John Scofield

Columbia/Legacy's splendid "Kind of Blue: 50th Anniversary Collector's Edition" is so lovingly stocked with priceless artifacts and constructed with such painstaking reverence that it's more like a sacred object than a luxury box set. With its magical...

After 17 years, nine studio albums and countless tours, Medeski, Martin and Wood are, in a sense, a band without a country. And they couldn't be happier. Dedicated to what keyboardist John Medeski calls "the spirit of jazz" through a fierce devotion to...

Critic's Picks Bob Dylan (Nov. 13 at Nassau Coliseum, Nov. 16 at Continental Airlines Arena). Dylan's Never Ending Tour gets an injection of new material this fall as more of Dylan's impressive new "Modern Times" (Columbia) album comes into his set of...

From Mariah Carey (sizzling again) to 50 Cent (cooling off), it's a what've-you-done-lately pop world. Few things are more fickle than the here-today, gone-by-lunch life cycles of the music industry's seasonal pop and hip-hop stars. Yet, in 2005, the...

Don't believe the hype. Despite flagging record sales and a lack of commercial radio airplay, the death of jazz music has been greatly exaggerated. Evidence arrives once again this Labor Day weekend in Grant Park when The 27th Annual Chicago Jazz Festival...

Congress has dropped funding for state and local agencies involved in a program that has been critical to Chicago's recent success in curbing violent crime. Project Safe Neighborhoods, a cooperative effort between federal and local law enforcement...

Complete list of nominees announced Tuesday for the 47th annual Grammy Awards, to be presented Feb. 13 in Los Angeles: Record of the Year: "Let's Get It Started," The Black Eyed Peas; "Here We Go Again," Ray Charles and Norah Jones; "American Idiot,"...

For every musician who yearns to achieve stardom in youth, there's another who prefers to develop slowly and surely outside the spotlight, allowing his art to blossom in its own good time. Chicago guitarist John McLean perfectly fits this description,...

Typically, the jazz nominations for the 45th Grammy Awards are a mix of prime choices, vaguely defined categories and entries that belong elsewhere. On the prime side, there is the classy best jazz instrumental album lineup. It's hard to go wrong with...