Deuce by Carl Baugher

"Deuce, by Carl Baugher, is a jarringly wonderful set of jazz music. You don’t have to be a jazz connoisseur to enjoy this album. Just sit back, close your eyes, listen, and enjoy the journey. The mind is a tapestry, weaving truths and lies into patterns repeated over and over again. Some threads bind, others unravel—but only the unseen mist controls the loom.

Epiphenomenal and Footnotes transport you somewhere else entirely. Maybe it’s a dimly lit room tucked away on a back street in New Orleans, where the smoke hangs low and the bourbon breathes with history. You can almost see the quartet in the corner—eyes closed, fingers chasing feeling more than notes. The horn moans like memory, the bass keeps secrets, and the drums flicker like candlelight on brick walls. It’s not nostalgia—it’s time travel, conjured through melody.

These songs don’t just play; they remember. They remember sweat on the glass and laughter in the dark, the ache of the blues bending into something beautiful. There’s something raw here, something honest—a kind of midnight magic that only jazz can offer when it’s unafraid to linger in shadow. Whether you’ve walked those streets or only dreamed them, this music brings you close enough to smell the smoke and feel the soul. That’s the gift this record gives." - S. F. Lottes