It’s a quiet Sunday around here and that often means some piano in the background while I tinker with whatever writing projects I’ve got going. Some days it’s Errol Garner, some days I’ll dig out Vince Guaraldi but more often than not it’ll be Oscar Peterson. It’s cold ’round these parts so the soft, languid [...]
The story of Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra is a strange one. They inhabited an odd space between swing and jazz as the Roaring Twenties came to a close and the Great Depression set in. They were a savvy operation and played what people wanted them to hear. They were also one of [...]
When you talk about jazz singers Jeri Southern inhabits a strange place. All my jazzbo friends hate her lack of improv skills and the absence of the dark, smoky feel of Ella, Billie or Nina. The pop kids hated her lack of hooky delivery or crazy arrangements. I fully acknowledge almost everyone from Julie London [...]
Since I’m starting on a Sunday night I can slide in an old favorite - “If this isn’t jazz” by Patricia Barber. It’s a live track from her 1999 disc “Companion.” Heard one way it’s a stream of consciousness response to her critics but as time goes on it becomes more abstract. I had the [...]