By Roger Crane, the Song Scout “I knew I couldn’t sing over them, so I decided to sing under them. The more noise they made the more softly I sang. When they discovered they couldn’t hear me . . . they began to look at me. They began to listen. As I sang, I kept… Read More A ROGER SONG SCOUT AURAL BACK RUB: “Softly, with Feeling” – the Elegant Peggy Lee
by Don Heckman Everyone knows Terry Gibbs, knows of him, or has heard him play his swinging vibraphone. He has played with and outlived most of the jazz greats of the past 50 or more years. The swinging music that comes from those mallets is a groove that defies category Gibbs’ continuing preservation of the… Read More New CD Release: Terry Gibbs 92 Years Young, Jammin’ at the Gibbs House
By Don Heckman The first time I saw and heard Eliane Elias in action I fell in love. Always a devotee of Brazilian jazz, I found the combination of Eliane’s captivating musical imagination and her rhythmic grooves flowing with an irresistible energy . Dance of Time is an album that demands a full body experience… Read More New CD release: Eliane Elias “Dance of Time”
By Don Heckman Los Angeles has long been a center for world class jazz, dating back to the early 20th century. And Mark Winkler’s sparkling new album, The Company I keep, affirms that West Coast jazz, in all its splendid forms, is alive and well. It’s no surprise that singer/songwriter Winkler has produced another classic… Read More “The Company I Keep”: a new CD release by Mark Winkler
By Roger Crane, the Song Scout The ground-breaking big band Dizzy Gillespie formed in 1946 was one of the most powerful and exciting in the history of jazz. Its brass and reed sections were given arrangements that demanded heavy expenditures of energy. It didn’t take long for Gillespie to realize that his horns needed more… Read More A ROGER CRANE SONG SCOUT AURAL BACK RUB: Five by the Elegant MJQ
JAZZ AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL: ”YES WE CAN CAN” AN ALLEN TOUSSAINT SALUTE By Don Heckman a NIGHT AT THE Hollywood bowl is always a night to remember. And never more than during the musically exciting performances at the steart of a new season. Like this one, the kick off of the 2016 Jazz Season,… Read More LOS ANGELES MUSIC HIGHLIGHT of the WEEK: Wednesday July 20
By Devon “Doc” Wendell On March 6, 1960, Art Blakey and his most recent incarnation of his ever- changing Jazz Messengers were on fire. The Messengers consisted of the young trumpet wizard Lee Morgan, who emerged from Dizzy Gillespie’s Big Band in 1957 and had made two previous recordings with Blakey & The Messengers: The… Read More Doc’s Prescription For Hard-Bop: Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers-The Big Beat (Blue Note)
By Don Heckman Renaissance Man is a label that’s been associated with Herb Alpert’s diverse career for years. And with good reason. How better to accurately describe Alpert’s mastery of skills reaching from the deep, often dark, complexities of the music business to his imaginative accomplishments as trumpeter, song writer, composer, band leader, producer, philanthropist… Read More CD Review: Herb Alpert’s “Come Fly With Me”
By Don Heckman So many artists, so many dreams…so much to hear…The post office box fills every day with envelopes packaging their songs, their music, their dreams of being heard. Since the advent of social media, DIY recording and CD production,CD Baby and self promotion and distribution, the avalanche of requests to be seen and… Read More CD Review: Jonathan Karrant’s “On and On”
by Faith Frenz Released last December by Blix Street Records, the Eva Cassidy Nightbird two-CD set is remastered from the original tape recordings of her 1996 performance in the Washington D.C. Jazz club, Blues Alley. All 33 songs were one take live performances in that club on one night. The album includes 12 previously unreleased… Read More Nightbird: Eva Cassidy’s “Complete Blues Alley” 20th Anniversary Collection
The International Review of Music 