First, a disclaimer-I was in attendance at the Jazz Bakery (when IS it reopening?!?) when Denny Zeitlin’s trio with Buster Williams/b and Matt Wilson/dr played for a week back in November of 2001. What went through my mind at the…
Category: Ringer of the Week
****RINGER OF THE WEEK****Jeff Colella & Putter Smith: Lotus Blossom
I’m a sucker for duet recordings; always have been and always will be. Lonnie Johnson with Eddie Lang, Evans, Pat Metheny with Charlie Haden or Ken Peplowski with Howard Alden-gotta love them all. Here’s a recent one that you’re gonna keep…
****Ringers of the Week****Jimmy Cobb: The Original Mob, Louis Hayes: Return of the Jazz Communicators
Drummer Joke of the Day…”So Many Drummers, So Little Time” Budda Boom! Here are a couple of releases by drummers who go back to an era when drummers had one job: DRIVE THE BAND! Why do so few guys understand…
****RINGER OF THE WEEK****Benjamin Taubkin: Al Qantara-The Bridge
If you’ve been a bit skeptical of the melding of jazz and sounds from the Middle East, here’s the perfect intro. Pianist Benjamin Taubkin mixes and matches musicians from Brazil and Morocco to create an almost Kind of Blue-ish mood,…
****RINGER OF THE WEEK****Lili Boniche: Tresors de la musique judeo-arabe
Here’s a style I’m pretty sure you don’t have a major collection of: Arab-Andalusian music. Algerian singer Lili Boniche (1921-2008) was one of the few gents to mix Jewish Sephardic music with traditional Arabic influences and make it bridge both…
****RINGER OF THE WEEK****Nancy Harrow: Wild Women Don’t Have The Blues/You Never Know
WHO IS THIS CHICK?!?!? I put on this 1960 session by a singer I’ve never heard of, and all I hear for the first few minutes is a hip KC-bluesy jam that sounds like a bunch of Basie alumni having…
WHOA! Felix Peikli: Royal Flush
Great jazz records these days are pretty tough to come by. Great CLARINET jazz records are even rarer. Great clarinet POST BOP jazz records are about as common as blacks on Don Sterling’s guest list. This guy Felix Peikli was…
****RINGER OF THE WEEK****Kavita Shah: Visions
Looking for some inspiring and creative jazz vocals? Here’s the disc you’ve been dreaming of! A native of New York, of Indian descent and fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and French (don’t you want to meet her parents?!?), Kavita Shah uses…
****RINGER OF THE WEEK****Richie Kaye’s Music and Mirth: The Last Whoop De Doo!
The notes accompanying this disc read “File Under Classic American Jazz.” What more can be said about a collection of (mostly) duets between guitarist/vocalist Richie Kaye and reedmeister Tony Lavorgna. Yes, pianist Sam Kuslan rolls up his piano on the…
THIS IS A GUITAR 101..Bill Jennings: The Complete Early Recordings 1951-1957
If you go to Wikipedia for more information on Bill Jennings, you’re directed to a collection of almost a dozen guys with that name: one that played ice hockey, a baseballer, and then three types of footballers-Welsh, soccer and American.…