By Devon “Doc” Wendell In my head I can hear Billie Holiday singing “There Is Music Everywhere.” She sang it with such glee as opposed to her better known and more tortured melancholy recordings. And she was right. It’s all around us at any time. Since I became a music journalist several years ago, I’ve… Read More A Twist Of Doc: The Dangers Of Writing About Jazz
By Brian Arsenault I really don’t feel comfortable calling a column like this “The Best of 2012.” It’s not that I’m not opinionated enough to do so, it’s that integrity would require me to have listened to a whole lot more during the year. Wouldn’t one have to hear just about everything to do an… Read More Short Takes: Of My Favorites in Twenty-Twelve
Ike & Tina Turner Ike & Tina On the Road 1971-72 (MVD Visual) By Brian Arsenault The story of what was bad with Ike and Tina Turner has been much told and neither this DVD nor I have anything to add to it here. What this DVD is about is what was good, even astonishing,… Read More DVD Review: “Ike & Tina On The Road 1971-72”
By Mike Finkelstein On Saturday night Bettye LaVette laid it down (and I mean way down) powerfully at Royce Hall for one of the final performances of this year’s UCLA LIVE calendar. She pithily interpreted each song, cutting it to the quick. These were songs we’ve all likely heard before, but in this show LaVette… Read More Live Music: Bettye LaVette at Royce Hall
Had he lived, Sam Cooke would be 80 on January 22, 2011. Though his tragic death, at the age of 33, deprived successive generations of new music from Cooke, known as ‘the man who invented soul,’ his legacy and influence endure. A feature film biography, based on Peter Guralnick’s critically acclaimed book Dream Boogie: The Triumph of… Read More News: Sam Cooke’s 80th — January 22, 2011
The International Review of Music 