You want some energetic sounds? Give this frenetic quintet of Greg Squared/sax, Ben Syversen/tp, Matthew Fass/acc-org, Don Godwin/tuba-horn-key and EJ Fry-perc a try. Sounding like an Eastern Mediterranean street band gone wild, or a Klezmer combo without the minor chords,…
Month: November 2013
1974/75 REVISITED…Eric Clapton: Give Me Strength
Back in the 1970s, guitarist Eric Clapton stepped out of the spotlight of rock and roll and worked on putting himself together both personally and musically. At a time when many guitarists were trying to see who was the “fastest…
UNDESERVEDLY FORGOTTEN…The Duke Pearson Big Band: Baltimore 1969
The sixties were a peculiar time for big bands. You had Swing Era holdovers such as Ellington, Basie, Herman and Kenton, and then “outside” orchestras from the likes of Sun Ra and Jazz Composers Alliance. Caught in the middle were…
Clifford Jordan: The Complete Clifford Jordan Strata-East Sessions
This is the kind of work that has Mosaic Records remain as the gold standard of reissues. They take a musician who’s had a respectable although underappreciated career, and shine a light on a particular time period of his catalogue…
OH LITTLE LABEL OF BETHLEHEM…Chris Connor: Sings Lullabys For Lovers, Booker Ervin: The Book Cooks, Dexter Gordon: Daddy Plays the Horn, Charles Mingus: The Jazz Experiments of Charles Mingus, Oscar Pettiford: Modern Quintet, Nina Simone: Little Girl Blue
Back in the early to mid 50s, a tiny label named Bethlehem Records signed up an alarming number of hip singers and musicians, ranging from Mel Torme to Duke Ellington to Charles Mingus. Adventurous to say the least, they had…
Frank Sinatra: Duets 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
This was literally Ol’ Blue Eyes’ swan song. After he did this pair of unlikely hit records, he went to his eternal reward (or was it punishment, for doing it “his way”?). The mixing and matching of the Chairman was…
The Wee Trio: Live at the Bistro
This unorthodox trio of vibes (James Westfall) bass (Dan Loomis) and drums (Jared Schonig) works amazingly well together in this cohesive yet explorative set before an appreciative crowd at the Bistro in February of this year. The trio works as…
Ralph Towner/Wolfgang Muthspiel/Slava Grigoryan: Travel Guide
Three great masters of the frets, from three different parts of the world; US, Austria and Kazakhstan. Three different styles of playing; jazz, classical and somewhere in between. You’ve got classical guitar, 12 string guitar, baritone guitar, electric guitar and…
Ridley Scott Associates: Springsteen & I
Here’s a truly unique documentary that actually tells more about our culture than it intended. What you’ve got here is a collection of fans of Bruce Springsteen telling us what they like about him, and in usually three words, describing…
Jazz Bakery’s Moveable Feast Presents: Randy Weston & Billy Harper@Nate Holden Performing Arts Center 11.22.13
It’s shows like these that should make you contact the Jazz Bakery and make a donation to speed up the construction of the new site, as only Ruth Price could get together a show so intimate, so wondrous and so…