Contemporary soul blues releases usually come out of the deep South via Malaco Records. Over the past two decades the Jackson, Miss., label has revived the careers of Bobby Blue Bland, Johnnie Taylor, Little Milton Campbell and Dorothy Moore. But local fans of music that fires up the blues with soulful singing, bright horns and […]
Roberta Penn
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As the Crow Flies
Singer-songwriter and guitarist Chris Smither can seem Zen-like at times, rolling through his song “Link of Chain” with only constant change as an anchor. At other moments he’s a hardcore realist, building fences to protect himself emotionally on “No Love Today.” Smither also has a devilish side–poking fun at serenity-seekers on “Mail Order Mystic” or […]
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Jean-Paul Bourelly & Bill Frisell
In the kingdom of Ken Burns’ Jazz, the traditionalist rules. But out along the fringes of this fiefdom, the individualists toil along, creating improvised music from commitment to the art form rather than out of nostalgia for its past. Two such players are guitarists Bill Frisell and Jean-Paul Bourelly. And though they can’t compete with […]
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James Carter
One of the new breed of jazz players who is trained in classical music, saxophonist James Carter has shown promise for the past decade. Whether on the bandstand with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Betty Carter and Kathleen Battle or leading his own ensembles in the recording studio, the Detroit native may have caught your […]
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Those jazz things
Guitarist Charlie Hunter is riding high the day after his concert at the Knitting Factory, the New York City club that provided the early ’80s birthing room for the alt-jazz movement. It was the Knit’s kickoff show of this year’s Bell Atlantic Jazz Festival and Hunter’s first performance with his touring trio–percussionist Stephen Chopek and […]
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Guitar goddess
The big-boned gal with strawberry-blonde hair arrived by bike at my moving-from-Seattle-to-the-sunny-South sale. Dressed like a trailer-trash gypsy–part exotic, part quixotic and just a touch tacky–she perused the plants, books, CDs and discarded clothing (most of which would have fit her style perfectly), finally settling on a piece of my mother’s old furniture. But how […]
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Spirituals to Swing
While the Berlin Wall has fallen and what was known as Russia is in shambles, communism had its say big-time in bringing African-American music into the American mainstream. In 1938, record and concert producer John Hammond couldn’t find a sponsor for his integrated concert of jazz, blues, dixieland, gospel and folk artists at Carnegie Hall. […]