By Michael Katz Hollywood, CA. “I’m 74 years young,” sings Buddy Guy, “and there ain’t nothin’ I haven’t done.” After a few verses, Buddy admits to being 77, but the extra few years haven’t diminished anything, most importantly his ability to engage an audience. Dressed in his trademark polka dot shirt, Guy’s voice is clear… Read More Live Blues: Buddy Guy, the Funky Meters and Quinn Sullivan at the Hollywood Bowl
By Brian Arsenault Richie Havens (1941 – 2013) was not the greatest or most celebrated musical figure of his generation. He was something better. Richie Havens was an embodiment of the notion that we could all live together, black and white, all people, as people should live together. He was a gentle voice amidst a… Read More An Appreciation: Richie Havens (1)
By Mike Katz When Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five” became a runaway hit, it was 1959 and I was in the third grade. By the time I started seriously listening to jazz, in the late sixties, Brubeck’s original quartet had broken up and the jazz scene was in a flux. Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis were… Read More An Appreciation: Remembering Dave Brubeck
By Tony Gieske I’d like to thank a guy on YouTube who saved me the trouble of thinking up a lead for this review of Phil Upchurch’s set at Vitello’s the other night. “One of the few guitarists to take really scary chances when playing and leave you on the edge of your seat,” the… Read More Live Jazz: Phil Upchurch and Sonya Maddox-Upchurch at Vitello’s
By Michael Katz Hearing a hitherto unknown vocalist for the first time in live performance is a little like a blind date. Hopes are high, introductions can be awkward. Rondi Charleston dropped onto the LA jazz scene for a Thursday night date at Catalina, celebrating her new CD, Who Knows Where The Time Goes. Backed… Read More Live Jazz: Rondi Charleston at Catalina Bar & Grill
By Don Heckman Anyone who was in Chicago’s Grant Park in August 1968, as I was, had to watch Barack Obama’s election night speech in the same location with a sense of wonder. The 1968 demonstrations centered around the Democratic Convention were explosive ventilations, a virtual mass exorcism of the pain, the fury and the… Read More Here, There and Everywhere: Grant Park
The International Review of Music 