News
Entertainment
Science & Technology
Life
Culture & Art
Hobbies
News
Entertainment
Science & Technology
Culture & Art
Hobbies
A REVERENCE FOR MELODY: BOBBY HACKETT PLAYS HAROLD ARLEN (1950) | JAZZ LIVES
When Bobby Hackett visited England in 1974, he did a long interview with Max Jones, later printed in TALKING JAZZ. This passage continues to resonate with me: If I hear a song, I know how I want it to play. I kind of make it a rule that if it's by a good composer, I'll…
PLEASE READ THE LEGAL NOTICE AND AGREE TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS POST BEFORE PROCEEDING. THANK YOU. | JAZZ LIVES
JAZZ LIVES (henceforth "this jazz blog") and its creator (henceforth "CEO") wish to indemnify themselves against any legal action that could be taken by a reader / viewer due to any physical injury or damage to personal property presumed to be the causal result of the musical presentation that follows. By continuing to read this…
MARTY GROSZ PLAYS IRVING BERLIN (Part One): RANDY REINHART, BOB HAVENS, DAN BLOCK, SCOTT ROBINSON, ROSSANO SPORTIELLO, FRANK TATE, PETE SIERS (Allegheny Jazz Party, September 22, 2014) | JAZZ LIVES
A triple delight: the bliss of Marty Grosz in his prime, surrounded by his noble peers, playing Irving Berlin. Marty is most often associated with small-group jazz of the hot Chicago kind, but this session reminds me so happily of a Basie small group, and that is no idle praise. It is seriously impromptu and…
TOO GOOD TO IGNORE: “THE MOOCHE,” NICK ROSSI’S JAZZOPATERS (April 20, 2024) | JAZZ LIVES
Yes, Ellington, authentically, down to the grease and funk: expertly performed by Nick Rossi's Jazzopaters at Mr. Tipple's in San Francisco, on April 20, 2024. The flawless video is by Sunny Tokunaga. THE MOOCHE was a dance, an Ellington standby for forty-five years. The wonderful musicians are Nick Rossi, banjo, leader; Patrick Wolff, alto saxophone,…
EVERYBODY’S ROCKING: HAL SMITH’S EL DORADO JAZZ BAND at the JAZZ BASH BY THE BAY (Part Three): ANDY SCHUMM, BRANDON AU, NATHAN TOKUNAGA, BRIAN HOLLAND, BILL DENDLE, MIKIYA MATSUDA (March 3, 2024) | JAZZ LIVES
This is the third set of three performed by this wonderful hot band at the 2024 Jazz Bash by the Bay in Monterey, California. The crowd loved them, and other crowds will have the opportunity through this year and the future. You can see the first set here, and the second, here. I'll wait if…
DIZZY WITH BLISS: “BOP FOR DANCING” by IAN HUTCHISON (CHARLIE CARANICAS, JON DE LUCIA, MARIEL BILDSTEN, JON THOMAS, JOCELYN GOULD, JAY SAWYER) | JAZZ LIVES
Don't think. Just watch this. https://youtu.be/AQLneeY_A-Q?si=tahkT0VsRtObWYZI This post is about the delicious new CD by Ian Hutchison, BOP FOR DANCING. And you don't have to be an elite dancer to savor the music or purchase it. I, who worry about tripping over invisible obstacles, have been having the time of my life with this vibrant…
HAD MY PARENTS KNOWN, WE MIGHT HAVE GONE THERE (1959, 1962, 1963) | JAZZ LIVES
These ruminations are provoked by several previously-unseen bits of jazz ephemera for sale on eBay. My parents didn't particularly like jazz, although they kindly tolerated their son's obsession with it. (My father did say, before I had a checking account and would give him twenty dollars to write a check for that amount so I…
DANCING-IN-THE-KITCHEN MUSIC: JOE WITTMAN “TRIO WORKS SOL” with DANIEL DUKE and KEITH BALLA (2023 and NOW) | JAZZ LIVES
One of the nicest things about being a self-employed independent contractor-blogger (say that three times fast) is that I only write about music I enjoy, and return to. I had not heard of guitarist Joe Wittman, but I certainly know and admire double bassist Daniel Duke and drummer Keith Balla. And before I heard a…
