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Article: Liner Notes

Joel Weiskopf: New Beginning

by C. Andrew Hovan
February 21, 2024

For better or worse, it seems that any artistic endeavor that involves the true expression of raw human experience and emotion is destined to have appeal to only a small and select audience. This dilemma becomes even more daunting for the artist in today's technology-laden society where electronic communication has taken the place of face-to-face conversation. ...

Article: Liner Notes

Tim Warfield: One For Shirley

by C. Andrew Hovan
February 20, 2024

Jimmy Smith and Larry Young have continually set the benchmark for creative endeavors involving jazz and the Hammond B-3 organ, Smith being acknowledged for bringing the technical virtuosity of be-bop to the instrument and Young for expanding the vernacular based on the forward-thinking implications of John Coltrane. Somewhere in between these two, a colorful range of ...

Article: Liner Notes

John Swana: Philly Gumbo Vol.2

by C. Andrew Hovan
February 19, 2024

It seems like a lot of up and coming trumpeters these days go for the bop stylings of Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw as their main influence. Far fewer look to players like Art Farmer or Kenny Wheeler for inspiration. That's what has made watching the development of Philadelphia trumpet man John Swana so fascinating over ...

Article: Liner Notes

John Swana: Philly Gumbo

by C. Andrew Hovan
February 15, 2024

It seems like a case of the big fish swimming in a small pond. So while Philadelphia native John Swana currently chooses to make his home in the city of Brotherly Love, it's clearly evident that this world-class musician could succeed easily in the Big Apple, the undisputed center of jazz activity in America. Taking up ...

Article: Liner Notes

One For All: Live at Smoke Vol.1

by C. Andrew Hovan
February 13, 2024

Aside from the musical fireworks that make the enclosed sides noteworthy, there are additional factors that mark Live at Smoke as a major event. For one thing, this “on location" recording is one of the rare live dates to grace the Criss Cross catalog. Furthermore, it serves as a perfect summation up to this point of ...

Article: Liner Notes

Joe Magnarelli: Hoop Dreams

by C. Andrew Hovan
January 8, 2024

As Duke Ellington would often remind us, music comes in two varieties, that which is good and that which is bad. This suggests that genre and category are really of little concern and that overall quality is really the defining factor in considering the validity of any musical expression. Taking this axiom one step further, let ...

Album

What the World Needs Now

By JD Walter

Label: Arkadia Records
Released: 2023
Track listing: Golden Lady; I Was Telling Her About You; What the World Needs Now; Dressed In A Song; Beautiful Moons Ago; Tell Her I Said Hello; And I Love Her; Keisha’s Coy; It Never Entered My Mind; Now It’s Time To Go.

Article: Book Review

Philadelphia Jazz

by Victor L. Schermer
May 27, 2023

Philadelphia Jazz Suzanne Cloud and Diane Turner 127 pages ISBN 978-1-4671-0784-6 Images of America Arcadia Publishing 2022 Philadelphia longs to be known as a jazz town, a city distinguished by its major contribution to the jazz legacy. There is a good ...

Album

News

By Tim Brey

Label: Self Produced
Released: 2022
Track listing: Commodification; News; Here or There; There's a Lull in my Life; Ask Me Later; Pensativa; There Stands the Glass; Dreamsville

Article: Interview

Joey DeFrancesco: From Musical Prodigy to Jazz Icon

by Victor L. Schermer
May 29, 2019

Joey DeFrancesco is a true master of the jazz organ, the one others look up to as the standard bearer, as was his inspirational hero, Jimmy Smith. Arguably, he could be dubbed the Mozart of the jazz organ, since like Mozart, he seemed to have been born with all the music already in him. By four, ...