I know that New York gets all of the accolades, but joyful fact is that LA can boast as excellent a jazz lineup as anywhere on the Least Coast. Keyboardist John Beasley, for example, is a local guy who is…
Category: Interviews
ANDREW RATHBUN: WHERE IS HE NOW?
We all come to a point in our lives where we just have to ask ourselves what our major purpose in life is. Is it material gain? Sensual pleasures? Power? Even musicians must reflect on why they chose their vocation;…
JAZZ BAKERY: QUO VADIS RUTH PRICE?
Are you suffering from Post Bakery Syndrome? Better known as PBS, you probably started feeling it about a month or two after The Jazz Bakery closed its doors in the early summer last year, replaced by a furniture store (we…
LUTHER HUGHES: LUTHER’S REFORMATION
If someone is a newcomer to jazz, where would you direct him to begin? Miles? Ellington? Armstrong? Mehldau? For my money, forget about artists, and start with years. 1959. Any album, whether it was by Miles Davis or Sammy Davis…
MARY WILSON: SUPREME SINGER
How many of us look back nostalgically to certain periods of our lives, when imagine that we were a) more popular b) better looking c) more athletic or c) richer? Some of us look back at the past and see…
BILL FRISELL: ALL HE IS SAYING…
Rogers and Hart, The Gershwin Brothers, Burke and Van Heusen. So, why NOT add Lennon and McCarthy to the list of great composers? Guitarist and sonic experimenter Bill Frisell, in the true heart of a jazz musician, came up with…
THE BEATLES: IT WAS 50 YEARS AGO TODAY…
Where were YOU in ’62? Odds are, most of you were simple gametes and zygotes, waiting to become united parts and eventual living, independent entities. You’ve never grown up and lived in an environment that was not impacted by the…
SARAH GAZAREK BLOSSOMS DEARLY
In the arts and entertainment field, possibly the biggest career killer is to have your name out of circulation for any amount of time. If a teacher’s creed is “publish or perish,” a musician must live by “record or retire.”…
JOE JACKSON: BEGINNING TO SEE ELLINGTON’S LIGHT
Standing in line at for a rockabilly show McCabe’s the other day, the person behind me asked a simple question, “Who’s your all time favorite jazz artist?” Without a nanosecond of hesitation, I blurted “Duke Ellington.” Immediately, the surrounding crowd…
THE SECRET LIFE OF HARRIS SIMON
How many of us have had those Walter Mitty dreams: leading a big band, heading an all star group, performing with all time greats on a recording session? Well, there’s a new release out on Resonance Records titled The Mastery…