joe venuti

1 min read 2021-04-14 19:40:27

HOT NOTES TO YOU: JOE VENUTI’S BLUE FOUR at CARNEGIE HALL (Friday, June 27, 1975)

I believe I was in the second row for this, the first concert of the 1975 Newport Jazz Festival in New York (its fourth in this city and its

2 min read 2021-04-12 23:53:58

The quotation is attributed to Teddy Roosevelt, who might not have expected it to emerge in this context, but it fits perfectly. And since “T.R.”

2 min read 2021-03-19 02:41:57

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 2020-12-21 00:20:15

I first encountered Andy MacDonald on Facebook — a shy but amiable presence who liked my postings. We had similar tastes, so we actually had a

3 min read 2020-10-04 07:18:48

In front, Bobby Hackett, Louis Armstrong, George Wein; behind them, Joe Newman, Dizzy Gillespie — at the July 1970 celebration of Louis at the

5 min read 2020-05-29 02:24:08

Adrian Rollini has been gone from us for nearly sixty-five years, but his imagination, his huge sound, his virtuosity lives on. He has been

3 min read 2020-05-17 11:49:56

Zoot, riding the range. The splendid people at jgautographs (on eBay) have reached into the apparently bottomless treasure chest and come up with an

2 min read 2019-09-27 22:25:33

Bob Wilber with the superb drummer Bernard Flegar, after their gig in Bülach, Switzerland, June 11th 2005. Once again, it is my great privilege to

6 min read 2019-09-12 04:46:04

This post is for my dear friend, the fine young trombonist Joe McDonough, who worships at the Teagarden shrine. A few days ago, I began to collect