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Old School with Wendel Brunious

by Thomas Cole
September 24, 2026

Growing up in my family, there was quite a bit of music around the house, as my brother John Brunious would be practicing and my daddy would be doing the same. John had actually taught me to play the blues, beginning with Going to New Orleans, first learning it on the piano. Of course, there were records being played too, mostly Louis Armstrong, but my brother was listening to bebop too, including Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, among others. And ...

Sequoia Snyder: Growing in the Light of the Masters

by Paul Rauch
September 17, 2026

It was day three of the 47th annual Detroit Jazz Festival, a sunny Sunday late afternoon with just enough white, puffy, high sky clouds to keep the massive crowd gathered at Hart Plaza comfortable. The JP Morgan Chase stage at the southeast corner of the plaza seemed to hang perilously on the edge of the Detroit River Walk, the afternoon turning to evening sun dancing off the blue-green waters of the river. Pianist-keyboardist-composer Sequoia Snyder, also known by her childhood ...

The Discreet Charm of Tete Montoliu

by Con Chapman
September 9, 2026

In 1947 tenor saxophonist Don Byas, a transplant from America following a tour of Europe, joined a society orchestra--complete with strings--to play dates in Spain. After their ballroom engagement was over, Byas and the band's rhythm section would jam until the early morning hours when they would be forced to quit “either because the police burst in at four in the morning, or because Don had been drinking a bit too much," according to a Spanish jazz critic.

In From the Beginning: New Orleans Music History with Deacon John Moore

by Thomas Cole
June 17, 2026

Well, you know, growing up I was the golden boy of the family, because I could sing. I recall my mother singing arias from operas to herself while doing housework and playing classical and popular music on the piano in our home while taking care of the kids--13 of us all together. Her background was classical piano and church music too. She was the salutatorian at Xavier University. Aside from classical music and opera, my mother liked popular ...

Introducing Pianist Sungtaek Choo

by Eugene Holley, Jr.
April 7, 2026

Toshiko Akiyoshi, Makoto Ozone, Hiromi and Helen Sung are but a few of the talented Asian pianists who have made their mark in jazz. The 30 year-old New York City-based, South Korean-born pianist Sungtaek Choo is a welcome addition to that illustrious list. Born in Daegu, South Korea on September 8, 1995, Choo started playing classical piano at the age of 5, and discovered jazz at 16, when he saw Chet Baker video on YouTube. “I got into ...

Ukrainian Jazz Media: Unwavering Service

by Ian Patterson
January 24, 2026

Though the history of jazz in Ukraine dates back to the second decade of the 20th Century, jazz media in Ukraine was slower to develop. While this article's primary focus is on today's jazz journalists, independent proselytizers and advocates, it would be remiss not to mention some of those who paved the way. Several figures have been key in developing Ukrainian jazz media and promoting jazz nationally and internationally. Prominent among these is Leonid Goldstein, who celebrated his ...

¡Viva la resistencia! Cafe Central, Madrid

by Leo Sidran
December 26, 2025

A story of Madrid's Cafe Central, going out of business after over 40 years as the beating heart of jazz in the Spanish capital. The old saying “wherever you go, there you are" is one of those deceptively simple adages that never lets you down. And yet, the longer I've lived with it, the more I've come to believe that there are certain times and places when a person is just a little more where they are.

Tom Waits In The House: Three Jazzy Winners From The Noir Prince Of LA Pop

by George Wallace
December 13, 2025

No assessment of the interchange between jazz music and the spoken word idiom in contemporary music can be complete without paying a visit to Small Change, the fourth studio album by singer and songwriter Tom Waits, released on September 21, 1976 on Asylum Records. It was recorded in July at the Wally Heider Recording Studio in Hollywood. Harry Bluestone, violin, concertmaster and strings, Jim Hughart, bass, Ed Lustgarten, cello, orchestra manager and strings, Shelly Manne, drums, Lew Tabackin, tenor saxophone, ...

Joni Jazz, Part 2

by Chuck Lenatti
November 25, 2025

Part 1 | Part 2 As a young woman growing up in Canada, Joni Mitchell was fond of American popular music and bought records whenever she could afford them. She would sometimes swap painting jobs for jazz albums. Among her favorite jazz artists were Duke Ellington and Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. She later recorded “Twisted" by Annie Ross and Wardell Gray and “Centerpiece" by Jon Hendricks and Harry Edison. She was also fascinated ...

Joni Jazz, Part 1

by Chuck Lenatti
November 7, 2025

Part 1 | Part 2 Born Roberta Joan Anderson on November 7, 1943, child of the Canadian Prairie, Joni Mitchell showed signs of becoming an artist at a young age. In Joni Mitchell in Her Own Words (ECW Press, 2014), a collection of conversations recorded over the years, musician and reporter Malka Marom wondered what inspired her friend's early urge to draw and paint. Mitchell said her obsession with art was triggered by watching ...