Jazz Articles

The Heads and Tails Quartet: Both Ends Now

by Dan McClenaghan
April 1, 2007

After a disastrous foray into vocal music, Ellis Leahy, multiple horn man extraordinaire, flows back into the mainstream of jazz with this vibrant live CD. Both Ends Now starts out steamin' with the leader crying out, “Blow man, blow," on the opening number, then delivering a searing alto saxophone solo in the middle of the classic Cole Porter tune “Too Darned Hot." And though it may sound as if he's encouraging one of his Heads and Tails Quartet band mates ...

G.B. Walmarketeer: Used to be Texas Blues

by Robert R. Calder
April 1, 2007

If you want real blues from today, hardly any man involved in any blues revival can give you the real thing like this guy. Catch his slide-work. In the past, lots of people have doubted his capacity to deliver the real thing, taking him for just another performer with a ridiculous number of fans. Yet the fans seem to inspire him to create or at least recreate ever more and more powerful blues, though once he's really got his mojo ...

Clint Eastwood: Do You Feel Lucky?

by Edward Zucker
April 1, 2007

He went from being Rowdy Yates on TV to the cinema's “Man With No Name and “Dirty Harry to winning an Academy Award for directing. Yet, all along the way, Clint Eastwood's passion for jazz has remained a constant. His jazz-related projects in the past include directing the Charlie Parker biopic Bird, and starring in Play Misty For Me. Eastwood's son Kyle is also involved in jazz. Kyle is a bassist, who has released several CDs as a leader. Therefore, ...

Ellis Leahy: Cheek to Cheek: Ellis Leahy Sings Sinatra

by Dan McClenaghan
April 1, 2004

These days a compact disc can be recorded, manufactured and packaged on a relatively modest budget. The upside: tons of talented musicians unable to hook up with a major label are now able to get their music “out there" to the public. The downside: an awful lot of horrid crap that ought to get trucked right out to the landfill without ever coming near a stereo system gets foisted on an unsuspecting public. Cheek to Cheek: Ellis Leahy ...

Ruth and the Colettes: Subcutaneous

by Dan McClenaghan
April 1, 2003

They've played behind a tip jar for the better part of ten years now, this vibrant four woman string band that carries a torch for the songs of Cole Porter. But now a decade of strumming, fiddling and wailing in juke box dives and dingy bars has come to fruition for Ruth and the Colettes, with the release of their debut CD, Subcutaneous, on Loma Alta Records.

The CD's back cover photo of the band shows four rather ...