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THE PAST, RESTORED TO US: JON-ERIK KELLSO, JAMES DAPOGNY, SCOTT ROBINSON, MARTY GROSZ, VINCE GIORDANO, EDDIE METZ; DAN BLOCK; BOB HAVENS, BOBBY GORDON (Jazz at Chautauqua, Sunday brunch, September 19, 2004). | JAZZ LIVES
In decades of listening to recorded performances and observing live ones, I have had many memorable experiences, ranging from an eight-bar Bobby Hackett solo at Carnegie Hall fifty years ago to something I sat close to this June. But Jazz at Chautauqua remains my Arabian Nights, a magical outpouring of music amidst heroes and heroines,…
CHRIS HOPKINS MEETS THE YOUNG LIONS (Volume One and Two) | JAZZ LIVES
I have a real admiration for Chris Hopkins, brilliantly at ease on piano or alto saxophone. I think I first encountered him on an Arbors Records release from 2000, DAYBREAK. Here's the title, poignant and pensive: https://youtu.be/R9jr01zQCO8?si=SodQpWO2Ap6XzH_9 I had the great good fortune to encounter him in person after that: once at Joe Boughton's Jazz…
HAVE YOUR FIRE EXTINGUISHER HANDY: MARTY GROSZ, JON-ERIK KELLSO, DAN BARRETT, BOB HAVENS, BOBBY GORDON, JOHN SHERIDAN, BOB HAGGART, WAYNE JONES (Conneaut Lake Jazz Festival, August 26, 1994) | JAZZ LIVES
Go ahead and get it. I'll wait. You'll need it. Exhibit A: Exhibit B: and the thing in itself: a performance of DIPPER MOUTH BLUES from Joe Boughton's fabled Conneaut Lake Jazz Festival, with Marty Grosz, guitar, leader; Jon-Erik Kellso, trumpet; Dan Barrett, cornet; Bob Havens, trombone; Bobby Gordon, clarinet; John Sheridan, piano; Bob Haggart,…
IS JAZZ YOUR FRIEND? | JAZZ LIVES
Any friendship needs care. Like a plant, friendship dies when neglected. My readers love this music. We have felt its warm embrace. But many are quietly neglecting the art that has been a true friend. I refer specifically to jazz in performance, face to face. If your finances are limited or your health is fragile;…
MAGIC IN MIDTOWN: THE DANNY TOBIAS SEPTET (Part Two) at WINNIE’S JAZZ BAR: DANNY TOBIAS, JON-ERIK KELLSO, HARRY ALLEN, STEVE ASH, FELIX LEMERLE, TAL RONEN, KEVIN DORN (Friday, May 23, 2025). | JAZZ LIVES
Photograph by Craig Mahoney. Here's Part One of that magical night. And the third, quite marvelous set: Danny loves Rodgers and Hart, so he had us DANCING ON THE CEILING: https://youtu.be/TEQ7gJFfNNs DID YOU CALL HER TODAY? is Ben Webster's variation on IN A MELLOTONE, which is a variation on ROSE ROOM. Legend has it that…
WHO ARE THEY? | JAZZ LIVES
Since an appreciation of this music is based on careful, deep listening, I thought I would amuse my readers with what DOWN BEAT calls "The Blindfold Test." Here are two musicians, clarinet and piano, playing INDIANA, MY BABY JUST CARES FOR ME, and a slightly truncated I GOT RHYTHM. The two musicians are from the…
IT’S HOT! IT’S HERE! THE HOT CLUB OF NEW YORK HAS A HOME (20 West 20th Street, Room 307, New York City) | JAZZ LIVES
NEWS FLASH: The Hot Club of New York has begun in-person meetings of the most refreshing kind -- celebrating timeless music in startling sound -- at 20 West 20th Street, Room 307, New York City. They take place Monday evenings, 7:30 - 10:30 PM, and tickets can be purchased here. The tickets are not expensive…
