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Many critics, reviewers, and bloggers end the year with a top ten list of the year’s best recordings, best performances, top news stories, etc. For my record of San Francisco and Bay Area jazz happenings, I want to offer a list of top musical discoveries of 2011. Admittedly, this is a highly personal list and I offer it in the hopes that readers respond with their own discoveries:
Early Music scene …more…
As a jazz and blues fanatic, I tend to have a significant case of tunnel vision when it comes to my taste in music. But as a guitarist I’m more open-minded and willing to check out other guitarists, regardless of their genre (punk rock and rap excluded).
And it just so happens that when I was channel surfing the other day, I accidentally landed on an episode of PBS’ “Great Performances,” …more…
Suzaune McKamey is one of those local performers who could probably succeed as a major star in any other small town. That she chooses to live in New Orleans with its limited offerings for a strong cabaret and nightclub performer is unfortunate. She could no doubt do much better elsewhere, but dang it all, she loves her hometown and won’t hear anything of moving elsewhere. ...more...
Step back in time to the Roaring 20s, the Dirty Thirties, and the Daring 40s to swing in the new year in style! Calling all bimbos and sailors, bearcats, flappers, and debs– birds of all kinds– make this New Year’s one to remember by dancing the night away at one of the many celebrations themed for this Age of Wonderful Nonsense. From delicious foods, fine champagne, swing dancing, and nonstop hits of the Jazz age, these events have it all! It’s the cat’s meow! ...more...
Greetings from the fatter, more slothly side of Christmas!
I want to talk about one of my favorite spots for jazz in NYC. I discovered The Kitano a couple years ago when I went to see Peter Eldridge of New York Voices do a fabulous set in this sleek hotel setting. ...more...
Did anyone attend Ahmad Jamal’s December 10 concert at Herbst Theater? I was looking forward to that concert more than any other event in the SFJAZZ festival, but an unexpected family crisis prevented me from attending. I have searched in vain for a review or blogpost about this highly anticipated event – is it possible that Mr. Jamal came and went through San Francisco and nobody from the Fourth Estate thought to make the concert a matter of public record? The event was sold out, so I’d love to hear from folks who were there! ...more...
In most any other major North American city an art museum would commemorate an anniversary with a dry, stuffy affair consisting of a string quartet quietly playing Haydn or Brahms while hor d’oeuvres would be passed along to attendees by a wait staff in thick-starched black and white uniforms.
New Orleans Museum of Art (Photo courtesy of NOCVB)
But this is New Orleans and when the New Orleans Museum of Art …more…
You never know where you’re going to run into top-caliber jazz in L.A., as I was reminded of the other day. I was checking out an art sale when I happened to encounter a particularly intriguing band playing outside the art gallery in the frigid weather we’ve been hit with lately.
As described on their website (http://www.redhillquartet.com/) the members of the Red Hill Quartet “bring the influences of African, Indian and …more…
Staring at Christmas from this side of Thanksgiving feels somehow more daunting. To combat your Winter Wonderland Woes (fingers crossed that the Snow Gods treat us kindly here in New York this year), I bring you the second and final installment of my favorite holiday jazz classics. ...more...
This November many of us carved out time to appreciate the people in our lives and give thanks. We Bay Area jazz fans, in particular, had much to be thankful for. Although the SFJAZZ Festival is still winding down, the past months have been filled with some outstanding shows including those by Esperanza Spaulding, Robert Glasper, and McCoy Tyner. Alongside the established jazz artists were legendary Bollywood playback-singer Asha Bohsle, R&B …more…
If you love sax, then you’ll want to not let anything stop you from attending The Tiptons Sax Quartet and Drums performance at the Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepard Center. The show is at 8pm and it’s a suggested donation of $15 at the door. ...more...
With the Thanksgiving holiday passed, winter festivities are in full swing and Cincinnati is bursting with entertainment this week! With major shows opening throughout, there are many choices no matter which genre of fine arts you appreciate.
