I’ve surprised many friends over the years by saying that Cindy Scott’s debut album from 2002, Major to Minor, is my favorite album by a local woman singer. This is problematic for some, since 1) Scott is not from here and 2) her back-up band on this album is from Houston.
Scott’s second disc, the locally [...]
Larry Sieberth has been an ace sideman on the local modern jazz scene for decades, rarely drawing attention to himself despite consistently tasty work. In recent years he’s been plumbing traditional jazz waters, most notably with banjoist Don Vappie, and now we have this album of traditional solo piano. All cuts here are from the [...]
Drummer Monk Hazel gazes forlornly from the cover of this reissue, pants hiked up to his dadderies, with a luscious silk tie. The sepia-toned photo emphasizes the long-ago vibe.
In 2009 New Orleans, the steadily-working seven-piece Dixieland band such as Monk’s is extinct. No place can afford it, and trad jazz lovers are scratching their heads [...]
Among the more interesting items in George Buck’s massive catalogue of classic jazz are a good number of recordings of the founders of boogie-woogie. Local pianist Lars Edegran has combed the files to help issue a collection which will appeal to the newcomer to boogie as well as the veteran listener scavenging for rarities.
The great [...]
With his daytime gig on the Steamboat Natchez ended by Katrina, trumpeter Duke Heitger has been hard to hear in New Orleans. His latest CD, Doin’ the Voom Voom, shows that he hasn’t stopped growing as a player. Recorded in a church in Bavaria, it is one of those rare trad jazz albums with an [...]
“The Lion” was one of the founders of the stride piano idiom along with Fats Waller and James P. Johnson,, and Don Ewell was the greatest pianist of the New Orleans jazz revival. That makes the album promising, but it’s unfortunate that this album of never-released duets from l966 cannot be recommended. Two-pianist records must [...]
Bad news first: Randy Newman’s latest has only 30 minutes of new material. Perhaps Nonesuch, his record label, applied pressure to produce something new three years after signing him (his previous Nonesuch effort was the retrospective Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 1). Newman has never been prolific, but almost all his work is memorable.
Harps and Angels [...]
Were it not for his innate modesty, pianist Michael Pellera would be much more acclaimed on the New Orleans music scene. Not that he’s doing badly. He has had a regular gig at the Windsor Court Hotel for many years, he leads the jazz department at NOCCA, and he regularly accompanies local stalwarts including Phillip [...]
Most of the musicians on this latest Serenaders disc have been practicing and playing New Orleans jazz for 45 years. Pianist Butch Thompson talks in the liner notes about meeting trumpeter/leader Clive Wilson and clarinetist Tommy Sancton at Preservation Hall in the ’60s, when they were youngsters rabidly soaking up the sounds.
Surely the players here [...]
Four years ago the writer and musician Ned Sublette published his first book, the magnificent Cuba and Its Music. This work single-handedly changed my view, for instance, to the Cuban origins of many rhythms I’d never attributed to that island.
Sublette’s sophomore effort is equally enlightening, though more sobering. The World That Made New Orleans, deals [...]