“FLORIDA BARN, 1958”: JOHNNY WINDHURST, EDDIE HUBBLE, RED BALABAN | JAZZ LIVES
The trail of home-grown jazz recordings winds back more than a hundred years, if you begin with the 1926 Earl Baker cylinders. If you've never heard them, they are impressive. Here's one: https://youtu.be/XtYoRYkdi_E?si=z1dy2wzIr8V4ocMS Recording jazz outside the studio, in a club or your living room, became easier as technology progressed. We have hours of home-recorded…
THURSDAY-NIGHT JAM: JAMES DAPOGNY, RANDY REINHART, ANDY SCHUMM, FRANK TATE, HAL SMITH (Cleveland Classic Jazz Party, September 14, 2017) | JAZZ LIVES
James Dapogny at Jazz at Chautauqua, September 2014. Photograph by Michael Steinman. Any session with Professor James Dapogny was special and needs to be preserved. In this case, he's nearly hidden behind the piano, but his sound and swinging energy are vividly present. This music took place at the jam-session-before-the-festival on Thursday night, the festival…
“SECOND THOUGHTS”: NANCY HARROW AND TED ROSENTHAL GIVE US A NEW SONG (April 2024) | JAZZ LIVES
This is news. Nancy Harrow in the recording studio. Nancy Harrow is not only one of our finest, most honest singers. She is also a composer, dramatist, a visionary blessed with an expansive imagination. But she is also a realist, someone who not only observes but sees deeply into the heart of things as they…
AND SO IT CAME TO PASS THAT FOUR STARS CAME ONCE MORE TO BETHLEHEM (Part One): DANNY TOBIAS, VINCE GIORDANO, ARNT ARNTZEN, RANDY REINHART (Pennsylvania Jazz Society, April 14, 2024) | JAZZ LIVES
It was even more gratifying than we had any right to expect: the inventive swinging orchestra these four unaffected musicians created, song after song; the friendly camaraderie the music inspired in the room; the reassuring creativity; the sweet musical surprises; the refreshing humility and delightful versatility. All of this in the space of a Sunday…
THREE COMPACT MIRACLES: JIMMY RUSHING SINGS, DONALD LAMBERT PLAYS (Wallace’s Tavern, West Orange, New Jersey, c. 1958-62) | JAZZ LIVES
Without further ado: three location recordings of Jimmy Rushing with Donald Lambert at the piano, recorded some time in the late Fifties or early Sixties at Wallace's Tavern. We don't know much more than that. Wallace may have been the recordist, and the late Peter Ballance (trombonist at Arthur's Tavern with the Grove Street Stompers…
“A WEE SPONTANEOUS INTERNATIONAL BAND”: ALI AFFLECK with THE RHYTHM RASCALS: ANDY SCHUMM, LUCAS FERRARI, ROY PERCY, JACOB ULLBERGER (November 2023) | JAZZ LIVES
I checked my phone this morning at breakfast, as one does (I can remember life pre-smartphone, but that's an Andy Rooney essay) and saw that the soulful Ali Affleck had shared a performance of UNTIL THE REAL THING COMES ALONG with the Rhythm Rascals, who were Lucas Ferrari, piano; Jacob Ullberger, guitar and banjo; Roy…
“IN A SENTIMENTAL MOOD”: VIC DICKENSON, HANK JONES, BILL PEMBERTON, OLIVER JACKSON (Nice Jazz Festival, July 7, 1977) | JAZZ LIVES
Trombonist Vic Dickenson had feelings. Make that FEELINGS. Writers who didn't entirely get him heard him as a double-entendre humorist, someone telling naughty stories through brass, those of us who heard him truly understood his emotions. And they came through fervently on his choice of a solo feature, Ellington's IN A SENTIMENTAL MOOD. Vic wasn't…
LOVELY, ELUSIVE, MELANCHOLY: “SECRET WORKSHOP” by DENNIS LICHTMAN | JAZZ LIVES
We are often mysterious to ourselves. But we can dig within to attempt answers to our own behavior. With living people, it may be more difficult to inquire. Who among us really wants to ask, "When I did ________, you seemed quite upset. What was at the heart of all that?" And when people have…
