Bill O’Connell Latin Jazz Project, Black Sand (Random Chance Records)

Various Artists, Jazz Memories: Music of the Jazz Masters (Gravity Limited/Innerhythmic)

Muhammad Comes Home

Great drumming ruled February. A predominant cause for this excess in a city blessed with a superb rhythmic tradition was the homecoming of Idris Muhammad. While the internationally acclaimed drummer […]

New Orleans Spice, Parade of Classics (DHMP Records)

John Boudreaux, Past, Present, and Future (Uptown Rulers, D.T. Record Company)

Best of the Beat Heartbeat Award: Harold Battiste

Ahmad Jamal, Olympia 2000 (Birdology/Dreyfus Jazz)

Jane Monheit

Jane Monheit is the hottest new entry to today’s already sizzling vocal jazz scene. With remarkable speed, the 24-year-old Long Island singer ascended from studying with Peter Eldridge at the […]

There’s Something About Harry

Harry Connick, Jr., is beginning to sound a bit like fellow New Orleans jazz superstar Wynton Marsalis. No, not in his approach to the music—the pianist’s and trumpeter’s styles widely differ. Nor does Connick share Marsalis’ propensity for spouting encyclopedic knowledge and the philosophy of jazz (which, by the way, Connick imitated so hilariously during last summer’s tribute concert to Ellis Marsalis). It is that Connick and Marsalis are such workhorses, involving themselves in a multitude of diverse projects seemingly simultaneously.

Jazz Daredevils

I am still reeling at the incredible amount of excellent jazz I’ve heard in the last several weeks. This bombardment derives from numerous fronts. First, New Orleans boasts an incredibly […]