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Terry 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 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 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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