Jazz Bastard Podcast

Those of a certain age remember the early eighties, and those with adventurous ears remember it wasn’t all about young lions and retro-cool on the jazz front. A personal hero of Pat’s from this era recently passed, and...

In this installment, the boys look at some albums by the great Sonny Rollins after the second and best-known of his several sabbaticals, when he spent hours honing his craft on the Williamsburg Bridge. (We talk about...

The great Sonny Rollins left this dimension on May 25, 2026, and the boys find it only fitting to devote two episodes to the jazz colossus. This first installment looks at four albums from the magical 1950s, when every...

Back on Episode 247.5 Pat gave an overview of Creed Taylor's famous (infamous?) CTI label that bestrode the first half of the nineteen seventies like a jazz colossus. Now we've got both members of the 'cast weighing in...

We've done vocalists before, but never devoted an episode to the Chairman of the Board. Now we have, so that's off the bucket list. Listen as the boys discusses five of fantastic Mr. Frank's platters, and opine where...

A common canard about jazz is that the acoustic variety was unsaleable during the 1970s, and while there's a germ of truth in it, lots of exceptions prove that particular rule. This podcast looks at three releases from...

As this Spring’s Record Store Day flood of releases floats past our wondering eyes on the stream of time, Pat and Mike discusses four selections you might want to pluck out of the metaphoric water to add to your own...

The boys take a peek at four releases from 2025 sprawling all over the map. If you ever wondered what would happen if Dave Brubeck met an African percussion ensemble, you're about to find out. You'll also find out why...

Every now and then the boys bring vocal albums into the mix, but vocal group albums - now those are rarities. This time they take on two, at as opposite ends of the soul spectrum as it's possible to get. There's still...

We try to cover a wide gamut of improvised music in the podcast, buttoday's episode must surely have the widest spread of any recent offering. We've got spiritual jazz from the late sixties, a quartet featuring clarinet...

Have no fear - the boys are not discussing just any four quartets. No, there's a couple of matching sets. An influential album from a certain "European Quartet" confronts its doppelganger from fifty years later; a...

It's too early for March Madness, but just in time for the bastards to wrap up their survey of the New York Times' Top Ten list of 2025 jazz albums. Some of the choices give the boys mixed emotions and some barely any...

It's episode two of three covering the New York Times list of Top Ten 2025 jazz albums, and since we generally cover 4 albums a show, and the Times only picked 10 for their top 10 list, we add a couple of our own picks...

It's sort of nearly a yearly ritual - Pat and Mike pick an outlet's top 10 list for the previous year, work their way through it, and pass FINAL JUDGMENT. Because of course these lists are anything but subjective. Mike...

Welcome to 2026! As what will certainly prove to be an interesting year kicks off, the boys dive deeply into little-discussed keyboard master Kirk Lightsey's discography, checking out a couple of leader dates, an...