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Article: Out and About: The Super Fans

Meet "Mr. Saturday Night" Joe France

by Tessa Souter and Andrea Wolper
November 4, 2016

Dubbed “Mr. Saturday Night" by jazz bassist Peter Washington, because for years he was unfailingly at the Village Vanguard every Saturday night, 87-year-old Super Fan, Joe France, has seen--and hung out with--them all: Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Jackie McLean. Nowadays, you'll mostly run into him--on Saturday nights, of course!--at Smoke ...

Article: Book Review

Whisper Not: The Autobiography Of Benny Golson

by Ian Patterson
September 20, 2016

Whisper Not Benny Golson and Jim Merod 335 Pages ISBN: 9781439913338 Temple University Press 2016 Philadelphia has always been a cradle for outstanding jazz talent, though when it comes to durability surely none can match Benny Golson, who began playing seventy years ago. At 87, Golson--an NEA Jazz ...

Article: Album Review

Roberto Magris: Need to Bring Out Love

Read "Need to Bring Out Love" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
April 5, 2016

Perhaps the best word with which to describe Italian-born pianist Roberto Magris is busy. Since launching his career in the late '70s, the fifty-six-year-old keyboardist has performed with a veritable who's who of jazz luminaries in forty-one countries, and Need to Bring Out Love is his twenty-seventh album as leader of his own groups (in this ...

Article: Album Review

Roberto Magris: Need to Bring Out Love

Read "Need to Bring Out Love" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
February 24, 2016

Italian jazz pianist and maestro Roberto Magris follows up his highly-regarded Enigmatix (JMood Records, 2015) with the sequel Need to Bring Out Love delivering the same type of modern-styled contemporary sound that made the first album, so enticing. Known as a proponent of the straight ahead mainstream side of jazz and a lover of the standards, ...

Article: Album Review

Nicolas Bearde: Invitation

Read "Invitation" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
January 18, 2016

A jewel always shines brightest when placed in just the right setting, and boy does this album emphasize that point. When Nicholas Bearde's soulful and affecting baritone sits atop these impeccably tailored arrangements of sterling standards, the results are absolutely stunning. With his four previous albums, the Bay Area-based Bearde has managed to ...

Article: Album Review

Marlene VerPlanck: The Mood I’m In

Read "The Mood I’m In" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
January 11, 2016

Marlene VerPlanck has been recording since 1955. In round numbers, that is 60 years. She is a natural singer in the same way that Frank Sinatra, Roseanna Vitro, and Lyn Stanley are natural singers... they open their respective mouths and music just comes out. And, at the far end of this career, VerPlanck sounds very good. ...

Article: Profile

Why the World Should Remember Wardell Gray

by Victor L. Schermer
December 7, 2015

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 [This article is a commentary to accompany All About Jazz interviews about Wardell Gray with filmmaker Abraham Ravett and biographer Richard Carter, all of which are intended to bring readers' attention to this outstanding but under-recognized tenor saxophonist whose brief career spanned the transition from swing ...

Article: Jazz Near Me

Sun and Stars at Montclair Jazz Festival

by Gloria Krolak
October 31, 2015

At the 2015 Montclair Jazz Festival, the sun broiled and the stars sparkled over some 6,000 jazz fans, that number announced by emcee Gary Walker, a popular WBGO radio on-air personality. Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor S. Epatha Merkerson, best known for her 17 seasons as Lieutenant Van Buren on NBC's “Law and Order," was ...

News: Video / DVD

Billy Eckstine and Vocal Groups

October 14, 2015

Billy Eckstine was a sex symbol in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The vocalist's movie-star looks and seductive baritone earned him a prominent place in magazines and jukeboxes, leaving black and white girls with a terrible crush on him. All were smitten by the tenderness and understanding in Eckstine's butterscotch voice. Today, Eckstine and the ...

Article: Album Review

Steve Washington: Right to Love

Read "Right to Love" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
August 21, 2015

Steve Washington is a versatile and personable singer, the kind you might hear in a lounge, bar or bistro and think to yourself, “Hey, he's pretty good." And he is. Pretty good, that is. On the other hand, he's not a singer whose name you're likely to see at the top of any charts, jazz or ...