Argue's Secret Society produces 'Maximum Tension' on a lively new album

Composer Darcy James Argue runs a jazz big band — but imagines its sound as if big bands had stayed current rather than faded away. The music's clarity, contrasts and rhythms are all impressive.

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'Fresh Air' marks the 100th birthday of legendary opera soprano Maria Callas

Widely considered the greatest singing actor in opera history, Callas died in 1977 at the age of 53. Now, several new releases celebrate both her singing and her acting.

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Blink-182 is back with reunion record 'One More Time'

Blink-182's new album is called One More Time, and it's the first for their classic lineup in 12 years — the same three members who landed those pop-punk hits in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

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'Archives' box set surveys a crucial part of Joni Mitchell's pop career

The five discs in Joni Mitchell Archives Vol. 3, The Asylum Years (1972-1975) represent both a summation of Mitchell's pop achievement and a harbinger of her later, more experimental work.

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An appreciation of Von Freeman, the patron saint of Chicago jazz musicians

The tenor saxophonist, who died in 2012, would have been 100 on Oct. 3. Freeman's weekly jam session at the New Apartment Lounge on Chicago's South Side became an international pilgrimage site.

* This article was originally published here