The high, plaintive wail of the pedal steel guitar and the warmly rough voice that follows close behind it define Robert Randolph's sound. In the past, and occasionally on his new album We Walk This ...

received a call from the famed trumpeter. “Miles says, ‘Oh, you’re from New Orleans — that’s why you can play good,’” Scofield recalled recently. Not exactly. Scofield’s mother grew up in New Orleans, ...