"Mad Scientist Music"—the tag that Harry Schnipper, owner of venerated D.C. jazz venue Blues Alley, admiringly applied to Ben Patterson's creations—is an apt description for this trombonist's work.

EUREKA! I’ve done it! After decades of research and mountains of dug-up corpses, I’ve finally engineered the perfect sci-fi book list about mad scientists! When the denizens of the internet read it, ...