THERE’S A THRILL IN THE AIR: DUKE HEITGER, MARTY GROSZ, BOB HAVENS, BOB REITMEIER, SCOTT ROBINSON, JAMES DAPOGNY, VINCE GIORDANO, EDDIE METZ (Jazz at Chautauqua, September 19, 2004) | JAZZ LIVES
Sunday brunch at Jazz at Chautauqua, September 19, 2004. Hot jazz, lyrical improvisation, good camaraderie. Could it be better? I was there for this session and many other wonderful ones at Joe Boughton's parties. The music resonated in my memory, but this video (and others to come) are like free passes to a magical mystical…
SCOTT ROBINSON TAKES A CHANCE WITH A GHOST (DANNY TOBIAS, MATT MUNISTERI, NEAL MINER: The Ear Inn, June 1, 2025) | JAZZ LIVES
Photograph by Bud Glick. Yes, Scott Robinson's hat is made or (or ornamented with) tenor saxophone reeds. Although he plays every brass and reed instrument ever invented, and some not even imagined by the timid, he is most entranced by the tenor saxophone, his 1924 Conn. With it and through it, he creates beauty. He…
MAGIC IN MIDTOWN: THE DANNY TOBIAS SEPTET (Part One) at WINNIE’S JAZZ BAR: DANNY TOBIAS, JON-ERIK KELLSO, HARRY ALLEN, STEVE ASH, FELIX LEMERLE, TAL RONEN, KEVIN DORN (Friday, May 23, 2025). | JAZZ LIVES
When the first notes of the music began, I thought I had been magically transported to a live-and-in-person Vanguard Records session. Or perhaps a portable Buck Clayton Jam Session was taking place, eight feet from me, at Winnie's Jazz Bar (66 West 38th Street, New York City) last Friday night. You will bring your own…
ALISTAIR AND HIS AMERICAN FRIENDS: JOE MARSALA, EDDIE CONDON, BOBBY HACKETT, JOE SULLIVAN, EDMOND HALL, JOE THOMAS, MIFF MOLE, DAVE BOWMAN, BENNIE MORTON, LOU McGARITY, ABE WALKER, JOHNNY WILLIAMS, ZUTTY SINGLETON (“Radio Rhythm Club,” British Broadcasting Corporation, 1941) | JAZZ LIVES
If Alistair Cooke is remembered at all today, it is perhaps as the host of PBS's MASTERPIECE THEATRE. But he had a deep love of American popular culture and especially jazz. I hadn't known that he first visited the US in 1932, and on a later visit encountered and talked with Jelly Roll Morton in…
“THE MASTER OF DRUMS: GENE KRUPA and the MUSIC HE GAVE the WORLD,” by Elizabeth T. Rosenthal (Citadel Press: Kensington Books, 2025) | JAZZ LIVES
I report with great pleasure that we have reached a new standard in jazz biography. Ricky Riccardi's Louis Armstrong trilogy is the jewel in the crown, with Elizabeth J. Rosenthal's much-needed biography of Gene Krupa only a one-beat rest behind. It is a splendid book, generous in its approach to its subject, based on a…
BOB BARNARD SHOWS US HOW: MARTY GROSZ, BOB HAVENS, SCOTT ROBINSON, BOB REITMEIER, JOHN SHERIDAN, VINCE GIORDANO, ARNIE KINSELLA (Jazz at Chautauqua, September 17, 2005) | JAZZ LIVES
I always admired cornetist Bob Barnard for his arching lyricism, his refusal to dabble in cliches, his astonishing technique, but I continue to marvel at his quiet easy courage. He seemed to have no fear, or perhaps it was his confidence, after decades of playing, that he could show the way on the most unfamiliar…
THE RODGERS AND HART SONGBOOK: DANNY TOBIAS, JAY RATTMAN, FELIX LEMERLE, JEN HODGE (Winnie’s Jazz Bar, May 8, 2025) | JAZZ LIVES
Danny Tobias, seen above, poised between trumpet and Eb alto horn, loves melodies that haven't been overdone through repetition. In his Quartet gig at Winnie's Jazz Bar (66 West 38th Street, New York City) on May 8, he explored the beautiful repertoire of Richard Rodgers and -- not heard, but remembered -- lyricist Lorenz Hart…
