In this day of disparaging America’s roots, history and direction, I decided to make a list of why the good old US of A is still the brightest hope in the world. A generation of students that were poisonously weaned…
Category: No One Asked My Opinion, But…
SWINGING SIX STRINGS!
“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” …before there was rock and roll… there was swing guitar! This paraphrase of the famous Star Wars line shows how far electric guitar has come. Where the guitar used to…
TENORS ANYONE?
A couple of years ago, we posted a list of the most important tenor sax players. This time we’re going to narrow things down a bit, focusing on a top ten list of tenor sax solos that are not only…
BOOKS FOR MIND, EARS AND SOUL…
Since this month we are focusing on musicians that have written books, I thought it might be time to make a list of books that have influenced me over the years. I’ve broken the lists down to three, 1) MUSIC…
12 THINGS TO DO IN 2021
I’ve refused to get sucked into the negative vibe that permeates the soundwaves, airwaves and surf waves. Everyone is complaining, and it’s easy to get thrown into that vortex. How do we fight it? I’m trying to counteract the downhill…
TOP TEN TIME AND THE POWER OF “OOMPH”
YES, WHILE THERE WAS A COMPLETE SHUTDOWN OF GIGS, AT LEAST WE GOT TO HEAR SOME NEW MUSIC. SOME OF IT WAS PRETTY CREATIVE IN LIGHT OF THE RESPONSE TO THE COVID “SOCIAL DISTANCING’. WE GOT A BUNCH OF “SOLO”…
I’M ALL FOR YOU…
When you think of the most important and significant of the composers of tunes that have become standards, as well as jazz standards, you usually first think of Gershwin, Kern, Mercer, Porter, Rogers & Hart and Rogers and Hammerstein. Johnny…
“WHO COULD ASK FOR ANYTHING MORE?”
Debuted in 1932’s Girl Crazy, and made world famous by Ethel Merman for the original Broadway production. “I Got Rhythm” was composed in 1930 by George Gershwin, with brother Ira supplying the lyrics. It has become the jazz standard, a…
“DADDY, WHAT’S A CONCERT?”
What was the last music event that you saw live? It seemed so innocent as I was taking in Steve Smith’s swinging Vital Information Band at Catalina’s in early March. Who knew that would be the last gig I’d attend,…
SONGS OF INDIA…
Since this month we are featuring two musicians (Dave Liebman and John McLaughlin) who have helped put Indian music on the map, we thought it might be a good time to recommend some albums of jazz-India ventures. Most of our…