After a long hiatus, I'm back! For my last post of the year and decade, I thought about doing something special, but I couldn't think of anything good. So instead, I decided to spotlight some of the newer albums that I've bought this month that I've been spinning almost nonstop. First up, an album by [...]
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 [...]
Whenever I travel, I like to find the local record store and see what's what. You never know what you'll find. On a recent trip to San Francisco, not only did I want to check out a local record store- I wanted to find records by San Francisco's native jazz sons. I succeeded, in more [...]
After exploring the arranged side of jazz, let's move to another major sub-genre of jazz: 'Live jazz'. Live jazz is arguably the best type of jazz, the most free, most spontaneous type of jazz. The musicians feed off the energy of the audience, and the audience is in turn energized by the musicians. Everybody is [...]
After a string of West Coast jazz musicians, I figured I should probably spotlight some of my other albums. Go east, young man! The Music Tune: 'The Way You Look Tonight' Recorded 1953 or 1954 in New York City Personnel: Lionel Hampton- Vibraharp Buddy DeFranco- Clarinet Oscar Peterson- Piano Ray Brown- Bass Buddy Rich- Drums [...]
Rolling right along with the musical celebration of April, the first full month of spring, here's an interesting album from the late flutist Herbie Mann. Mann was a dedicated bebopper, but in the late 1950's and into the 1960's, he delved into world music, particularly Afro-Cuban and Latin music, and created some intriguing music in [...]
It's A Raggy Waltz 