Jazz

A Debut Release From a Seasoned Duo Aurora Nealand and Tom McDermott are a New Orleans phenomenon who play Buffa’s on Esplanade Avenue every Thursday. They usually begin their opening set improvising...

 Alas, the Worcester-born pianist Barbara Carroll has died at age 92. My Worcester-born mother told me about her the first time I mentioned jazz, for she knew Barbara as the real deal in swing even...

In the select pantheon of white musicians for whom playing the blues seemed to come naturally, Barney Kessel holds a prominent place. Born in 1923 in Muskogee, Oklahoma, his interest in guitar was supported...

Happy Birthdays to Two Keepers of the Flame Today marks the birthdays of two unsung masters of modern jazz. It’s pianist Barry Harris’s 85th and trombonist Curtis Fuller’s 80th. Both hail from Detroit,...

Today is Ben Webster’s 104th birthday anniversary.  Webster came to fame with Duke Ellington, but the tenor saxophone was a later addition to Duke’s tonal palette as trumpets, trombones, clarinets,...

My Irish-born grandmother lived by admonitions and apothegms. “There is nothing as virtuous as a man without the price.” “Paper never refused ink.” “A fool and his money are...

Ben Webster plays Chelsea Bridge You say web, I still think Webster, as in Ben, the Kansas City-born tenor saxophone legend and star of Duke Ellington’s early forties orchestra. But what Peter Chilton...

My Irish-born grandmother lived by admonitions and apothegms.  “There is nothing as virtuous as a man without the price.” “Paper never refused ink.”  “A fool and his money are soon parted.” ...

The jazz highlight of early summer took place for me on June 25 at Integrity ‘n Music, the record store in Wethersfield, Connecticut, where tenor saxophone legend Bennie Wallace played a trio...

Benny, Ben, and Earl I’ve switched gears this year in terms of the album feature that’s been a part of Jazz a la Mode on Tuesday nights for the past decade.  Rather than focus on a chronological...