ALL RISE FOR OUR NATIONAL ANTHEM: DUKE HEITGER, BOB HAVENS, BOB REITMEIER, MARTY GROSZ (Jazz at Chautauqua, September 20, 2003) | JAZZ LIVES
I and some of my friends made the choice, years ago, to pledge our allegiance to the United States of Louis. Armstrong, if you need clarification. So, with all respect to THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER, this is our National Anthem. Please rise. A feeling performances of WHEN IT'S SLEEPY TIME DOWN SOUTH always makes me want…
THE DUKE IS ON THE AIR and IVIE SINGS THE HITS: DUKE ELLINGTON AT THE COTTON CLUB, MARCH 18, 1937 | JAZZ LIVES
A half-hour of magic from the Reminiscing in Tempo YouTube channel devoted to Duke Ellington. The details: MBS half hour remote broadcast on WOR. 23:30. Live at Cotton Club 200 W. 48th St., New York City. March 18, 1937. 0:00 East St. Louis Toodle-O (opening theme) 1:11 Harlem Speaks 5:25 Caravan 9:51 One, Two Button…
SIMPLICITY, FEELING, and SWING: DAWN LAMBETH, “I GET IDEAS” | JAZZ LIVES
Just listen. https://dawnlambeth.bandcamp.com/album/i-get-ideas I won't attempt even a pretense of objectivity when it comes to the singer Dawn Lambeth and her new CD, I GET IDEAS (available on Bandcamp now in digital and physical form and on Spotify soon). For one thing, a few words from me are visible on the back cover. and (with…
McKENNA THE BOLD: A DAVE McKENNA ADVENTURE (Jazz at Chautauqua, September 12, 1997) | JAZZ LIVES
I think that DEEP PURPLE (music by Peter DeRose, lyrics by Mitchell Parish) is one of the great underrated masterpieces of melancholy nostalgia, right alongside STARDUST, which gets far more attention. When I think of that 1938 song, one version that comes to mind is Bing's: https://youtu.be/NFYnGXv05Tg?si=CDapjyYSjaiPSx5r and then Don Byas' (with Buck Clayton and…
MAKE ROOM ON THE BOOKSHELF FOR JAMES P.! | JAZZ LIVES
The marketing people would call a post like this "time-sensitive," so I will be quick -- as quick as James P. Johnson playing CAPRICE RAG or IF DREAMS COME TRUE. The superb scholar and writer Scott E. Brown, THE authority on James P., has been working for years on the second edition of his biography…
WHATEVER “THAT WAY” IS, PLEASE DON’T BE IT: DAN BARRETT, JOE WILDER, HARRY ALLEN, DAVE McKENNA, JAMES CHIRILLO, BOB HAGGART, BOB COUSINS (Conneaut Lake Jazz Festival, Friday, August 26, 1994) | JAZZ LIVES
I wish someone had interviewed saxophonist-composer-arranger Edgar Sampson to ask him precisely what he meant by the suggestion or entreaty, DON'T BE THAT WAY, which had that title in 1934 when Sampson was part of Chick Webb's reed section. That was before Mitchell Parish added lyrics and before Benny Goodman took credit for part of…
LOVE-NOTES: KEITH INGHAM, JOE WILDER, DAN BARRETT, CHUCK WILSON, BOB REITMEIER, FRANK TATE (Jazz at Chautauqua, Saturday brunch, September 29, 2006) | JAZZ LIVES
The great jazz musicians understand that sweetness is an essential part of the music: not always easy to perform but making possible a deep emotional connection between artist, song, and audience. And Joe Boughton wanted to hear sweet ballads just as much as he wanted to hear fifteen musicians roar through ROSE OF THE RIO…
