If you ever listen to Sirius Radio, you know that there are stations like “Siriusly Sinatra,” “50s on 5,” “BB King’s Bluesville” or “Deep Tracks” that feature music that is both focused on a genre, but also with enough obscure…
Month: February 2015
Supertramp: Crime of the Century-Deluxe Edition
Back in the 70s, fusion was king, meaning bands could mix jazz, classical and rock without thinking twice about it. Some bands obviously leaned more one way than another, but that was the joy of it. One of the shining…
Chris Potter Underground Orchestra: Imaginary Cities
There are essentially two types of “with strings” albums in the jazz, one is where you have (usually) a horn player take on ballads with the string framework. Think “Clifford Brown With Strings”. The other, and more rarely done is…
Burnt Sugar: All Ya Needs That Necrocity
Here’s a band that tries to mix various parts of funk, jazz and soul into one big BBQ sauce of a disc. Some of it works excitedly, some of it comes off as a jam band that doesn’t know when…
Keith Jarrett/Charlie Haden/Paul Motian: Hamburg ‘72
Here’s a beautiful obscurity that just came to light. Keith Jarrett, caught at the Funkhaus with one of his first trios, which was broadcast from a radio program. Lucky Germans! Haden still has his Coleman chops, and Jarrett is in…
Leo Kottke@LSW Center Pepperdine 01.31.14
What better way to end Guitar Month than taking in a concert with the 12 and 6 string acoustic master Leo Kottke? He just recently performed in Santa Barbara, but the place was still packed with fans, some of them…
DANCING WITH ARTURO SANDOVAL
One of the most important, yet forgotten aspects of jazz is that it is essentially dance music. One of the reasons for jazz’s demise in popularity in the 50s and 60s was the simple fact that no one could dance…
JAZZ CLUBS: STILL THE BEST DATE IN TOWN
You would think that LA is THE place to take your spouse or whatever-you-want-to-call-it-these-days, but the pickings are surprisingly slim. There are a ton of movie theatres, but gimme a break; they all show basically the same movies. Hanging out…