Greg Burk

So you want to know how Ozzy’s holding up? He maintained good pogo energy during his July 8 Ozzfest show out at the Devore Perpetually Renamed Pavilion, even if the old haunted howl sounded strained. But his set was flat, partly because new bassist Blasko hadn’t locked into the rhythm,......

People called Syd Barrett’s music childlike, which it was: A child, unconditioned, can see things adults don’t, and often finds good ways to express his visions. Barrett’s cut-up song structures, jagged guitar rhythms, blindly leaping melodies and flashbulb lyrics sounded as if he was innocent of musical preconceptions. He wasn’t......

{mosimage}Infinity SquaredWhat happens when you multiply ­limitlessness by infinity? You absolutely do not know. Which is why it’s such a great idea to toss Henry Kaiser and Andrea Centazzo into the same reaction chamber.As one of the West Coast’s premier freakers for some three decades, Kaiser has made a career......

Psychedelic organ jams, heavy metal fusion, Hendrix tribute, African roots — Vernon Reid & Masque hurled themselves into it all at Catalina’s June 24, wearing expressions of men watching movies of themselves. Musta caught a glimpse in a mirror one time, thought, “Naw, we can’t be doing all that,” and......

SILENCE SPEAKS Gonzalo Rubalcaba took the piano bench in silence, said not a word between songs, and made no comment upon returning for his encore and bowing out. Dark-suited and serious, he let us know that his June 17 performance at Catalina’s was more than a solo show, it was......

ELECTRIC As nights get longer and hotter, best plan is to blow all your dough partying till you plotz, and Vernon Reid & Masque will help. You’ve known at least since Living Colour that Reid can shred on guitar; probably, though, you’ve never heard his ax chop in woodlands this......

Why don’t I give a fig about the Playboy Jazz Festival? Could it be that I don’t comprehend the connection between naked bunnies and sophisticated music? That I don’t think the Hollywood Bowl favors intimate artistic communication? That I don’t relish a cramped picnic with thousands of strangers? That nobody......

Keyboardist-composer David Ornette Cherry speaks with quiet deliberation and an untroubled smile, but some of the things he says sound rather strange. Like how he had to learn piano because he hacked himself with an ax. Or how, as a child, he could look out his window and see Thelonious......