In the last few days I’ve been listening to the Benny Goodman Festival being broadcast on WKCR-FM (if you’re out of range of this New York City FM station, you can hear it online at www.wkcr.org).��� Whenever I turn on the radio a Goodman small group is eagerly exploring AVALON at a jaunty tempo, a...

Jimmy Rowles was a wizard of light and shade, of wit and deep feeling at the piano.��� I momentarily fell into one of my eBay reveries and considered bidding on this artifact (which seems to be less mutable than the recent “Arthur Tatum” sighting) but then thought, “What would I do with it?”���...

Yes, I know . . . this combination of words doesn’t occur often in daily discourse, especially because those of us who follow and idolize jazz musicians think of them as occupying a realm far above the ordinary obligations of our lives.��� So when I saw this document advertised on eBay, I was first...

I spent a few glorious hours last night (Sunday, May 24) at the Ear Inn — absorbing the sounds in two long sets by New Orleanian Evan Christopher (clarinet), Scott Robinson (trumpet, C-melody saxophone, and tenora), Matt Munisteri (guitar), and Danton Boller (bass) — the EarRegulars minus co-leader Jon-Erik Kellso, who was working his plunger [...]

From Nick Balaban: “Hey everybody, Here’s a day-brightener…. On Tuesday, May 26th, the great New Orleans pianist Tom McDermott will once again honor us with his bedazzling ivronics in our living room! This time, he’ll be playing with the illustrious Jon-Erik Kellso on trumpet! AND if that wasn’t enough, our friend Brian Robinson proprietor of Fort Greene’s Gnarly [...]

Previously unknown private letters from Louis Armstrong to a British journalist have been unearthed GUARDIAN, Sunday, 24 May 2009 Previously unknown private letters from Louis Armstrong to a British friend have been unearthed.��� The letters, to the journalist Lionel Crane, reveal the strong conviction the American jazz virtuoso had that he should stay close to his own [...]

I don’t like pledge drives on public radio or public television.��� More often than not, I have reacted to the extended earnest pleas for financial support by turning off the flow of words.��� When I returned to New York this morning and heard that WKCR-FM was asking its listeners for financial...

This four-day New York celebration was planned to celebrate the 95th birthday of dancer, choreographer, generous spirit, and inspiration Frankie Manning — who, as they���say, departed this earthly life a bit too soon.��� But the festivities go on — featuring, among others, Dancer Norma Miller, musicians Wycliffe Gordon, Houston Person,���Evan���Christopher, Matt Munisteri, David Ostwald’s Gully Low [...]

Yes, Ewell had had a stroke some years earlier.��� Neither of the pianos at the Manassas Jazz Festival was worthy of its artist.��� But this video clip (thanks so much to my fellow YouTube poster — who also gave us the priceless clip of Vic Dickenson singing and playing ONE HOUR) is a wonderful...