Album Reviews

Jazz Classic of the Month: In the 1950s and ‘60s, most Dixieland bands enlisted one of their instrumentalists to also sing some numbers. Many were

The Secret Six is the latest hot jazz band to establish itself in New Orleans, joining in the top tier an exciting roster of groups

The personnel of the CD under review here, Just Genuine Jazz, is almost identical to that of a previous Upbeat Records issue by this same

Every once in a while, I hear an album that makes me fall in love with the piano all over again. Usually it’s a classic

Marilyn Nonken is a classical pianist known for playing some of the most challenging music of the 20th and 21st centuries. That Scott Joplin’s music

Woody Guthrie put a now famous copyright notice on his works: “This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright #154085, for a period

I must confess that, for the longest time, I thought of singing as music for people who couldn’t play anything. I naively put instruments in

In 1966, the Barroom Buzzards of Buffalo, New York, first came together as a Dixieland quartet comprised of banjoist Phil Santa Maria, clarinetist Paul Preston

He was one of the first jazz greats to emerge from New Orleans and become a national star, debuting on record on July 30, 1923,

Back in the 1990s, it was not uncommon for many cities to have their own neighborhood swing orchestra, playing the hits of the big band

Lara Downes is a classical pianist who, in addition to the traditional repertory, has been exploring unappreciated Black composers. While Scott Joplin can hardly be

This superb two-disc set honors drummer Arthur J. Singleton, known throughout the jazz world by the nickname “Zutty.” (Trevor Richards says in his liner notes,

His name may be largely forgotten today, but arranger Ralph Flanagan (1914-95) had no less than 21 hits during the 1949-53 period. Earlier he had

Andy Kirk (1898-1992), who played bass sax and tuba until the mid-1930s when he began to just wave a baton, never soloed, did not write

Charlie Halloran is a hard working trombonist central to the post-Katrina traditional jazz revival in New Orleans. He’s a long time member of the Shotgun

The question posed by this album is “What would the great cornetist Bix Beiderbecke have sounded like had he stopped ruining his health and abilities

George Girard (1930-57) could have been a big star but his life was tragically cut short by cancer. A technically skilled Dixieland/swing trumpeter with an

Zutty Singleton (1898-1975) was long overdue for a retrospective on CD. During 1924-69, he was on nearly 200 sessions. While most listeners probably think of

504 Records (named after the area code of New Orleans) was founded by Mike Dine in 1979. Dine was a jazz fan from England who

The current queen of jazz vocalists, Catherine Russell, is in full glorious form on her eighth album as leader. Her last release, Alone Together, received

Most readers of The Syncopated Times are familiar with clarinet/alto saxophonist Billy Novick from his long association with the New Black Eagle Jazz Band of

It was a short-term musical partnership but it helped to launch several major careers in the British trad jazz movement. Trombonist Chris Barber (1930-2021) had

A more impressive lineup could not be asked for. Five of the most technically proficient, creative, and expressive jazzmen working today appear together for the

The group that came to be known as the Secret Six (named after abolitionist John Brown’s Secret Society Of Six from 1859) originated during the

Have you noticed how, these days, even the movie trailers have trailers? When you tap the preview for an upcoming Hollywood blockbuster, you now get

Hadda Brooks (1916-2002), like Nat King Cole, had two careers in one. She began playing piano when she was four and was classically trained. Brooks

Guitarist Alex Belhaj is representative of the generation of musicians that have converged on New Orleans in the decade and a half since Hurricane Katrina

A major swing/mainstream cornetist from England, Digby Fairweather has had a busy and productive career since he began recording regularly in the mid-1970s. His style

In 1993, when he must have been quite young, Andy Farber met legendary vocalese originator Jon Hendricks and began a long collaboration that included writing

Ole “Fessor” Lindgreen, who turns 84 this year, is a veteran Danish trombonist and bandleader who has played Dixieland, swing, blues, and rhythm & blues

Mosaic box sets are always highly recommended to lovers of the artist’s music, but unfortunately their impeccable compilations are only in-print for a limited period

As the world emerged from the Great Depression in the 1930s and the outbreak of WWII was looming, in jazz music swing was the thing,

James P. Johnson, along with Jelly Roll Morton, was the first significant jazz pianist and a major figure in moving jazz piano beyond ragtime. Johnson

Back in the spring of 2020, before most of the world knew what was about to hit it, a French five-piece was putting the finishing

Remember going to the movies on Saturdays and seeing cliffhanger serials? These were sometimes sandwiched between a double-feature Western. I doubt I ever saw a

The Upbeat label has proven to be the perfect home for the many recordings organized and produced by the late trombonist Big Bill Bissonnette for

Sometimes you want something a bit different—a fresh take, a quirky arrangement, an original number. Other times you just want a solid classic done well.

