Jazz Articles
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Colin Hancock's Jazz Hounds Featuring Catherine Russell: Cat & The Hounds
by Pierre Giroux
Catherine Russell teams up with Colin Hancock's Jazz Hounds for the release Cat & The Hounds, a recording exploring the roots of Black popular music from the early 1920s. Far from simply nostalgic, the project acts as a lively revival of an evolving art form, balancing the syncopated ragtime style and blues-infused improvisations that defined the Jazz Age. Russell's commanding voice, rich with warmth and character, serves as the perfect centre of attention as the band uncovers rare and overlooked ...
Continue ReadingTerry Waldo & the Gotham City Band: Treasury, Volume 2
by Jack Bowers
Like any other handiwork you can name, contemporary jazz did not emerge from a vacuum. It sprang forth from a variety of sources, including but not limited to bebop, cool jazz, swing, trad jazz (Dixieland), blues, stride and perhaps the granddaddy of them all, ragtime. Yes, ragtime. Before there was King Oliver or Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington or Woody Herman, Charlie Parker or Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson or John Coltrane, there was ragtime. And for those who surmise that ragtime ...
Continue ReadingChampian Fulton: At Home
by Richard J Salvucci
Champian Fulton is just fun to hear, no question. There are so many singers and, Heaven knows, even more pianists, so finding one who never really disappoints is no small feat, especially after nearly 20 recordings. Paired here with Stockholm-based reed player Klas Lindquist, Fulton sings and plays her way through various 'songbook' material that bubbles with enthusiasm, not to say chops. Fulton has a kind of coy relation to the beat--sometimes right there, sometimes not, but that makes her ...
Continue ReadingTerry Waldo: Treasury Volume 1
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Simply stated, and without hyperbole, Terry Waldo is an American musical treasure. He's also a treasure purveyor. A protégé of and mentored by Eubie Blake, Waldo is a player, composer, arranger, author, podcaster, theatrical director, and the noted oracle for ragtime and early American popular music. With Treasury Volume 1 (the first of a three-volume set), Waldo and his all-star Gotham City Band cover ten selections from the embryonic days of American jazz.Things kick this lively session off ...
Continue ReadingTerry Waldo & the Gotham City Band: Treasury Volume 1
by Jack Bowers
Pianist Terry Waldo isn't stuck in the past; he revels in it, as do his eager teammates on Treasury, Vol. 1--the first of three such discourses, according to the album's liner notes--recorded not in jazz's primal era but in May and June 2022 (save for “After You've Gone," recorded in October 2018 with the splendid guest vocalist Veronica Swift). Waldo, a student of jazz from its origins to present-day genres, treads a well-worn path here, reprising bright and enduring themes ...
Continue ReadingWayne Alpern: Gotham
by Jack Bowers
There are a number of bright and interesting moments on New York-based arranger Wayne Alpern's album, Gotham, wherein he makes good use of a well-polished tentet on several generally handsome and engaging charts. Alpern's choice of music is eclectic, ranging from Tchaikovsky to Jobim, Rodgers and Hart to Stephen Sondheim, Hoagy Carmichael to Horace Silver, Alex North to John Lennon and Paul McCartney. All of which should be anticipated from a music-lover whose training and background ranges from classical to ...
Continue ReadingHannah Gill: Spooky Jazz. Vol. 2
by Kyle Simpler
In most cases, seasonal albums get shelved after the holiday passes, but Hannah Gill's Spooky Jazz Vol. 2 is an exception. Although it might appear to be a novelty record centered on Halloween-themed songs, the music here transcends the holiday, offering a collection of tunes enjoyable throughout the year. Although the selections here are overall light-hearted and whimsical, this is by no means a comedy record. Much like Slim Gaillard's music, Hannah Gill's material entertains and ...
Continue ReadingThe New Wonders: Steppin' Out
by Jack Bowers
Although the ten songs performed by cornetist Mike Davis' Brooklyn-based septet, The New Wonders, on the group's second album, Steppin' Out, are well removed from new, most have stood the test of time and remained popular with a small yet devoted number of trad jazz enthusiasts, some for a century or more. The New Wonders carry forward a storied tradition that dates at least as far back as the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in the early 1920s and whose best-known ...
Continue ReadingSweet Megg: Bluer Than Blue
by Nicholas F. Mondello
One of the more niche genres in the history of jazz is western swing. Primarily dance music and hugely popular in the Southwest, it originated as a jambalaya blending hot jazz, country, blues, pop and traditional fiddle playing, performed by combos such as the Light Crust Doughboys and Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. It incorporated instrumentation including violins, steel and electric guitars with other instruments. The music was a precursor of rockabilly. Bluer Than Blue superbly resurrects that energetic ...
Continue ReadingRicky Alexander: Just Found Joy
by Nicholas F. Mondello
The odd picture on the cover of Ricky Alexander's Just Found Joy is neither a takeaway from The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (Capitol, 1966) album cover, nor a play on the GOAT acronym. Actually, the album art was photographed at the Store Barns Farm in Downstate New York. This is a superb album of a dozen (less one original) older classic hits played by traditional jazz adepts--if not GOATS--who excel performing in this genre. “People Will Say ...
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