WILLIE WAS WEEPING BUT THE ROOM WAS ROCKING: DANNY TOBIAS, VINCE GIORDANO, RANDY REINHART, ARNT ARNTZEN — with a cameo appearance by BETTE DAVIS (Pennsylvania Jazz Society, Sunday, April 14, 2024) | JAZZ LIVES
The band. Danny Tobias, trumpet, flugelhorn, Eb alto horn; Vince Giordano, bass saxophone, tuba, aluminum double bass, tenor guitar, vocal; Randy Reinhart, trombone, euphonium; Arnt Arntzen, banjo, guitar; vocal. The place Brith Sholom, 1900 West Macada Road, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Thanks to the Pennsylvania Jazz Society! and Here's a hot tune from early in the concert:…
HAVE YOU GOT TWO MINUTES AND TWENTY-FIVE SECONDS TO SPARE FOR BEAUTY? | JAZZ LIVES
The 1934 song: The 2024 performance by Katie Martucci and Josh Dunn: melancholy, ruminative, touching: https://youtu.be/NKxZPxphhO0?si=PXmVR2YBe8TzLHPy If you're like me, one viewing won't suffice. This interlude brought back the superbly mournful poem by Harvey Shapiro: The good news is that Katie and Josh are young and healthy. We will have them around to uplift our…
“THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!”: DUKE ROBILLARD SINGS BIG JOE TURNER with CARL SONNY LEYLAND’S BOOGIE WOOGIE BOYS (MARC CAPARONE, JOSH COLLAZO, SAM ROCHA, MANDO DORAME) at the REDWOOD COAST MUSIC FESTIVAL, October 8, 2023. | JAZZ LIVES
When Duke Robillard puts his guitar down and steps forward to the microphone, the music continues to pour through him. And we are glad. Here's a particularly touching instance of that: Duke's vocal performance of WEE BABY BLUES, in honor of the monumental Big Joe Turner. Duke performed it at the Redwood Coast Music Festival,…
PETE BROWN’S AUDACIOUS PASSION (1941) | JAZZ LIVES
It's reassuring to know that musical treasures are out there, waiting to be discovered. And the man to discover them is our own Fat Cat, Matthew Rivera of The Hot Club of New York, someone I admire: see him in action at the Louis Armstrong Center on March 22, here. Matthew in the wild and…
SEE YOU IN SEDALIA: THE SCOTT JOPLIN INTERNATIONAL RAGTIME FESTIVAL (May 30 – June 1, 2024) | JAZZ LIVES
I've been to the Joplin Festival in Sedalia once, in another life, 2018, and had a lovely time. Sedalia is a sweetly different world. Perhaps it's changed now, but on a sunny morning there, when I was on my way to enjoy a piano recital in the open air, people were talking to each other,…
“OFFICERS, I WANT TO REPORT A CRIME”: VALERIE JO KIRCHHOFF, ETHAN LEINWAND, RYAN CALLOWAY, T.J. MULLER, CLINT BAKER (Redwood Coast Music Festival, October 8, 2023) | JAZZ LIVES
There's never been an episode of LAW AND ORDER that uses this 1935 tune by Sam M. Lewis (lyrics) and Pete Wendling, but we're waiting. As Valerie says, it was done by Red McKenzie, and in our time, by Marty Grosz. While doing online research on it a few years ago, I was shocked, but…
THERE ARE SOUNDS THAT MAKE US HAPPY: CARL SONNY LEYLAND, MARTY EGGERS, JEFF HAMILTON (Jazz Bash by the Bay, Monterey, California, March 8, 2014) | JAZZ LIVES
I began attempting to video-record jazz performances in early 2006, and I've posted more than seven thousand on YouTube: obviously the work of someone obsessively in love with the music. But I would guess that's less than half the total I've shot. Sometimes the performance doesn't please the musicians, or there's a technical problem, or…
HE GETS THINGS SPINNING: MATT RIVERA BRINGS THE SOUNDS of the HOT CLUB OF NEW YORK TO THE LOUIS ARMSTRONG CENTER (March 22, 2024) | JAZZ LIVES
