Recommendations you can check.
Music critic and historian; author of The History of Jazz and Music: A Subversive History, writes the newsletter The Honest Broker.
4 things
Jelly Roll at San Quentin Rehabilitation CenterOther Jelly Roll
The music is riveting—this is one of the most intense and rewarding videos you will see this year. I note that Jelly Roll spent time behind bars himself.
His survey of gospel acts he thinks the music press is ignoring.
2026-08-22·honest-broker.com ↗
The Holy LiftoffOther Terry Riley / Claire Chase / JACK Quartet / Samuel Clay Birmaher
It sounds like a celestial flute choir inviting you into a dream landscape.
His periodic roundup of new albums he rates, subtitled "Ten recent albums of outstanding merit".
2026-08-10·honest-broker.com ↗
At least that’s what I felt hearing (and seeing) the Brandenberger Family. If you love those old records by the Carter Family, but feared that style of singing had disappeared, this is the band for you.
His survey of gospel acts he thinks the music press is ignoring.
2026-08-22·honest-broker.com ↗
Demand to Be Taken to Heaven Alive!Other Horse Lords
I never dreamed that microtonal odd-metered tunes would come so far. But this group’s latest release will show up on many best-of-year lists in 2026 (mine included).
His periodic roundup of new albums he rates, subtitled "Ten recent albums of outstanding merit".
2026-08-10·honest-broker.com ↗
Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.
The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.
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The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Fully green is recent. It drains a quarter at a time as the post gets older, and is empty once it reads as dated.
What counts as old depends on the thing. A laptop praised four years ago has been replaced twice; a book loved twenty years ago is probably still loved. The shading is gone after about:
Stripes mean the post carries no date and the date shown is an estimate. No date at all, no shading.