As Dickens so wisely wrote, “It was the best of times, It was the worst of times” For concert performances,.2021 was definitely one of the worst years ever. Most clubs were either closed down for most of the year, or…
Category: No One Asked My Opinion, But…
BASS INSTINCT
One of the first things I learned about jazz came from Jerryl Coker’s classic book Listening To Jazz. In it he recommends that you take multiple listenings to any song you want to learn about. First for the melody, and…
HOT FUN IN “SUMMER-TIME”
Yes, there are a plethora of songs about summer, from Nat “King” Cole’s “Hazy Lazy Crazy Days of Summer” to Mungo Jerry’s “In the Summertime” to Sly and the Family Stones “Hot Fun in the Summertime” and concluding with Eddie…
BE PROUD OF OUR ROOTS!
In this day of disparaging America’s roots, history and direction, I decided to make a list of why the good old US of A is still the brightest hope in the world. A generation of students that were poisonously weaned…
SWINGING SIX STRINGS!
“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” …before there was rock and roll… there was swing guitar! This paraphrase of the famous Star Wars line shows how far electric guitar has come. Where the guitar used to…
TENORS ANYONE?
A couple of years ago, we posted a list of the most important tenor sax players. This time we’re going to narrow things down a bit, focusing on a top ten list of tenor sax solos that are not only…
BOOKS FOR MIND, EARS AND SOUL…
Since this month we are focusing on musicians that have written books, I thought it might be time to make a list of books that have influenced me over the years. I’ve broken the lists down to three, 1) MUSIC…
12 THINGS TO DO IN 2021
I’ve refused to get sucked into the negative vibe that permeates the soundwaves, airwaves and surf waves. Everyone is complaining, and it’s easy to get thrown into that vortex. How do we fight it? I’m trying to counteract the downhill…
TOP TEN TIME AND THE POWER OF “OOMPH”
YES, WHILE THERE WAS A COMPLETE SHUTDOWN OF GIGS, AT LEAST WE GOT TO HEAR SOME NEW MUSIC. SOME OF IT WAS PRETTY CREATIVE IN LIGHT OF THE RESPONSE TO THE COVID “SOCIAL DISTANCING’. WE GOT A BUNCH OF “SOLO”…
I’M ALL FOR YOU…
When you think of the most important and significant of the composers of tunes that have become standards, as well as jazz standards, you usually first think of Gershwin, Kern, Mercer, Porter, Rogers & Hart and Rogers and Hammerstein. Johnny…