Jazz Articles

Doc Stewart Big Band Resuscitation: Code Blue!

by Jack Bowers
June 5, 2014

"Doc" is much more than a nickname to Chris Stewart: it's a profession. And straight-ahead jazz is far more than a pastime: it's a passion. For the past sixteen years, Doc Stewart's day gig has been ER physician at the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Scottsdale, AZ. Long before that, however, Stewart was a working musician who played alto sax with a number of big bands including those led by Tom Kubis, Ladd McIntosh, Matt Catingub, Louie Bellson, Toshiko Akiyoshi / ...

Doc Stewart and Big Band Resuscitation: Code Blue!

by Edward Blanco
May 19, 2014

Those who subscribe to the notion that big band music is a dying musical art form, are obviously unaware of Chris “Doc “ Stewart and his star-studded Resuscitation big band that have just given the genre a shot in the arm, a jolt of electricity and some life-saving musical medicine with the amazing Code Blue! An alto saxophonist by passion and pleasure, Stewart is actually an emergency room doctor with the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, AZ, practicing the trade for ...

Mick Taylor: A Stone's Throw

by Ed Kopp
March 1, 2000

I’m surprised Mick Taylor chose to dredge up his past when he named this new CD A Stone's Throw. Taylor has long downplayed his time with the Rolling Stones, despite contributing to some of the band’s finest albums ( Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main Street ).In truth, A Stone’s Throw has little in common with the Rolling Stones aside from its blues footing. It’s more like a substandard Nick Lowe album, but with great guitar playing.

Taylor has ...

Charles Earland: Jazz Organ Summit

by Joel Roberts
April 1, 1998

One night last spring in Chicago, four masters of the Hammond B-3 organ - Charles Earland, Lonnie Smith, Johnny “Hammond" Smith, and Jimmy McGriff - got together for a one-time-only showcase. The results are captured here on a must-buy album for jazz organ fans.

Each performer is featured in a brief solo segment, before all four join together for a funky, jam-session finale. Earland lives up to his nickname ("The Burner") with a sizzling version of the pop hit “I ...

Melvin Sparks: I'm A 'Gittar' Player

by Douglas Payne
November 1, 1997

Guitarist Melvin Sparks will sound familiar to those who like the fatback soul-jazz of the late 60s and early 70s. That music has new life today as “acid jazz" and Sparks was a significant catalyst in its sound. He's ignited some of the better funk of Lou Donaldson ( Pretty Things and Cosmos ), Sonny Stitt ( Turn It On ), Charles Earland ( Black Talk ), Lonnie Smith ( Think ), Hank Crawford (the recent Tight ) and Rusty ...