Community Blog Posts
Staffa and Mendelssohn
By Martin McFie
September 1, 2026
195 views
The Isle of Staffa is an uninhabited nature reserve off the West Coast of Scotland. It was formed sixty million years ago by volcanic activity, the same activity that formed the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland. Upright hexagonal basalt pillars formed in the cooling process. It's difficult to get to Staffa. It requires two crossings of sea swells, often driven by wind and waves coming directly across the Atlantic Ocean. The first crossing went well. Caledonian MacBrayne's “Isle ...
read moreWhere Is The Jazz?
By Scott Shrewsberry
September 13, 2024
1,136 views
Envy!!! One of the Seven Deadly Sins... and I'm totally guilty of it. Yep. I'm so envious of folks that live in or around New York City, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Chicago, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Boston, and Kansas City that I can't stand it. Anywhere that has a thriving jazz scene must be like heaven on Earth, right? I mean, how great would it be to just be able to run down to the Village Vanguard on a ...
read moreEast Coast Jazz Party: 2013-2015
By Kenneth A. Cobb
November 16, 2021
800 views
The following is an excerpt from “Introduction" of New York City Jazz Chronicles: June 2013--December 2015 by Kenneth A. Cobb (KAC Books, 2018). I've recently come to realize that my Jazz (ad)ventures, or 'trilogy' if you will, wouldn't be complete without including what I've been doing since returning east in June 2013. Well, I'll have you know that I didn't let up on the proverbial gas pedal and was fortunate enough to catch nearly 500 Jazz performances in ...
read more2020 is the Year of the Jazz Guitar Album
By Robert Middleton
October 13, 2020
15,920 views
One of the categories of jazz I love most is modern jazz guitar. And 2020 has been a banner year with more releases in this category than any year in memory by some of the finest guitarists in the world. This playlist has now expanded to more than 20 albums. And what makes this an amazing year for jazz guitar is that I rate all of these albums from good to great. I won't ...
read morePlaying With Playlists
By Robert Middleton
October 12, 2020
1,408 views
Some years in jazz are famous. Most notably was 1959 when some of the most groundbreaking albums of all time were released such as Kind of Blue, The Shape of Jazz to Come, Mingus Ah Hum, Time Out, and Giant Steps. But I don't own just those, I own 61 albums that were released in 1959—albums by Sun Rapiano1914 - 1993" data-original-title="" title="">Sun Ra, Art Peppersaxophone, alto1925 - 1982" data-original-title="" title="">Art Pepper, Bill Evanspiano1929 - 1980" data-original-title="" title="">Bill ...
read more
