Taking a break from grails and expensive records, I want to get back to the main reason why I started writing about records in the first place- my love for the albums that I don't see talked about much, the underappreciated or plain ignored jazz records and artists that deserve another listen. Like George Shearing. [...]
In the jazz record collecting circle, there are records that everyone wants, there are records that are rare, and there's records that are expensive. Then there's holy grails. Ask a record collector what a grail is, and they'll probably rattle off a few Blue Note albums, like Lee Morgan's 'Vol. 3' (which I accidentally grabbed [...]
I've given up on trying to do series and themes. Whenever I try, I get into an artist or a type of music and that's that. So from now on, I'm just writing about whatever I happen to be feeling at the time, and right now I'm feeling piano trios. Specifically, I've been digging Billy [...]
Happy Cal Tjader Day! Naturally, for Cal's birthday I had to come out of hibernation and do something for the great Californian jazz musician. Lately, I've been spinning a Tjader record that I grabbed during my last trip to California, fittingly enough. It's got groovy music and cover art to match. Here comes Cal, and [...]
Today marks the official beginning of the summer season, and what a beautiful, sunny day it is here in north Alabama. To celebrate the start of summer, I thought it'd be fun to spotlight some of my favorite records with a summer vibe. Since I kinda really hate the song "Summertime" (sorry not sorry Gershwin), [...]
If there's one thing Raggy Waltz enjoys more than anything, it's starting a series. If there's one thing that Raggy Waltz enjoys more than starting series, it's abandoning a series soon after it began. In a remarkable example of both, a series was developed and thought up, but then just as I began to really [...]
Periodically, I'm really into a particular artist and their music. A few months ago it was Shirley Scott (actually, it's still Shirley Scott). Before that, it was Cannonball Adderley. Now? Back to Cannonball. I don't have many of his albums, but the few that I do have are spending much of their time these days [...]
As a hobby, record collecting can be a relatively tame endeavor. Yes, there's the excitement of finally finding an album that you've always wanted, or finding something rare in the wild, and it's always interesting to see what's new in the stores. These are relatively isolated and spread out events, though, and aren't the norm. [...]
Revising a silly series I started two years ago, here's an album from an unlikely source that has some rather fantastic and refreshing music on it, music that's perfect for the last day of April, or the first day of May depending on where in the world you are. To the music! The Music The [...]
The leaves are back on the trees, the sun is finally working again, and birds are building nests once again. Spring has sprang! I mean sprung. But also sprang. Keep reading to understand what I'm talking about. To the music! The Music The Tune: "Bijou"Recorded: 1955Personnel: Ralph Burns- PianoJimmy Raney- GuitarClyde Lombardi- BassOsie Johnson- Drums [...]