Wednesday begins this week’s events with an incredible opening night performance of Snow White at the Ensemble Theatre. David Kisor and Joseph McDonough bring this classic fairytale to life in a production that runs …more…
Here in my home town of Los Angeles, the term “genius” is generally conferred upon anybody who makes $25 million a year. But there is unwavering consensus among top-level guitarists, including Lee Ritenour, Steve Vai and Larry Carlton, that Ted Greene (1946 – 2005) was a genius of the highest order.
Ted was an unparalleled master of solo guitar, often playing the melody, chordal accompaniment and bass lines simultaneously in a …more…
Unlike legendary New Orleans jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong, who left their hometown to achieve fame and rarely ever came back home, pianist and composer Michael Wolff has proven to be an exception. Raised as a youngster in New Orleans, he has returned to what he regards as his hometown yearly and has camped out at Snug Harbor, the city’s premiere jazz club, for most of the past five …more…
Are you a Domestic Duo, a Fast Track Family, Country Casual, or New Homesteader? Do you have “Gray Power” or belong to the “Second City Elite?”
These are just a few of the monikers used to label audience members in “The Big List,” a mailing list pool maintained by Theater Bay Area. Because 200 organizations (not all in the Bay Area) have participated in the list since 2008, if you have …more…
Mood Music for Time Travellers – Either/Orchestra
One of my favorite larger ensembles out there at the moment is the Either/Orchestra, led by saxophonist Russ Gershon. For over two decades, they’ve been fusing afro-cuban sounds with some of the best funky grooves to be found. In my mind, they sound a bit like one took Stan Kenton, put him in the blender and made a really spicy Gazpacho.(How’s that for …more…
When I think of Thanksgiving, I think of a calorie-filled holiday complete with loud music and even louder family members. It is a time for loved ones to enjoy each other’s company following a hectic year. With that being said, jazz is perhaps the most dynamic genre of music that is applicable to this time of year. It has the ability to calm or liven a party, which …more…
From November 10-13 music scholars from far and wide descended on the Hyatt Regency Hotel on the Embarcadero in San Francisco for the American Musicological Society‘s 2011 conference. Held in a different American or Canadian metropolis evey year, AMS had not been to the Bay Area since 1990 when Oakland hosted the event. With this year’s preponderance of opera and early music papers, there was comparatively little in the way …more…
Sad Christmas Tree is Sad.
Call me grumpy, call me undeservedly crotchety in spite of my years, call me what you want, but hearing Christmas music on the radio BEFORE Halloween this year was just too much. It could also be that I had a terrible cold and wished I could’ve been out there in the freezing rain impressing people with my witty costume commentary on Occupy Wall Street instead …more…
Seattle jazz heads take note: this Friday, November 4th, the U District Jazz Festival starts its three day run. There are different packages for tickets. The best deals are the early bird tickets: $35 for all three days (including a voucher for a free drink and any of the venues.)The festival is an expanded version of the U District Jazz Walk. Here’s some details from the Facebook page:
The University District’s …more…
Jazz at Lincoln Center is, in this blogger’s humble opinion, one of the finest cultural institutions in NYC and indeed, the U.S., that no one seems to know about! With Wynton Marsalis at the helm, JALC has tapped into the dual needs of the Ken Burns educate-me-gently generation and our collective yen for good, old-fashioned quality entertainment to provide some of the best programming around with the world’s finest performers.
For …more…
Oscar Peterson, Munich 1977 (Photo by Hans Bernhard)
I was sitting, looking out the window in Brooklyn a couple of weeks ago, writing the jazz genre introduction for Arts America when Oscar Peterson’s rendition of the Gershwin classic “I Loves You Porgy” pops up on Spotify. I remember that I was writing the section on the debate over what jazz “is”.
Peterson was a master of the piano and watching this …more…
Culture, at its root, is the sum total of our collective intelligence and achievement as a species – the expressions of our creativity as a group of people and a society. It is a delicate phenomenon, constantly in flux, and seemingly everyone has their own idea about what it is and isn’t. We call dance, art, drama cultural arts because they help people to refine feelings, tastes, thoughts and develop their soul and body, while at the same time reflecting today’s customs and …more…
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