If you haven’t ever seen the original version of The Producers, the scene of Lorenzo St. Dubois (“LSD”) singing the song “Love Power, ” do yourself a favor and youtube it, as it is something that will never leave your…
Category: No One Asked My Opinion, But…
IT’S NOT “ALL GOOD”
One of the great things about “TOP TEN” lists, is that it dispels the cliche’ that “it’s all good.” Some things are good, some are excellent, some are average, some are below average, and some are terrible. The reason that…
A MONTH FOR GIVING THANKS
Isn’t it amazing that almost every holiday has a song except Thanksgiving? What’s THAT all about?!? There’s even songs for The Great Pumpkin, thanks to Charlie Brown. Why do we give Thanksgiving such short shrift? Thankfulness is one of the…
BLUES IN GREEN
20 years ago, there was a classic book How The Irish Saved Civilization, describing how the Catholic Monks preserved all of the classic writings while the Roman Empire was collapsing due to the Barbarians. If you take a trip to…
WHERE ARE YOU FROM?
“People live here.” That is what I used to tell my daughters every time we’d go to a town. North, south, east or west, each city, suburb, town or wide spot in the road is the home of someone, and…
WHO ARE YOU?
It’s a simple question, but can be answered many ways with a plethora of aspects. I remember one time I was at John Pisano’s Guitar Night, and the guest was a young, more modern six stringer. Pisano asked between songs…
ALTO MADNESS!
Sure, you’ve all heard of the big names like Charlie Parker, Ornette Coleman, Phil Woods, Jackie McLean and Lee Konitz. Maybe you try to impress people people by saying you’re “into” Eric Dolphy, or maybe you’re brand new to jazz…
PRESIDENTS OF JAZZ!
Yes, this is the month that we celebrate President’s Day! Whoo Hoo! It used to be the month that we had holidays for our two most important presidents, George Washington (Feb 22) and Abraham Lincoln (Feb 12) but a trade…
MY FAVORITE THINGS-IT’S TOP TEN TIME!!!
One of the joys of being a jazz fan, or a fan of anything (for that matter), is to compare what people consider their “TOP TEN” list of albums. Or pizzas. Or baseball players. Or hot dogs. Or chilli. Or…
WHERE ARE YOU FROM?
One of the underrated joys of jazz is listening to artists or bands that have a regional sound. If you’re lucky, you live in a town or city that has its own distinct vibe, and it should be reflected in…