SWING’S THE THING: JON-ERIK KELLSO, DAVE BLENKHORN, DAN WEISSELBERG, KEVIN DORN (Cafe Ornithology, February 15, 2025) | JAZZ LIVES
This was a wonderful evening of music, hot and serene by turns, performed by Jon-Erik Kellso, Puje trumpet; Dave Blenkhorn, guitar; Dan Weisselberg, double bass; Kevin Dorn, drums -- at Cafe Ornithology, 1037 Broadway (at the corner of Suydam Street), Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York. I've already posted a rocking [apolitical] RUSSIAN LULLABY from that evening.…
CHRISTMAS EVE IN NEW ORLEANS: DUKE HEITGER, DAVID BOEDDINGHAUS, TOM SAUNDERS, PART ONE (Steamboat Natchez, December 24, 2024) | JAZZ LIVES
It was a wonderfully atmospheric scene: cruising down the Mississippi River from New Orleans, with some of the best music imaginable, from Duke Heitger, trumpet and vocal; David Boeddinghaus, piano; Tom Saunders, tuba. Here's the first part of the joy. Fud Livingston's melancholy I'M THROUGH WITH LOVE, taken as a more cheerful affirmation: https://youtu.be/FzhNs9I8fwk PAPA…
“GET HOT OR GO HOME!”: MARTY GROSZ, JON-ERIK KELLSO, BOB HAVENS, BOBBY GORDON, JOHN SHERIDAN, VINCE GIORDANO, KEVIN DORN (Jazz at Chautauqua, Saturday night, September 18, 1999) | JAZZ LIVES
Martin Oliver Grosz, of Berlin, Germany; Douglaston, Long Island, and other locales, born 1930, is a born sparkplug in the way Walter Page and Sidney Catlett were. Put him in a reasonably-decent band and everything improves; put him among his peers and friends and the music soars. Add to his rhythmic vigor his song choices…
IT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT (May 8, 2025) | JAZZ LIVES
I hope these faces are familiar to you. The sounds they create are precious. The glories of small-group improvisation by artists who listen deeply to one another: the Danny Tobias Quartet, which is Danny, trumpet, Eb alto horn; Jay Rattman, soprano saxophone, bass clarinet; Felix Lemerle, guitar; Jen Hodge, double bass. No tricks, no coy…
BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE: The DANNY TOBIAS QUARTET at WINNIE’S JAZZ BAR, PART THREE (DANNY TOBIAS, JAY RATTMAN, FELIX LEMERLE, JEN HODGE, Thursday, April 17, 2025) | JAZZ LIVES
Here are my first two postings of delicious music from that night. https://jazzlives.wordpress.com/2025/05/05/kindred-spirits-in-jazz-more-from-the-danny-tobias-quartet-at-winnies-jazz-bar-part-two-danny-tobias-jay-rattman-felix-lemerle-jen-hodge-thursday-april-17-2025/ And some delicacies from the third set. Did I mention that this Quartet will be playing tomorrow, Thursday, May 8, at Winnie's Jazz Bar (66 West 38th Street, Manhattan, New York City -- in the Refinery Hotel) beginning at 7:30? Consider it…
REMEMBERING THE KANSAS CITY SIX: KEITH INGHAM, HOWARD ALDEN, NICKI PARROTT, RANDY REINHART, SCOTT ROBINSON, BOB REITMEIER, JOHN VON OHLEN (Jazz at Chautauqua, Saturday evening, September 18, 2004) | JAZZ LIVES
If I ever had to pose the rhetorical question, "What good are recordings?" the 1938 session evoked here would be one of my first answers. I remember very clearly in 1971 purchasing an lp on the Mainstream label, possibly in reprocessed stereo, titled PREZ, that had the sides by the Kansas City Six, for which…
KINDRED SPIRITS IN JAZZ: MORE FROM The DANNY TOBIAS QUARTET at WINNIE’S JAZZ BAR, PART TWO (DANNY TOBIAS, JAY RATTMAN, FELIX LEMERLE, JEN HODGE: Thursday, April 17, 2025) | JAZZ LIVES
