Bailey's Bundles
The Blues According To Rory Block
by C. Michael Bailey
Being a household name depends as much on the household as it does the name. Not all reading this will know who Rory Block is, but in the households with fans of the rural blues, slide guitar and innovative women in music, to not know would be criminal. Born in Princeton, New Jersey, Block grew up in Manhattan where her father had Allan Block's Sandal Shop on Positively 4th Street in Greenwich Village. Block grew up hanging out ...
Continue ReadingFive Views From The Piano Bench
by C. Michael Bailey
The piano is a versatile instrument that provides different trajectories for those who play it. The view from the piano bench can vary as dramatically as the artist playing it. Yuja Wang The Vienna Recital Deutsche Grammophon 2024 From the biggest of stages... In 2009, Chinese wunderkind pianist Yuja Wang released her debut recording, Sonatas & Etudes (Deutsche Grammophon), and for the past 15 years has proven herself the ...
Continue ReadingThe Allman Brothers Band In Five Covers
by C. Michael Bailey
The original Allman Brothers Band, the pre-October 29, 1971 version, was the brainchild of Duane Allman. The aural record of the band from this period has been augmented substantially since the advent of compact discs and streaming. A review of this music reveals that Allman intentionally kept the band's setlist limited, ostensibly so the band could perfect their sound and musical approach. The early band can be characterized by five song covers that were included in the majority of sets ...
Continue ReadingLate-Period Art Pepper Box Sets
by C. Michael Bailey
In his essay, “Endgame," which opens the liner notes to Art Pepper: The Complete Galaxy Recordings (Galaxy, 1989), music critic Gary Giddens said of Art Pepper's professional comeback: “Pepper's sudden reappearance in 1975 was something of a second coming in musical circles. For the next seven years, his frequent recordings and tours, and the publication in 1979 of the autobiography he and his wife Laurie wrote, Straight Life, transformed him from a gifted altoist who had made ...
Continue ReadingAn Embarrassment of Riches From Hamburg: Recent Releases From Nagel-Heyer
by C. Michael Bailey
This article was first published at All About Jazz in February 2001. While Nagel-Heyer Records is breaking ground with contemporary jazz releases with their Nagel-Heyer 2000 Series, showcasing music by Terell Stafford, Wycliffe Gordon, Byron Stripling, and many others, the Hamburg-centered label's catalog continues to populate itself with the fine traditional jazz recitals that have long been their forte. I recently had the good fortune of receiving a glut of these recordings for my consideration and decided to ...
Continue ReadingNovember 2022: Novel Noël: A Jingle Jazz Celebration
by C. Michael Bailey
Lyn Stanley Novel Noël: A Jingle Jazz Celebration A. T. Music 2022 Vocalist Lyn Stanley ironically calls her ensemble the Big Band Jazz Maverick when it is she who is the maverick, the evidence being how seamlessly she expands the holiday canon on Novel Noël: A Jingle Jazz Celebration. Over the past decade, Stanley has done two significant things: one, she has methodically and with carefully considered concepts addressed in the Great American Songbook, ...
Continue ReadingOctober 2022: Smile
by C. Michael Bailey
Tawanda Smile Resonance Records 2022 Tawanda Suessbrich-Joaquim, known professionally as Tawanda, tied for first place in the 9th annual Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition held in June 2021. That is fresh talent. Tawanda won this award only a year after making her stage debut, a feat, surpassed only by the aptitude and maturity revealed on her debut recording, Smile. Tawanda seems to go from zero to belonging in the esteemed company of Veronica ...
Continue ReadingSeptember 2022: Jazz Child
by C. Michael Bailey
Sheila Jordan Live At Mezzrow's Cellar Music 2022 Nonagenarian Sheila Jordan is a jazz singer enjoying an incandescent twilight. In late 2021, Jordan appeared on Roseanna Vitro's Sing A Song of Bird (Skyline Records, 2021) singing a song contra-composed in her honor from Charlie Parker's “Cheryl," -"Sheila, Jazz Child." Jordan, along with drummer Roy Haynes, remains the last living connection to the famous alto saxophonist, who is generously represented on Jordan's Live at Mezzrow. ...
Continue ReadingAugust 2022: Higher Ground
by C. Michael Bailey
DO'A Higher Grounds Outside In Music 2022 Polymath composer, guitarist and pianist, DO'A, possesses an embarrassment of talent equal only to the smoky and concealed mystery surrounding her and her provocative moniker. Her voice is deeply alto: dusky, rich, and indulgent, like dark chocolate, full of crepuscular secrets and seductive charisma. Her musical vehicle is largely a Latin vibe with an elastic momentum defying any interfering inertia. Conceived and recorded remotely, Higher Grounds reflects ...
Continue ReadingJuly 2022: Love Of The Tiger
by C. Michael Bailey
Dida Pelled Love Of The Tiger Self Produced 2022 Jazz singing is seeing an uptick of artists stepping out of their “traditional" roles into dramatically different vocal genres altogether. Mainstream-to-progressive Kristina Koller, who debuted in 2017 with the youthful and forward-thinking Perception (Self Produced) followed that effort with the hard-left turn of Stronger (Self Produced, 2019), on which Koller seizes the feet of the musical arts, shaking the change from its pockets. Now, we ...
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