Details and a look back at a new/old upcoming George Benson album, recorded in London, England with Robert Farnon. Once believed to have been abandoned.
Bob James at NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert
Bob James appeared on todays NPR Tiny Desk concert. It’s well worth a few minutes, if you don’t have time now, I( recorded it and have a download link.
A Disco Dazzler – Tamiko Jones
A new remix of a Tamik Jones track by the Disco Dandies spurred me onto completing a project I started back in 2020. An in-depth look at at Tamiko Jones, who was much more than just he music. That will post in July, for now enjoy the remix!
Bob James Live!
I missed attending the Biamp Portland Jazz Festival but was updated by Kim Paris with a review, photos, and a clip of Bob James’s performance. Kim also shared a 1985 live recording of a Bob James concert at Montreux, available for streaming and download.
Pop And Jazz Jocks On The Radio
Billboard Magazine’s October 12th, 1963 issue explores the fusion of jazz with popular music, highlighting Creed Taylor’s impact on presenting jazz artists to the pop scene. Here I have two Bill Coss authored features on this topic. Discussed is the trend of pop jockeys blending more jazz into their shows as audiences become sophisticated listeners, while jazz deejays remain cautious of trend slavery in pop jazz. An spoken audio texts are included as an experiment.
The Paul Desmond Album That Was CTI and Isn’t
With the Grammys coming up, I thought it a good time to take a first look at Paul Desmond’s career and his association with CTI Records, along with a discussion about his albums and Grammy nominations. I also apparently have some work to do on Wikipedia inaccuracies but mostly this is a look at Desmond’s non-CTI A&M recording and Grammy nominated “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”
Black Music ’75 Live Apollo Theater Hubbard & McCann
Kim Paris from the FM Radio Archive Collection recently shared a interesting live set from 1974 featuring Freddie Hubbard and Les McCann at the Apollo’s Black Music ’75 show. This ambitious event aimed to showcase jazz legends to the Harlem audience. The performance, while receiving mixed reviews, provides a nostalgic glimpse into an iconic era of jazz music.
“Follow Bob James All Around The Town”
Bob James was born on December 25th, 1939. On December 22nd, 1979, at the peak of his career, James had the last of a series of concerts in New York City to celebrate New York City and to show off the different styles he could work in. Three different venues, three different configurations, quartet, trio and big band. This post […]
Event: Ron Carter’s Golden Striker Trio Live and Online (free)
The ever excellent Maestro Ron Carter has an excellent social media and newsletter team. In today’s email they announced a live performance on December 10th, at 3pm EST. In-person is sold out, but attendance via Livestream is available and free. I was lucky enough to see Sir Ron and Russell Malone (guitar) and Mulgrew Miller (piano) earlier this year at […]
Discogs Artist Page #fail
Discogs have implemented a new web ui and backend interface that removes a large reason to use it for research. I wanted to layout my complaints graphically with images on the off chance that a product manager or someone with influence at #Discogs would see it. I posted most of the detail, without images on their community forum 23-days ago, […]
On This Day: “Bird Lives!”
The lullaby of Bird lingers lovingly on by Greg Murphy, published in the Liverpool Daily Post, Saturday August 29th, 1970 While searching through an archive looking for some details on the Creed Taylor, CTI Rhythmstick project, I found this UK Newspaper clipping. The 1990 version of the CTI All-Stars covered Parker’s “Barbados” on their album and video. Also included here […]
Black Rhythm Revolution!
Not that this album would have been included, but I need to get back and update the reissue list, there have been five or six reissues of Taylor-produced albums since the last update. However, I thought it worth getting out in front of this one. If you don’t have an original release or one of the numerous reissues on vinyl […]
All Vinyl DJ Set – May 20th
I’ll be playing another all vinyl DJ set at the “Times Collaborative” in Longmont, Colorado on May 20th. I’ll update this post with my set time when I know it. The sessions run from 7-11pm though, so it will be early rather than a midnight stint. Jill aka “Body Music” is hoping to start a regular club night in the […]
#AirtoFloraDay
Most of my music collection consists of vinyl records from the 1960’s, 70’s and assorted years since then. Probably two thirds of that is original, purchased new. When I buy records these days it’s most likely used. Musicians get zip/nothing/nada from second hand sales, they also get very little from, streaming services. Reissues (new music) provides a limited income and […]
Esther Phillips – Blues Hall of Fame
Esther Phillips is to be inducted into The Blues Foundation’s Hall of Fame ((https://blues.org/hall/)).
Memorialization is a slow process but it starts with recognition. In his review of Esther’s career for the Blues Foundation ((https://blues.org/blues_hof_inductee/esther-phillips/)), Jim O’Neal touches on many of the aspects that made Esther’s career so tragic.
Downbeat – The Good, Bad & Ugly
It’s tough to be down on Downbeat. From the 1930’s until Jazz started to wane in the 1980’s years they were the definitive jazz music “organ”. It’s not been a good month for Downbeat in my eyes. My rose tinted glasses are cracked and fading. In this post I have some thoughts on their online archive, what they get right […]