Here's the first delicious plateful from this band on April 17: https://jazzlives.wordpress.com/2025/05/02/they-make-it-look-easy-the-danny-tobias-quartet-at-winnies-jazz-bar-part-one-danny-tobias-jay-rattman-felix-lemerle-jen-hodge-thursday-april-17-2025/?preview_id=75050&preview_nonce=0427d72729&preview=true&_thumbnail_id=75058 And another wonderful offering. YOU TOOK ADVANTAGE OF ME: https://youtu.be/HWulvFOSTqc CHEEK TO CHEEK: https://youtu.be/fWtsTqMR4Bc The rare and mournful SPRING IS HERE: https://youtu.be/TN7QrjctuV0 NINE-TWENTY SPECIAL (named for 920 on the AM dial, not the time of night): https://youtu.be/k4h5DOJ9-ts Stunning, deep: PEE WEE'S BLUES: https://youtu.be/nU6TRkr9vnQ…
A BRILLIANT INTERLUDE: DICK HYMAN in RECITAL (Jazz at Chautauqua, Saturday evening, September 18, 1999) | JAZZ LIVES
Here is a brief but thrilling solo recital by the ever-astonishing Dick Hyman, then a mere 72, presented at Joe Boughton's Jazz at Chautauqua on Saturday night, September 18, 1999. Joe introduces Dick, who then plays I'M JUST WILD ABOUT HARRY, HAVE YOU MET MISS JONES?, CLAP YO' HANDS, and his own THINKING ABOUT BIX.…
THEY MAKE IT LOOK EASY: The DANNY TOBIAS QUARTET at WINNIE’S JAZZ BAR, PART ONE (DANNY TOBIAS, JAY RATTMAN, FELIX LEMERLE, JEN HODGE: Thursday, April 17, 2025) | JAZZ LIVES
When four congenial and intuitive artists come together to play as if they've been rehearsing for months, you know something special is happening. And it did, at Winnie's Jazz Bar on 38th Street in Manhattan, Thursday, April 17, 2025. The Danny Tobias Quartet played three delightful sets of music and I was honored to be…
A FRIDAY NIGHT IN NEW YORK: JIMMIE ROWLES at BRADLEY’S (70 University Place, October 21, 1977) | JAZZ LIVES
Bradley's, the jazz club created and nurtured by Bradley Cunningham and later by his widow Wendy, was more than legendary. I was there only once (as a shy graduate student with a small budget) but it was there I heard the magical Jimmie Rowles at close range. I've written elsewhere that it was a date…
“ON A COCONUT ISLAND”: ALCATRAZ ISLANDERS at the REDWOOD COAST MUSIC FESTIVAL (MIKIYA MATSUDA, DAVE STUCKEY, JONATHAN STOUT, NATE KETNER, MATT WEINER, JOSH COLLAZO: October 4, 2024) | JAZZ LIVES
Beautiful swinging unusual music that's utterly charming. I'll leave it to Mikiya to explicate, but, for this set, the Alcatraz Islanders are Mikiya Matsuda, steel guitar; Nate Ketner, tenor saxophone; Josh Collazo, drums; Matt Weiner, double bass; Jonathan Stout, guitar; Dave Stuckey, guitar, vocals. HOW'D YA DO?: https://youtu.be/I4mcnQtDx0k BLUE LEI: https://youtu.be/US16Gz4hRmo ON A COCONUT ISLAND:…
I KEEP GOING BACK TO JOE’S (TWO): DAN BARRETT, JON-ERIK KELLSO, DUKE HEITGER, RANDY REINHART, JAMES DAPOGNY, BOBBY GORDON, SCOTT ROBINSON, VINCE GIORDANO, ARNIE KINSELLA (Jazz at Chautauqua, Saturday, September 18, 2004) | JAZZ LIVES
Hot music animated by kindness: an unbeatable combination. What follows is a half-hour of joyous music made possible by the late Joe Boughton and his children Sarah Boughton Holt and Bill Boughton: a Saturday-night set from Joe's blissful weekend in Chautauqua, New York. In this case, the magical creators are Dan Barrett, trombone and leader;…
