Browse the October Issue

Nothin’ Like A Fine Bix Festival

The Big Spider Back—I mean Bix Beiderbecke—Jazz Festival took off on August 1st through 3rd, congregating enthusiastic folks back to Davenport, Iowa, including my mum

Art of the Duet: Addendum

While perusing the recent Syncopated Times article “Art of the Duet” (TST, August 2024) about jazz duet albums recorded over the years, some reader is

Jazz National Park

Texas Shout #66 Government Subsidies

Set forth below is the sixty-sixth “Texas Shout” column. The concluding installment of a two-part essay (part 1), it first appeared in the October 1995

Charlie Judkins and Lauren Sansaricq

Lauren Sansaricq and Charlie Judkins

My bassist-tubist friend Brian Nalepka put me wise to the quintet Miss Maybell and the Jazz Age Artistes and suggested they’d be a good fit

From the 2024 Bix Fest

For the eleventh year in a row, I traveled to Davenport, Iowa for the Bix Beiderbecke Jazz Festival. This makes about 15 Bixes that I

Lionel Hampton: Profiles in Jazz, Pt. 1

Lionel Hampton, the first significant jazz vibraphonist in history, was a one-of-a-kind entertainer. He would do almost anything to excite audiences and it was impossible

Erskine Hawkins: Profiles in Jazz

He was billed as “the 20th Century Gabriel” because of his high-note work and flamboyant solos. Very popular during his heyday and the leader of

Fun & Music a Mile High in Prescott!

The City of Prescott, Arizona, held its 23rd annual event mostly at the Hassayampa Inn, an historic hotel near the Old Square in the heart

It’s Too Darn Hot!

It may be hot outside but it is more than “cool” at our local jazz club, The Century Room in downtown’s Hotel Congress! The Mysterious

Another Tucson-NOLA Connection

With all of the great musicians playing at Tucson’s Century Room for the past two years, a hometown trumpeter/vocalist was showcased earlier this month. James

Justin Ring and the Phonograph Scholars

Studying history often comes with an inevitable fact that we will never be able to communicate with the people we are interested in. As frustrating

‘Hello Mudduh, Hello Fadduh!’

How I wish I could fact check with a time machine! As with many formative strong childhood memories, music swirls in and out of the

The Lost Hook Tapes

It really is a waiting game based on luck and endurance. I am banking on the idea that if you stick to your artistic career

Birthday Blues

“Everything happens for the best” Does it really? In a continuation of last month’s theme of reality being how we perceive it, perhaps the better

The Odd Brilliance of P.T. Stanton

Horn player P.T. Stanton was a creative, original and mysterious musician who left his signature on the second wave of the Great San Francisco Jazz

Ain’t No Wrong Notes in Jazz

It is easy to be impressed by jazz musicians… if you are not one yourself. We are, after all, an impressive bunch. And I know

Bad Moon Rising

Jazz musicians are a mischievous bunch. I doubt that’s a surprise to any of you, as the history books are filled with stories of pranks

The New Syllabus

There’s been a lot made in the news in recent times about systemic issues in our education system. As I understand it, there seems to

Fifty Years Later, Here We Are!

We got old. Fifty years added to our twenties, thirties, and forties in 1974 equals old for those who have managed to survive. And. for

Helen Traubel Defends Popular Music

My grandmother used to say she couldn’t see because she had Cadillacs in front of her eyes. Well, it must be genetic because I’ve gone

George French

Bassist/vocalist George French has died at age 80. He was part of the prominent New Orleans musical family. His father was Albert “Papa” French, longtime

Graham Lyons

The British multi-instrumentalist Graham Lyons died on September 4th, he was 87. He released a 7” single, Jazz Bassoon, in 1967 and recorded with The

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