Matthew Rivera is a jazz enthusiast and scholar devoted to the idea that the best music on records deserves to be heard in its original form: spinnning on a proper turntable at the right speed, played as it was played in the year it was recorded. He isn't a Luddite: he has a smartphone and…
“FREE, GENEROUS, AND RADIANT”: MALO MAZURIE’S “TAKING THE PLUNGE” | JAZZ LIVES
There are many ways to encounter the hallowed music of the past with integrity. One is to study it with such reverent adoration that one can become one's idol, reproducing Bix's SINGIN' THE BLUES, Hawkins' BODY AND SOUL, Lester's SHOE SHINE BOY. This is not easily done and may be a lifelong quest. When it…
ALEX CLARKE PAYS A VISIT (March 29, 2024) | JAZZ LIVES
I first encountered the rewarding saxophonist and clarinetist Alex Clarke on a wonderful CD led by trumpeter Chris Hodgkins, a loving tribute to Humphrey Lyttelton. Alex's feature was the ballad WE FELL OUT OF LOVE and it wooed me. I looked for more of Alex in the usual places, and delighted in this performance: https://youtu.be/axniRAhbH0o?si=abysUszUluweEk7b…
A JAZZ CONSTELLATION: BENNY CARTER, DOC CHEATHAM, VIC DICKENSON, BUDD JOHNSON, HANK JONES, BILL PEMBERTON, OLIVER JACKSON (Nice Jazz Festival, July 7, 1977) | JAZZ LIVES
The personnel assembled for this once-in-a-lifetime live performance would require the best three-dimensional Venn diagram to explicate. If time hangs heavy on your hands you might embark into WHO PLAYED WITH WHOM, and WHEN, a version of Jazz Hero Bingo. This delightful constellation took place at the Nice Jazz Festival and was broadcast on French…
IF WE COULD BE WITH HIM FOR (ALMOST) ONE HOUR TONIGHT: NEW MUSIC FROM JAMES P. JOHNSON (1944) | JAZZ LIVES
A treasure is offered to us. That is the cover of a new compact disc. I wrote about it yesterday, on Facebook, about an hour after finding it in the mailbox, after hearing six of the twenty-three performances. I don't usually urge readers to rush out and purchase a CD when I've only heard six…
“NO REGRETS”: ALI AFFLECK and THE SPICY L’IL DEVILS | JAZZ LIVES
The recordings that Billie Holiday and her peers (Mildred Bailey, Connee Boswell, Teddy Grace, Maxine Sullivan, Lee Wiley and others) made in the second half of the Thirties are imperishable. For me, they are high points of the previous century. Although it might be foolhardy to imitate them, this body of recorded work is full…
COMING SOON! BRIGHT SOUNDS IN BETHLEHEM with ARNT ARNTZEN, VINCE GIORDANO, DANNY TOBIAS, RANDY REINHART (Pennsylvania Jazz Society, Sunday, April 14, 2024) | JAZZ LIVES
Some ethics apply, even in cyberspace. I announce only those gigs that I will attend, like this one. Why would the OAO and I brave traffic to go to Bethlehem (aside from the nice yarn store there)? Perhaps these still photos from last April's gig with this lovely small band will tell part of the…
WHILE BING WOOS, OTHERS APPEAR (1936) | JAZZ LIVES
Donald Meek, Madge Evans, Bing Crosby, Edith Fellows The 1936 film PENNIES FROM HEAVEN had a thin story but a lovely score of songs by Johnny Burke and Arthur Johnston. We might know it best as the first appearance of the title song, or for the Louis Armstrong - Lionel Hampton extravaganza on SKELETON IN…
A TRIO GROOVES IN BROOKLYN: DAN WEISSELBERG, IFTAH KARY, ALEKSI HEINOLA (Ornithology, March 6, 2024) | JAZZ LIVES
My title is not original: it comes from a V-Disc recorded by Nat Cole in 1945, and perhaps you would have to be a certain age to recognize the wordplay on Betty Smith's then-famous novel A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN. But the musical connection is strong: if I could time-travel Nat, Oscar Moore, and Johnny…
