By Michael Katz For the multitudes of jazz fans on the West Coast and beyond, the third weekend of September is the highlight of the year. The 59th annual Monterey Jazz Festival was a perfect antidote to the ever-acrimonious political miasma we find ourselves in. An oasis of joy and spirituality, MJF 59 was three… Read More Monterey Jazz Festival 2016
By Michael Katz Most of us long-time jazz fans remember the first jazz album we ever bought – not a gift or a hand-me-down, but the first time we actually pulled soiled, hard-earned bills from our pocket at a neighborhood record store and greedily pawed the cellophane off an LP. For me, it wasn’t Coltrane… Read More Quincy Jones Tribute and Monterey Jazz Festival 59 Preview
By Don Heckman I am delighted to tell her many fans, here at iRoM and across the international musical world, that Ella Leya, Azerbaijani-born Hollywood composer/singer/author, was invited by First Lady Mrs. Michelle Obama to the recent Nowruz reception held at the White House. And the honor was well deserved, acknowledging Ella Leya as one… Read More Books: “The Orphan Sky,” By Ella Leya
Saturday, February 28, 2015 10:00 a.m. Officiated by Reverend Dr. Calvin O. Butts, III The Abyssinian Baptist Church 132 Odell Clark Place (West 138th Street between Lenox Ave. & Adam Clayton Powell Blvd.) New York, New York 10030 The services will take place on Saturday to send home our beloved Clark Terry. Clark peacefully went… Read More Funeral: For Clark Terry
By James DeFrances Bel Air, CA. Piano legends from years gone by came to mind during John Proulx’s show Tuesday night at Herb Alpert’s Vibrato Grill Jazz etc. If you’d have blinked you may have thought Art Tatum or Thelonious Monk were caressing the mighty grand piano on that stage. Proulx’s emotive playing style is… Read More Live Jazz: The John Proulx Trio at Vibrato Grill Jazz…etc.
By Don Heckman – Nov. 6 – 9. (Thurs. – Sun.) Steve Tyrell. Add an amiable Texas twang to a jaunty sense of swing and a convincing way with a lyric, and that still doesn’t add up to the magic that happens when Tyrell digs into the Great American Songbook. Catalina Bar & Grill. http://www.catalinajazzclub.com… Read More Picks of the Weekend in Los Angeles: Nov. 6 – 9
By Brick Wahl I was beckoned once to Quincy Jones’ table – his bodyguard chased me down in the parking lot with a “Mr. Wahl, Mr. Jones will see you now” – on some bit of jazz journalism business that turned into he and Freda Payne and me and my wife Fyl drinking wine and… Read More Brick Wahl Keeping It Real: Hanging Out With Quincy
Review by Devon Wendell Photos by Bonnie Perkinson Hollywood, CA. For the most part, it’s not just the music that has made The Annual Playboy Jazz Festival a Los Angeles summer tradition, but instead, it’s the music combined with the ever present party atmosphere. And this year was no different. Amidst the clouds of pot… Read More Live Jazz: the 35th Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl (Day #2)
By Don Heckman “I just do it.” That was the brief comment I received from young pianist/composer Emily Bear when I spoke to her after her Wednesday night performance at the Musicians’ Institute. Four little words. In response to my query about her orchestral composition “Santa Fe.” How, I wondered, had she developed the skills… Read More Live Music: Emily Bear in a Jazz Bakery Movable Feast at the Musician’s Institute.
By Don Heckman Robert Davi made a return visit to Vibrato Grill Jazz…etc., Wednesday and Thursday nights. And, once again, Herb Alpert’s elegant jazz club was overflowing with enthusiastic listeners eager to hear singer/actor Davi’s engaging tribute to Frank Sinatra. The timing couldn’t have been better. Wednesday, December 12, was Old Blue Eyes’ 97th birthday. … Read More Live Music: Robert Davi at Vibrato Grill Jazz…etc.
The International Review of Music 