By Brian Arsenault The last time I reviewed an album by this guy in early 2014, I complimented his reclaiming stellar jazz singing for the guys in the face of so many fine current female jazz singers. This time, with Endless Roads, Eric Van Aro has reestablished the stripped down rock/pop sound amidst an avalanche… Read More CD Review: Eric Van Aro’s “Endless Roads”
By Mike Finkelstein Los Angeles. On a wet Saturday night, Three Dog Night rolled into the beautiful new Arcadia Performing Arts Center to take us back into the early seventies for about seventy-five minutes. Playing live is truly the most immediate strand of being a professional musician. Particularly when the money is there, it’s great… Read More Live Music: Three Dog Night at the Arcadia Performing Arts Center
By Don Heckman Los Angeles – Oct. 16 – 18. (Thurs. – Sat.) Dee Dee Bridgewater. She’s a Grammy and Tony award winner, an actress, a radio star and a U.N. Ambassador. As if all that wasn’t enough, she’s also a dynamic jazz artist, a singer with a unique style and a creative imagination. She… Read More Picks of the Week: October 15 – 19 in Los Angeles, New York City and London
By Don Heckman Singers Mark Winkler and Dolores Scozzesi were the headliners at Vitello’s Friday night. And that was good news, since both are among L.A.’s most appealing jazz-oriented singers. But the evening promised even more with a sub-headline announcing that they would be singing songs by “Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell, Randy Newman: The Great… Read More Live Music: Mark Winkler and Dolores Scozzesi at Vitello’s
By Don Heckman Hollywood, CA. The line waiting to get in to Catalina Bar & Grill at 7:30 Thursday night stretched all the way back to the jazz venue’s nearby garage. And it was moving slowly. But there was no sign of anyone leaving. Not for this performance. Not with a stellar assemblage of talented… Read More Live Jazz: A Tribute to Bill Henderson at Catalina Bar & Grill
By Don Heckman Los Angeles – Apri. 3. (Wed.) Bobby McFerrin. One of the music world’s most uniquely gifted vocal talents, applying his startling skills to a celebration of his father’s gospel singing in a program titled Spirit You All. Disney Hall. (323) 850-2000. – April 3. (Wed.) Dave Damiani and the No Vacancy… Read More Picks of the Week: April 2 – 7
By Tony Gieske Billy Childs comes right out and admits it: He was inspired by Laura Nyro. He liked her collaboration with Alice Coltrane on Christmas and the Beads of Sweat. And so he formed the Jazz Chamber Ensemble, which also has at its nucleus, piano, acoustic guitar, and harp. A version of this he… Read More Live Jazz: The Billy Childs Jazz Chamber Ensemble at Vitello’s
By Tony Gieske I was thinking all night that nobody at Vitello’s could possibly deserve, much less grasp, all the wonders that Billy Childs and his ensemble were bestowing on us last Saturday. Childs was playing in his flawless and bounteous way on the piano, in front of which sat Larry Koonse, listening to him… Read More Live Jazz: The Billy Childs Jazz Chamber Ensemble at Vitello’s
The International Review of Music 