1 min read
“RHYTHM WAS HIS BUSINESS”: REMEMBERING KEN SALVO
Ken Salvo, the stalwart banjoist and guitarist of Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks and many other groups — in Chicago, New York, and Florida —
Tag : Awful Sad
1 min read
1 min read
MAGNIFICENCE: TOM BAKER PLAYS “WEST END BLUES” with MICHAEL SUPNICK, EVAN CHRISTOPHER, CHRIS HOPKINS, MARTIN WHEATLEY, TREVOR RICHARDS (Ascona, July 4, 2000)
There isn’t much that needs to be said about this performance of WEST END BLUES except to say that it is gorgeous — impassioned and exact —
3 min read
REMEMBERING KENNY (Part Three): Words by EDWARD MEYER. Music by KENNY DAVERN, WALLACE DAVENPORT, FREDDY LONZO, ORANGE KELLIN, OLIVIA COOK, FRANK FIELDS, FREDDIE KOHLMAN (Nice Jazz Festival, June 10, 1978)
Edward Meyer has written the definitive biography of Dick Wellstood, GIANT STRIDES: THE LEGACY OF DICK WELLSTOOD (1999), and an even more
2 min read
“GOOD OLD GOOD ONES” at MANASSAS: BILLY BUTTERFIELD, PEE WEE ERWIN, LARRY EANET, SPENCER CLARK, BUTCH HALL, PAUL LANGOSCH, BARRETT DEEMS (February 6, 1980)
Leopold Stokowski said, “There is no exhausted repertoire. There are only exhausted musicians.” It applies to the session you are about to
3 min read
“BADVERTISING”
You know, a true friend is one who will tell you your fly is unzipped or that you have something in your teeth. One stellar example is Eric Devine,
4 min read
EDDY DAVIS: IN MEMORY STILL GREEN (Scott Robinson, Conal Fowkes, Orange Kellin, Debbie Kennedy, Fernando Kfouri, The Cajun: March 29, 2006)
Scott Robinson wrote this elegy for Eddy Davis on April 8, 2020, and I couldn’t improve on it. I’ve just lost one of the dearest friends I’ve
4 min read
ART UNDER ATTACK: RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL JAM SESSION featuring GENE KRUPA, ROY ELDRIDGE, BOBBY HACKETT, VIC DICKENSON, BENNY CARTER, RED NORVO, BUD FREEMAN, TEDDY WILSON, JIM HALL, LARRY RIDLEY (July 3, 1972)
There is a good deal of history within and around the live performance you are about to hear. However, the sound is not ideal — which I will
6 min read
REMEMBERING KENNY (Part One): Words BY DANNY TOBIAS. Music by KENNY DAVERN’S SWINGIN’ KINGS: DICK WELLSTOOD, TOMMY SAUNDERS, BILL ALLRED, COUNTRY THOMAS, BUTCH HALL, VAN PERRY, EDDIE PHYFE (Manassas, December 2, 1979)
Over the past few months, I’ve been attempting to assemble a portrait, words and music, of Kenny Davern. He’s been the subject of an extensive
2 min read
FOUR HOPEFUL SERENADES IN THE FACE OF IMPENDING DARKNESS: McQUAID’S MELODIANS JUST BEFORE LOCKDOWN: MICHAEL McQUAID, ENRICO TOMASSO, DAVID HORNIBLOW, ANDREW OLIVER, THOMAS “SPATS” LANGHAM, LOUIS THOMAS, NICHOLAS D. BALL (“The Spice of Life,” March 16, 2020)
These four shining performances, and the context in which they were created, made me think of Samuel Beckett, “After all, when you are in the last
4 min read
IN PURSUIT OF THAT ELUSIVE QUANTITY, VERIFIABLE INFORMATION, or “CAN THE DEAD BE PROTECTED FROM STUPIDITY?”
I’m aware that there are far larger things to get annoyed about, and I am sure that my ire is both pointless and the result of forty years in
7 min read
“MEN AT WORK,” HOT LIPS PAGE, EARLY (and LOST) TELEVISION
The singular musician and personality Oran Thaddeus “Hot Lips” Page was born today, January 27, in 1908. Alas, he moved to another neighborhood
7 min read
“MEN AT WORK,” HOT LIPS PAGE, EARLY (and LOST) TELEVISION
The singular musician and personality Oran Thaddeus “Hot Lips” Page was born today, January 27, in 1908. Alas, he moved to another neighborhood
2 min read
DILL JONES LIVE IN WALES
When the Welsh jazz pianist and composer Dill Jones (born Dillwyn Owen Paton Jones) died far too young in 1984, the New York Times obituary was
1 min read
MELLOW TONES: BUCKY PIZZARELLI, RANDY NAPOLEON, FREDDY COLE, PAUL KELLER, ED METZ (Atlanta Jazz Party, April 25, 2014)
Sometimes what’s in the archives is there for a reason: imperfections; sometimes what’s been hidden is sublime. Case in point: this performance
2 min read
“JUST A GLANCE AT YOU”: EDDY DAVIS, CONAL FOWKES, JON-ERIK KELLSO, EVAN ARNTZEN (Cafe Bohemia, December 26, 2019)
It’s reassuring to think that romantic songs nearly ninety years old still have the power to move us. I know nothing about the composers of