can judge talent by voting Sanjaya off the show.

Hi everybody! I just listened to Liquid Soul’s new album, One-Two Punch. It’ll take a few listens before everything sinks in, but I am very impressed so far.

For those of you that are not familiar with Liquid Soul, it’s a great band out of Chicago. When the band first came out, it was thrown in to the acid jazz category, but really, it’s almost impossible to pigeon-hole Liquid Soul into any genre. Their albums and live shows are a mixture of jazz, funk, dance, rap, rock, blues, latin, soul, R&B . . . the list goes on and on.

For long-time fans of the band, this latest album will seem like a logical next step in the band’s evolution. If you listen to their albums in chronological order, you can definitely notice a pattern.

One-Two Punch contains one of the coolest songs I’ve ever heard: Kong. None other than Vernon Reid from Living Colour sits in with the band on the track, and it really smokes. For me, this song alone justifies the price of the album.

Do yourself a favor and check out Liquid Soul’s latest work on iTunes.

Over the last several weeks, I’ve been listening to more and more jazz music on a daily basis. I think seeing Wynton Marsalis in an iTunes commercial reminded me of how cool jazz music really is. I’m not saying that I haven’t been listening to jazz, but it has taken a back seat to rock and blues music in my daily listening.

I wanted to take some time to comment on a couple new albums I’ve been in to lately. The first is Wynton’s new live album, Amongst the People: Live at the House of Tribes. The album contains six songs, and all but two are over ten minutes long. All of the musicians stretch out and play some great solos. For me, this album ranks up there with some of the best live albums that I’ve had the privilege to hear like Wynton’s Live at Blues Alley, Cannonball Adderley’s In San Francisco, Art Blakey’s Ugetsu, and Duke Ellington’s At Newport. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out, I would definitely recommend giving Amongst the People a listen.

The other album I’ve been listening to a lot lately isn’t really an album at all. It’s a three-song session Wynton did for iTunes. I have a feeling Wynton went into the studio with these three songs for the commercial, and they ended up picking Sparks. All three songs are brief by normal jazz standards which should make them more accessible to the masses. They’re also fun to listen to because they have a certain level of humor and attitude. I hope to hear more of Wynton in a quartet setting in the future if this is the kind of result we can expect.

Well, I need to get back to listening.