Dave Davies shines as one of Ithaca’s most talented and most versatile musicians. In recent years, he’s best known for his work with the Gypsy

Just occasionally, a piece of music makes you go, “Wait, what?” This was my reaction on first spinning Egyptian Ella by Les Bleu Pelouse. The

A member of one of the greatest jazz vocal groups ever, the Boswell Sisters, Connee Boswell (with one early exception) began recording as a single

Jazz And Swing On Screen is the fifth release on the Upbeat label for the London Swing Orchestra. It was preceded by The Roaring Twenties,

There were quite a few “gaspipe” clarinetists who during the 1920s were popular for a time. Those musicians emphasized odd sounds and novelty effects, whether

I have a bit of an infatuation with Martha Raye. Born in 1916, “The Big Mouth” was a vaudeville child star before appearing in the

Clarinetist George Lewis, trumpeter Kid Howard, and trombonist Jim Robinson made for a potent frontline, one that was featured on some of Lewis’ best-known records.

While his name is barely known in the United States and even many jazz fans in England may not be that familiar with him, pianist-bandleader

It has recently come to our attention—and it may be news to others—that the Golden Record created to accompany the Voyager space probe missions with

Miss Maybell (AKA Lauren Sansaricq) has pursued an old timey musical bug for years but matched with virtuoso pianist Charlie Judkins she has found something

With this double CD, Kit Johnson and the Black Swan Classic Jazz Band are on solid ground by aiming the contents at dancers, as is

Over the three-and-some decades of its existence, Michael Law’s Piccadilly Dance Orchestra has recorded eight full-length albums. That may not sound like much, until you

The last two years have made the world smaller, remarkably smaller. The technology to record remotely has matured to the point where remote records are

Back in 2018 I devoted a full column of reviews to albums from female led jazz bands. It was in that search that I discovered

Standing at some six feet five inches and weighing around 250 lbs, Frank “Big Boy” Goudie (pronounced “Goody”) was an imposing figure on the bandstand,

We’ve covered a number of artists in the last several years who have recorded to wax cylinder, usually under the guiding eye of Colin Hancock.

In case someone isn’t familiar with the term, “Backwards Compatible” refers to the ability of a new technology to use material from its predecessor. A

In 2014, pianist Jacob Adams ran across a book of rags (Eight Ragtime Pieces For Piano) by veteran Larry Porter that instantly intrigued him. Porter’s

As I write this, I’m lying in bed with a banging headache, running a temperature. Listening to this album through headphones made the headache worse—no

A beloved patron of ragtime who not only attends ragtime festivals but hosts many of the pianists at his home in Sutter Creek, California, Arlo

The mystery I go on about below has been solved. Their 2021 album, just released, reveals all.  I was wrong, as usual, about just about

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: I have a soft spot for jazz in a Continental accent. And by that I mean

Fools for Yule is a wonderful Christmas record from the Uptown Vocal Jazz Quartet, a remarkable team of vocalists accompanied here by an excellent band.

During the swing era in the 1930s, it became a common practice for the best big bands, for variety’s sake and to the delight of

George Wein (1925-2021) will always be best remembered for being the founder of the Newport Jazz Festival and many other significant annual jazz events, but

I’m pretty sure that my desert island disc would be a Louis Jordan one, possibly his collaboration with Chris Barber titled Louis Jordan Swings! Jordan’s

Big Boy Goudie’s life and career were fully explored in a definitive article by David Radlauer that appeared in three issues of the Syncopated Times

The late English trombonist and bandleader Chris Barber was known but not a star performer in the US. On the other hand, he and his

Ethan Leinwand is an important part of the traditional jazz scene in St. Louis, a scene marked by its youth and a number of excellent

Adam Swanson introduces his new release Ragtime Australia! Twenty never before recorded works by Australian composers of the ragtime era (1902-1943) as if it was

On Let’s Face The Music, drummer Reinhardt Winkler heads a trio with pianist John DiMartino and bassist Boris Kozlov, adding tenor-saxophonist Harry Allen to five

Geoff Power is well known within the Australian Traditional Jazz community. He toured the US with the New Wolverine Jazz Orchestra and appeared at the

I first heard trumpeter Danny Tobias when he was playing a supportive but important role with the Midiri Brothers’ Sextet. A pro since he was