Lonnie Johnson’s Blues & Ballads gets an audiophile-grade vinyl reissue via Bluesville and Craft. Intimate, detailed blues for hot summer nights. As summer kicks into high gear and the heat starts ...

It's easy to play the blues—or at the very least it's easy to learn the basics—but keeping the form fresh and interesting is another matter entirely. Likewise, any beginner can tackle a quiet ballad, ...

Great soul ballads always seem to tug at the heartstrings. And any music called “soul” better do just that. Connect with the very essence of who we are as humans. But in 1961, a powerful voice was ...

Call Brad Mehldau's Blues and Ballads the pianist's "Every Man Set." There has been, from the beginning of Mehldau's career, a sense of the cerebral in his approach, with its classical music ...