Tom Moon
Tom Moon has been writing about pop, rock, jazz, blues, hip-hop and the music of the world since 1983.
He is the author of the New York Times bestseller 1000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die (Workman Publishing), and a contributor to other books including The Final Four of Everything.
A saxophonist whose professional credits include stints on cruise ships and several tours with the Maynard Ferguson orchestra, Moon served as music critic at the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1988 until 2004. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GQ, Blender, Spin, Vibe, Harp and other publications, and has won several awards, including two ASCAP-Deems Taylor Music Journalism awards. He has contributed to NPR's All Things Considered since 1996.
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Vaughan was, arguably, the foremost interpreter of Brazilian music in jazz history. Recorded three years before she died, Brazilian Romance is her equivalent of Johnny Cash's American Recordings — full of contemporary spirit, propelled by a timeless voice. -
It's stupefying that Karen Dalton remains, even in this crate-digging age, largely unknown: She was a singer of transfixing nuance and uncommon emotional control. If her debut album appeared new today, Dalton could have easily become a phenomenon of at least Madeline Peyroux proportions.
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Many contemporary listeners know Ry Cooder as the producer and guitarist behind Buena Vista Social Club, the 1997 project that revived the careers of long-forgotten Cuban ballad singers. Lost among his early works is an eclectic little under-loved gem: Boomer's Story. -
In 1998, Argentine singer and songwriter Juana Molina walked away from a TV-acting career to explore music. She's toured constantly, opening for David Byrne and others. Her new, eerily beautiful CD is titled Son. -
Give it up for this as a peak experience: a stolen moment with some ice cream. It might just come down to that, and that's probably an idea worth savoring. The Wood Brothers, anchored by Medeski, Martin & Wood bassist Chris Wood, combine simplicity with metaphysics.
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Sigur Ros, a five-piece band from Iceland, makes spacey progressive music, with often-indecipherable lyrics. Its fourth studio CD is called Takk..., which means "Thanks."
