Today is 5/4, aka Brubeck Day! While technically speaking, 5/4 Day should really be about Paul Desmond, since he was the one that wrote the 5/4 song that went to stardom, "Take Five" has become synonymous with the Dave Brubeck Quartet as a whole. As a result, we here at Raggy Waltz HQ always like [...]
Well, jello again. It's ME, Jack Benny. No, but seriously, after a lengthy pause, I'm back, and boy do I have a lot of albums that I'm excited to share with you all. Lots. But before taking that plunge into the sea of the new and exciting, here's an old and familiar album that I've [...]
Much has happened since I last did something on this here humble blogsite (new job, new state), but what hasn't happened is bossa nova. Considering it's nearly the end of summer, this is all the more egregious. In light of this serious situation, here's a tasty little album of bossa nova from one of the [...]
Driving a few miles north of Hermosa Beach, humming "Appointment In Ghana" as you motor along the Pacific Coast, you find yourself in Los Angeles, the first major city on your jazz journey. Being that this is the capitol of Southern California and its jazz mecca, there's almost too many options to choose from. LA [...]
Leaving Laguna Beach for another beach, you travel almost an hour north towards to Los Angeles to the beach town of Hermosa Beach. Well, it's supposed to be about an hour, but the traffic makes it more like an hour and a half. Pulling into the parking lot of The Lighthouse Cafe, you hear the [...]
If there's one thing that I and the Raggy Waltz staff love more than Brubeck and Desmond, it's starting blog series. Well, here's another one, inspired by the forced Coronacation we're all on. Here in the United States, at least, we're still under travel restrictions and social distancing regulations. As such, I thought it would [...]
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 [...]
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. [...]
Here's the record that caused me to re-examine why I buy jazz records. Here's the record that re-sparked my excitement and love towards records. And at the end of the day, here's an album that has some fantastic music on it. The Music The Tune: "Poinciana"Recorded: 16 January, 1958 at the Pershing Hotel, Chicago, ILPersonnel: [...]
It's February 1st, which is the beginning of Black History Month here in the States. At the Raggy Waltz offices, we're celebrating Black History Month by highlighting albums made by black artists. To kick off the official start of February, here's quite possibly the most unpretentiously black album I own. With that, to the music! [...]
It's A Raggy Waltz 