jazz Archive
15 Apr 2015
Album Review: Art Pepper — Neon Art, Vols. 1-3
Art Pepper was a white jazz saxophonist who specialized in a West Coast style of jazz popular in the 1950s and 60s. His catalog is vast and varied; his recorded […]
09 Apr 2015
DVD Review: Freak Jazz, Movie Madness and Another Mothers
The back catalog of Frank Zappa is massive, and massively intimating. Never the most commercially-minded of artists, the virtuoso Zappa recorded and released more than fifty albums during his lifetime. […]
06 Apr 2015
Festival Review: Big Ears Festival 2015, Part 1
Typically, I don’t make a point of attending “kickoff events” at the start of music festivals. My thinking is that they’re generally an opportunity to spotlight the event sponsors and […]
03 Apr 2015
Rick Wakeman, Cannonball Adderley, and Me
Today I’m going to indulge in a brief change of pace. I’d like to tell you about a pair of reissues with which I am involved. I won’t be reviewing […]
01 Apr 2015
Back to School with Les McCann (Part 3)
Continued from Part Two… I make the (not at all original) observation that many American musical forms seem to get more respect in Europe than at home. “That’s all right,” […]
31 Mar 2015
Back to School with Les McCann (Part 2)
Continued from Part One… Among the most celebrated releases in Les McCann‘s extensive catalog, Swiss Movement is his 1969 live collaboration with saxophonist Eddie Harris. The album was controversial on […]
30 Mar 2015
Back to School with Les McCann (Part 1)
Invitation to Openness is not only the title of one of jazz great Les McCann‘s most celebrated albums (newly reissued; more on that later); it’s also the title of his […]
23 Mar 2015
Blu-ray Review: Syncopation
Spend any time reading online forums discussing what currently-unavailable motion pictures deserve a proper reissue/restoration, and you’ll likely come across the title Syncopation. This 1942 black-and-white film is at its […]
05 Mar 2015
Hundred Word Reviews for March 2015, Part 4
Prog, jazz, blues: there’s something for most musical tastes in today’s roundup of hundred-word reviews. Mark Wingfield – Proof of Light If there’s a common raison d’être among the varied […]
03 Mar 2015
Hundred Word Reviews for March 2015, Part 2
Powerpop and jazz rarely go together. But in this edition of hundred-word reviews, they do. $15.00 Available only from Kool Kat Musik The Jeanies – The Jeanies I look back […]