“WHEN DID YOU LEAVE HEAVEN?”: MEL POWELL and DICK HYMAN AT THE KEYBOARD (Floating Jazz Festival, October 23, 1986) | JAZZ LIVES
In my courting days, whether through timidity or discernment, I never cultivated a pickup line. But this song is endearing, simultaneously sweet and hip ("Where did you park your wings?"). Here's Tony Martin, from the film, so you can hear Bullock's clever lyrics: https://youtu.be/gdptKMMHplc?si=1DQBdEQbFqKJGgcp Louis, irresistibly (that opening trumpet chorus is divine): https://youtu.be/i1wkFqct_Lc?si=h3fbICRT0RNWYYNG Mel Powell,…
I KEEP GOING BACK TO JOE’S: DUKE HEITGER, BOB BARNARD, MARTY GROSZ, DAN BARRETT, PHIL FLANIGAN, JEFF HAMILTON (Jazz at Chautauqua, Saturday, September 17, 2005) | JAZZ LIVES
The Joe I am referring to is not a mythical figure in a song title, but the extraordinary Joe Boughton. He didn't play an instrument, but he made music possible by organizing concerts and jazz weekends that were memorably warm and lavish. Below, he is happily in his element, flanked by Dick Hyman and Milt…
MAGICAL SOUNDS IN SOHO, CONTINUED: JON-ERIK KELLSO, JAY RATTMAN, FELIX LEMERLE, NEAL MINER (The Ear Inn, February 2, 2025) | JAZZ LIVES
Sunday, February 2, 2025, was a magical night at The Ear Inn, 326 Spring Street. But those who know are used to such wonders. The EarRegulars have been blessing us for nearly eighteen years of Sunday nights at this exalted place. The splendidly lyrical quartet that night was Jon-Erik Kellso, Puje trumpet; Jay Rattman, alto…
EDDIE’S SOUNDTRACK FOR SUNDAY (1944) | JAZZ LIVES
Thank you, Irving Berlin. Eddie Condon and friends loved to improvise on popular songs that had classic merit, and EASTER PARADE was one of them. Here are three versions from his wartime concert series. September 23, 1944 (Bobby Hackett, Miff Mole, Pee Wee Russell, Ernie Caceres, Jess Stacy, Eddie Condon, Sid Weiss, Gene Krupa): https://youtu.be/pTKawgH11WI?si=APzKSB2OSR-8qjO-…
PRECIOUS SOUNDS ON THE RADIO: SONNY STITT, JIMMIE ROWLES, JACK SEWING, BOBBY DURHAM (La Grande Parade du Jazz / Nice Jazz Festival, July 6, 1979) | JAZZ LIVES
The business of "reputation" -- why some artists are raised in the hierarchy of praise and attention while others are ignored or even reviled -- is mysterious at best. The saxophonist Sonny Stitt doesn't get the fair evaluation his work of nearly four decades deserves. He has been categorized as a Charlie Parker imitator, and…
MISS EVA KNOWS HOW: EVA TAYLOR WITH MAGGIE’S BLUE FIVE (March 1976) | JAZZ LIVES
If you were to look at jazz in coolly actuarial terms, you might notice that although there is a middle ground of musicians who fit the average in terms of life expectancy, there is a curious abundance at each end of the bell curve: on one end, Bix Beiderbecke, Jimmie Blanton, Charlie Christian; on the…
THE MARTY GROSZ-JAMES DAPOGNY BACK ROOM HOT NINE: RANDY REINHART, DUKE HEITGER, BOB HAVENS, DAN BLOCK, BOBBY GORDON, ANDY STEIN, ARNIE KINSELLA (JAZZ at CHAUTAUQUA, September 18, 2008) | JAZZ LIVES
Marty Grosz by Lynn Redmile. I am honored to present to you some forty minutes of creative hot music of the finest kind, by Marty Grosz, guitar, vocal; Duke Heitger, trumpet; Randy Reinhart, cornet; Bob Havens, trombone; Bobby Gordon, clarinet; Dan Block, tenor saxophone; James Dapogny, piano; Andy Stein, baritone saxophone; Arnie Kinsella, drums. Thursday…