Jazz

 (Buck Clayton, 37th Army Service Band, 1945) I chose the picture of Buck Clayton and Lennie Sogoloff to go with yesterday’s blog because I’ve been listening to Buck all week.  Tomorrow is the centennial...

Listeners to Jazz a la Mode know that Karrin Allyson has long been a favorite of mine and that her Concord Jazz releases have been staples of the show for the past 20 years. The Valley got a bonus a few...

Karrin Allyson earned a 5-star review in this month’s Downbeat for her recent Concord Jazz release, ‘Round Midnight.  Notwithstanding the tendency to overpraise everything these days,...

Ken Burns: Jazz Revisionist? There is much to appreciate in Ken Burns’ new PBS documentary Prohibition, including his trademark use of pristine photos and film footage; deep historical background...

If 70 is the new 60, then Kenny Barron’s been a full-fledged pro since the age of 7.  Actually, the pianist was 17 when he first worked with Yusef Lateef, and Yusef included one of Kenny’s compositions...

Yesterday was Kenny Burrell’s 85th birthday. I heard him first on Jimmy Smith’s Back At the Chicken Shack, and first heard his great original “Chitlins Con Carne” on Junior...

Kevin Mahogany You’ve probably heard by now that Kevin Mahogany died on Monday, December 18, at his home in Kansas City, Missouri. A heart attack claimed his life at age 59. I heard Kevin many...

“You have to think beyond your time.” That’s how Wynton Marsalis described the challenge of appreciating styles and sounds that precede one’s era. His adage comes to mind whenever...

There’s a beautifully-filmed performance on YouTube of Lee Konitz and Bill Evans playing “My Melancholy Baby” in Berlin in 1965.  The two had played the standard six years earlier when Evans spelled...

In Concert with the Jazz Messengers Lee Morgan and Wayne Shorter, two of the most incisive and arresting soloists in modern jazz, made for one of the greatest trumpet/saxophone front lines in the music’s...