Articles by Daniel Kassell
Second “Louie” Awards Gala: New York, NY, December 4, 2012
by Daniel Kassell
Louis Armstrong House Museum 2012 GalaThe Manhattan PenthouseNew York, NYDecember 4, 2012While waiting their turn to play as the Louis Armstrong Centennial Band, trumpeter/vocalist Bria Skonberg, clarinetist Anat Cohen, trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, banjoist James Chirillo, tubaist David Ostwald and drummer Marion Felder enjoyed a great meal before the Second Annual Louis Armstrong House Museum Gala on December 4, 2012 on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue. MC Michael Cogswell--21-year Director of the Museum and a former musician--recognized everyone ...
read moreDid Les Lieber Play Jazz at Noon for the Last Time?
by Daniel Kassell
Les Lieber and Friends Jazz at NoonThe Players New York, NYJune 3, 2011 At age 99,Les Lieber was feted with lots of applause at The Players in New York City's Gramercy Park, because of a May 5, 2011 feature article by Corey Kilgannon in the New York Times, featuring the alto saxophonist opening “Stardust" a capella, in the soundscape and style of his youth (about 1932). Swinging electric guitarist Bill Wurtzel, ...
read moreLest We Forget: Remembering Myrna Lake at the Lenox Lounge 2006
by Daniel Kassell
In his All About Jazz review of Yesterdays (Jazzing Music, 2008), Samuel Chell described singer Myrna Lake's recording as “an exploration of the power of memory itself, a musical narrative yielding the discovery that memory, like the songs that are eventually designated standards, is a moment in the present, an instant distinguished by heightened awareness and relived, powerful emotion." Remembering the legendary Myrna Lake, who died last November from complications of heart disease, I recall her performance ...
read moreLove Songs by Champian Fulton
by Daniel Kassell
The Champian Fulton TrioBirdlandNew York City, USADecember 16, 2010“Please welcome Champian Fulton," Birdland's proprietor, John Valente, announced at six o'clock on Thursday night, December 16th, 2010. Why the unusual early start time? Hush, hush, Fulton had arranged to showcase her trio for Palmetto Records. Opening with “No One Loves Me, Exactly Like You," and Cole Porter's “If It's All Right with You," with its startling change in tempo, there's was no doubt: she's ...
read moreWhere the Dark and the Light Folks Meet
by Daniel Kassell
Where the Dark and the Light Folks Meet Randall Sandke Hardcover; 288 pages ISBN: 0-8108-6652-8 Scarecrow Press 2010In Where the Dark and the Light Folks Meet, musician and author Randall Sandke tackles the stubborn and controversial question of whether jazz is the product of an insulated African-American environment, shut off from the rest of society by strictures of segregation and discrimination; or whether it is more properly understood ...
read moreLee Konitz Quartet: Spontaneous Improvisation
by Daniel Kassell
Lee Konitz QuartetJazz Legacy SeriesCreole Music Supper ClubNew York, NYMarch 21, 2009
For two nights Lee Konitz was improvising at Creole Restaurant, Third Avenue at 116th Street in Harlem's Barrio. On the Saturday, March 21st 10pm show Mickey Bass introduced the Quartet as part of his Brownstone Entertainment Complex's Jazz Legacy Series, beginning with a joke not worth repeating. Mr. Konitz responded by telling one of his own about a guy at a ...
read moreSidney Bechet Society Concert with Evan Christopher, NYC
by Daniel Kassell
Creole a la Django Thalia Theater, Symphony SpaceNew York City September 15, 2008
It is unusual for the clarinet, the smallest and hardest-to hear-instrument in a jazz ensemble, to be in the forefront. But Evan Christopher has brought the musical stick front and center in the various sized ensembles he has led in New Orleans and Paris.
Sidney Bechet, one of jazz history's most forceful clarinetists, had few rivals and was ...
read moreVince Giordano and the Nighthawks at Club Cache, NYC
by Daniel Kassell
Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks Club Cache at Sofia's Restaurant, Edison Hotel (downstairs) New York City May 5, 2008
Sofia's Restaurant, Club Cache at 221 W. 46th Street, NYC last saw music of this ilk--improvised jazz instrumentalists favoring the swing-jazz rhythms of the 1920s and 1930s--so many years ago in this room downstairs under the Edison Hotel hardly anyone remembers. Vince Giordano and his Nighthawks Orchestra will attempt to revive a midtown New York ...
read moreJazz at Lincoln Center: "Is Jazz Black Music?"
by Daniel Kassell
Lewis Porter, Moderator; with Don Byron, Daniel Carter and Nat Hentoff Jazz Talk: Is Jazz Black Music? Irene Diamond Education Center New York, New YorkJanuary 31, 2008
Is Jazz Black Music? “Where does jazz come from, to whom does it belong and is this important?" The program, advertised as a “Jazz Talk" by Jazz at Lincoln Center (now on Columbus Circle), polarized some and infuriated many attendees. Moderator Lewis Porter, a professor of ...
read moreNnenna Freelon and Evidence Dance Celebrate Lady Day at Apollo Premiere
by Daniel Kassell
Nnenna Freelon, Ronald K. Brown and Evidence Dance Company The Blueprint of a Lady Apollo Theater, NYC November 10, 2007
Subtitled “The Once and Future Life of Billie Holiday," a concept of vocalist Nnenna Freelon in collaboration with choreographer-dancer Ronald K. Brown and his Evidence Dance Company, the occasion was introduced by Jonelle Procope, President of the Apollo Foundation, as the “the first Art & Soul presentation of The Apollo Performing Arts Series.
read more
Giveaway
Days remaining: 6
