The most encouraging news about this release by vibist Joe Locke and his team of Ryan Cohan/p, Jaimeo Brown/dr and David Finck/b is that it promises that this collection of blues and ballads is the first volume. If it’s even…
Author: George W. Harris
WHEN EWF MEETS HHH-Lenny White: Lenny White Live
So, what do you get when you mix the best of 70s groups Earth Wind and Fire with Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters? A disc like this, that has enough funk to get your Afro bobbin’ and enough jazz to make you…
Booker T Jones@The El Rey 06.25.13
The format of the soulful Hammond master Booker T Jones hasn’t changed much in the past 2 score years since his days with the MGs when his band backed the likes of Otis Redding, Sam and Dave and Eddie Floyd…
The Four Tops: 50th Anniversary Singles Collection : 1964-1972
Here’s a quartet of gents that defined the Motown sound. Vocalist/leader Levi Stubbs and the 4 Tops produced some of the most exciting soul sounds during the hey day of the famous label. Stubbs’ voice was the signature of the…
Pavlo@The John Anson Ford Amphitheatre 06.23.13
There wasn’t a natural blond in the audience for this 4 hour concert featuring some of the best Mediterranean music you’ll ever hear this side of a church picnic. There were so many Armenians and Greeks in the audience for…
OHHH DELILAH!!! Tom Jones: Spirit in the Room
Well, this sure isn’t your mother’s Tom Jones, the one who made her swoon and throw various undergarments at him when he’d gyrate on stage in a way that made Elvis seem like a choir boy in comparison. A few…
LOST TAPES!!! Oscar Pettiford: Germany 1958/1959, Jutta Hipp: The German Recordings 1952-1955
Jazz Haus Records has been uncovering some wonderful lost sessions for the past year or so, and this latest pair is a delightful mix of two more obscure artists that will be true joys for the collector. At one time,…
Jim Snidero: Stream of Consciousness
Jim Snidero releases another impressively strong release with his equally impressively earthy alto sax on this session with Paul Bollenback/g, Linda Oh/b and Rudy Royston/dr. Many of the compositions are impressions of Asian Art, having been performed at the NYC…
Wallace Roney: Understanding
Trumpeter Wallace Roney has released an impressive catalogue of albums, each one dealing with or trying to shed his career long comparisons to Miles Davis. He’s released albums that are similar to Davis’ ESP era, as well as material more…
Jazz Bakery’s Moveable Feast Presents: Giacomo Gates@Kirk Douglas Theatre 06.22.13
Vocalist Giacomo Gates came to town this weekend to justify my disdain (or at least indifference) to singers like Michael Buble’. As the people-pleasing pop performer delivers a show that is as polished as his nails, in a perfectly generic…