Inclusiveness was Palmer’s trump card. He had the rare ability to explain the sound of any music to the layman, and in often colorful language. His take on thorny noise-rockers Swans is a gem. “At first,” he wrote in the Times, “Swans records sound like gorillas beating on pots and pans and muttering incoherently, accompanied by the clamor of a machine shop. Closer listening reveals differences in verse structure, texture, and mood that distinguish one song from another.”
For its breadth, knowledge, and craftsmanship, Blues & Chaos reminds us that Palmer was as irreplaceable on the American landscape as many of the great musicians his writing explored.
Related:
The long view, In action, Birds of a feather, More 
- The long view
Bob Blumenthal’s first book is out, and the wonder is that we didn’t get it sooner.
- In action
In the era of YouTube, we’re apt to forget that not every note of music ever played has been captured on film or video.
- Birds of a feather
What continues to make the JVC Jazz Festival at Newport so vital these days isn’t just the variety but the depth of the variety.
- State of the art
You could find just about any kind of jazz you wanted on the three stages at the JVC Jazz Festival in Newport last weekend.
- Photos: Newport Jazz Festival
Herbie Hancock, Aretha Franklin, Christian Scott, and more
- Autumn leaves
One of the great harbingers of fall jazz for the past seven years has been the Beantown Jazz Festival.
- What good can the blues do?
You can’t ask too much of the blues. Like the raw emotion they’ve become synonymous with, the blues are not cerebral. They are not progressive or revelatory.
- Various Artists | Tom Feminino/Tom Masculino
These two compilations of female and male singers addressing the Jobim songbook span five decades of idiosyncratic interpretations by a galaxy of mostly Brazilian stars.
- Back to the future
Since leaving Roomful of Blues, the vintage guitar hero Duke Robillard has moved forward by reaching back into the annals of American blues, swing, jazz, and R&B and by doing so, he’s told a pretty incredible story.
- Nights out
Five shows in eight days (not counting an early-music side trip with Jordi Savall’s Hespèrion XXI at Sanders Theatre), so let’s get cracking.
- Howlin’ Wolf | Rockin’ the Blues: Live In Germany, 1964
The fidelity of the recording is far from state-of-the-art, but its historical value - and sheer musicality - more than make up for any qualities that might peeve audiophiles.
- Less
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