2019 is almost over and I have a ton of albums that I've acquired throughout the year that I haven't yet gotten around to writing about. In the waning days of the decade, I'm attempting to correct that. The last time I was back home in California this past March, I made a stop by [...]
There aren't very many albums that I can listen to nonstop repeatedly day and night for years without needing to shelve it for a while. Even fewer are albums that continue to surprise me with each listen, almost becoming more fresh with each play. This record is one of those rarities. The Music The Tune: [...]
September has been good to me this year. Besides being my birthday month, I paid a few visits to a few record stores. Those trips were quite productive, and I've been extremely excited about it ever since. Luckily, I have this blog where I can write about said excitement! First up, my trip down to [...]
The great Horace Silver. That's it. That's the intro. To the music. The Music The Tune: "Strollin'" Recorded: 8-9 July, 1960 at Englewood Cliffs, NJ Personnel: Junior Cook - Tenor SaxBlue Mitchell - TrumpetHorace Silver - PianoEugene Taylor - BassRoy Brooks - Drums By a happy coincidence, the day I finally got around to writing [...]
It's been a while since I've done a 'Record Storing' feature, not because I haven't been to a record store (as my wallet laughs..) but because I haven't had the time. I now have some time. Me, in full tourist mode.(All photos of me taken by my friend Rachel) I've just come back from my [...]
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), [...]
It's A Raggy Waltz 