BY POPULAR DEMAND, ANOTHER SET: HAL SMITH’S EL DORADO JAZZ BAND at the JAZZ BASH BY THE BAY: ANDY SCHUMM, BRANDON AU, NATHAN TOKUNAGA, BRIAN HOLLAND, BILL DENDLE, MIKIYA MATSUDA (March 1, 2024) | JAZZ LIVES
The response to my first posting of music by Hal Smith's El Dorado Jazz Band at the Monterey, California Jazz Bash by the Bay was seriously enthusiastic -- you can see those performances here, captured superbly in videos by the expert tireless Sunny Tokunaga, whose YouTube channel is full of delights. For this set, the…
SHE’S “NOBODY’S SWEETHEART” NOW: JON-ERIK KELLSO, CONAL FOWKES, KEVIN DORN (Cafe Ornithology, February 8, 2024) | JAZZ LIVES
A hot jazz fall from polite society, created by Jon-Erik Kellso, Puje cornet-trumpet hybrid; Conal Fowkes, piano; Kevin Dorn, drums, during a wonderful evening at Cafe Ornithology, 1037 Broadway, Bushwick, Brooklyn: https://youtu.be/abR6NlxXKac But wait! There's more! Jon-Erik, Kevin, and pianist Mark Shane will be back at this very spot on Friday, April 5. Wonderful vegan…
VIC, WHEN YOUNG (1930) | JAZZ LIVES
Vic Dickenson was a master of sounds and shapes. Like his friends Lester Young and Bobby Hackett, he created memorable stories in eight bars. Although a peerless soloist, he wasn't assertive by nature, so even though his recording career may have begun in 1927, we don't hear him playing more than sixteen bars of trombone…
MUSIC TO STOMP BY: HAL SMITH’S EL DORADO JAZZ BAND at the JAZZ BASH BY THE BAY: ANDY SCHUMM, BRANDON AU, NATHAN TOKUNAGA, BRIAN HOLLAND, BILL DENDLE, MIKIYA MATSUDA (March 1, 2024) | JAZZ LIVES
This delightful hot band played three sets at the Jazz Bash by the Bay, held in the Portola Hotel and Convention Center in Monterey, California, February 29-March 3. They are drummer-scholar Hal Smith's evocation of the original El Dorados, who reigned in the early 1960s in Southern California. In 2024, for this gig, they were…
ADULATION WITHOUT LIMIT | JAZZ LIVES
I admire certain artists wholly, unreservedly. But that admiration has certain boundaries. When the creator of beautiful melodies is cruel to his daughter's dog (it was making dog-noise in the hall while he was practicing) my admiration can no longer be whole. This is not to launch into the philosophical quandary, "Can bad people, however…
RYAN CALLOWAY IS LIVING MANY LIVES | JAZZ LIVES
Cats have nine lives, but Ryan Calloway is living several, vividly, all at once, without strain. I first encountered him in person four years ago, but in that time I have found so much to admire in the ease with which he balances his several selves, generously offering us surprising beauty in each one. I…
“WILD DREAMS, MAN!”: JON-ERIK KELLSO, CONAL FOWKES, KEVIN DORN (Cafe Ornithology, February 9, 2024) | JAZZ LIVES
My title is completely accurate, the evidence created by Jon-Erik Kellso, Puje cornet-trumpet hybrid; Conal Fowkes, piano; Kevin Dorn, drums, at Cafe Ornithology (1037 Broadway, Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York) on February 9, 2024. Exhibit A: WILD MAN BLUES: https://youtu.be/_MjZ8PTZs-c and IF DREAMS COME TRUE: https://youtu.be/8ASffJWU5lA With this trio, the wildest dreams DID come true. Jon-Erik…
SHE HAS A HEALTHY SEXUAL DRIVE: DAVE STUCKEY, DAN BARRETT, CLINT BAKER, RILEY BAKER (Jazz Bash by the Bay, Monterey, California, February 29, 2024) | JAZZ LIVES
I could begin by casting a disapproving eye at a culture that treats exuberant female sexuality as a disorder, but you can figure that out for yourself. BESSIE COULDN'T HELP IT, however, is slightly subversive: the lyrics slyly celebrate unfettered desire in action while pretending to disapprove. We can guess why Bessie "yelled with delight,"…