Album Reviews

St. Louis has deep roots in American musical history. It was the cradle of classic ragtime and a destination city for jazz age riverboats. During

Nat King Cole’s centennial was March 17, resulting in many tribute albums being released this year. However, good as some of those homages are, none

Trombonist Chris Barber formed his first band in 1949 and retired in August 2019. The Big Chris Barber Band will carry on, and continue to

Highly skilled trios are common enough playing advanced swing or thoughtful chamber jazz and the members of Three Blind Mice are certainly capable of both.

Banjoist Eric Silk may be somewhat forgotten today but during 1955-58 he and his Southern Jazz Band recorded 32 songs for the British Esquire label;

The Revisionists’ debut album captures a classic vocal swing sound you wouldn’t think possible. Like an early 50s Anita O’Day lp that becomes a house

Clarinetist Acker Bilk (1929-2014) will always be best remembered by the general public for his 1962 hit “Stranger On The Shore” which featured his low-register

Trombonist Roger Marks has been a fixture in the British trad/swing scene since at least the late 1970s when he worked with cornetist Rod Mason’s

Back in the early 1970s, small-group swing appeared to be dying a slow death. The survivors of the swing era who had continued to make

Always very industrious, Irving Mills was not only Duke Ellington’s manager (also managing Cab Calloway, Fletcher Henderson and the Mills Blue Rhythm Band), a music

I had the wrong idea about the Ulysses Jasz Band. When I popped in their album I was expecting a hot West Coast style band.

Syncopated Times readers will remember Svetlana from her hot band The Delancy Five, who are a staple of the New York traditional jazz scene and

If you’ve heard even 30 seconds of this album you’ve probably already run off to buy it. Every moment of this record is chillingly good

(Jazz Classic of the Month) Art Tatum was amazing. Arguably the greatest musician to ever perform jazz, Tatum could play piano with blinding speed and

Carl Sonny Leyland is well known in the U.S. as a powerful blues, boogie-woogie, and stride pianist as well as being a fine blues singer.

Neville Dickie, one of the top stride and boogie-woogie pianists of the past 50 years, has led at least 28 albums since 1966, having a

The Bunk Johnson Story would make for a fascinating movie. Born around 1889 (he claimed it was 1879 so he could say that he had

British bandleader-trombonist Chris Barber was very fortunate to have two great clarinetists in his band for extended periods: Monty Sunshine (1953-60) and Ian Wheeler (1961-68).

Trumpeter Ken Colyer (1928-88) always fought for what he believed in. From the start, he loved ensemble-oriented New Orleans jazz, and he never really veered

Imagine visiting a friend who owns a huge 78 collection, and enjoying an evening discussing music and life with him while your friend pulls out

The latest Shake-em-Up Jazz Band CD, The Boy In The Boat, was released just prior to their second European tour which included Brittany, France; Herrang,

Pete Allen, who plays most of the reeds but is best known as a clarinetist, first recorded with his brother banjoist Bernie Allen’s group in

Joe Licari has been a top clarinetist for over 60 years although widespread fame seems to have eluded him. How many musicians still on the

Since he burst upon the national jazz scene in the mid-1970s, tenor-saxophonist Scott Hamilton has been remarkably consistent. A world-class player from the start, he

Larger groups of musicians appearing under a shared name in different places are nothing new to jazz. It goes back at least as far as

Tex Rubinowitz and Bob Newscaster’s Original Dixieland Rock ‘N’ Roll Band is the result of an idea nurtured over twenty years. Tex was a superstar

Patrick von Wiegandt is a whirlwind. You’ll spot him in Hollywood, then London, then Hawaii, then New York, and everywhere he lands he seems to

I complain about my commutes a lot and tonight is no exception as the combination of a downpour and early getaway Jersey Shore traffic put

In an era when many review copies come as downloads, or even streaming links, I was overjoyed to receive an exceptionally packaged LP with equally

Two complementary musicians with distinct approaches to career “rendezvous in a Manhattan apartment” and record spontaneous arrangements of American Songbook material. Grand piano and snare

With the popularity of Dixieland throughout the 1950s, there were occasional attempts to “update” the music and place the repertoire in a different setting. A

Vic Lewis (1919-2009) had his life changed when he first heard the music of Stan Kenton. From then on, he led modern jazz bands in

Johnny Guarnieri Plays Harry Warren is a single CD that has been reissued as a companion to the wonderful Guarnieri biography, Superstride by Derek Coller

Big Bill Bissonnette (1937-2018) made a major contribution to New Orleans revival jazz. In addition to being a fine trombonist most inspired by his idol

V-Discs (short for “Victory Discs”) hold a unique place in music history. During 1943-49, special recording sessions were held to produce 78s that were specifically

Trumpeter Frankie Newton (1906-54) receives career spanning treatment in his own three-CD set from the Acrobat label which has excellent liner notes by Paul Watts.

The Mad Hat Hucksters are a cornerstone of the Swing Dance scene in San Diego and they’ve recently begun to appear at many of the

This extended performance goes off in unimagined, jaw-dropping directions as McDermott creates a new masterpiece from Joplin’s greatest classic.

The Complete Morton Project refers not to the completeness of this particular album but to the lofty goal of its participants to learn and record

He was Great Britain’s first major jazz star. Trumpeter-singer Nat Gonella (1908-98) could be thought of as the British Louis Armstrong since Satch was his

It all began late last spring after singer Ellynne Rey experienced a spate of unusual “life” bird sightings as well as striking rarities such as

Ricky Alexander is the quintessential New York jazzman of the twenty-teens. After being exposed to civic and legacy bands while growing up in the DC

Last August I highlighted albums from several hot young jazz groups in Europe. I took special notice of The Dizzy Birds, a group that I

The Wolverine Jazz band has been providing hot traditional jazz all over the North East and at festivals nationwide for almost 25 years. They’ve maintained

A veteran of the New York City Jazz scene known for taking deep dives into the American Songbook Daryl Sherman delivers on her latest album,

Producer John Hammond was always a major proponent of integration and of recognizing the greatness of the top African-American jazz artists. While still in his

It is felt by many that when one plays a rag, the pianist should stick exactly to the written music, treating it as if it

Trumpeter Danny Tobias is perhaps best-known for his association with the Midiri Brothers Sextet, but he has also led his own groups and worked with

The British Lake label, which has done an admirable job of reissuing and repackaging British traditional jazz from 1950-65 along with putting out newly recorded

One of the best known of the early traditional New Orleans brass bands was the Eureka Brass Band. Founded around 1920 by trumpeter Willie Wilson,

The GHB/Jazzology collection of labels includes Paramount. While Paramount is primarily known for its large assortment of classic and country blues recordings, it also documented

COMES LOVE by Eli and the Chocolate Factory Featuring Tamar KornIn America, the name Eli is typically pronounced (E-lie), in much of the rest of

Nirav Sanghani pulled in an all-star crew for his first release with his Pacific Six. Clint Baker is on trombone for the opening track and

Frog and Henry are the most interesting of several cooperative bands with fluid lineups coming together around a musical idea. In their case, that idea

Established in 2014, this woke young collective of jovial jazz players achieved regional success touring two albums around Scandinavia. But their urge to change the

Though they have only been performing together since last fall the duo of Miss Maybell (Lauren Sansaricq) and Charlie Judkins share a groove that is

Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy is arguably Satch’s finest recording of the 1950s. At the time, the Louis Armstrong All-Stars included trombonist Trummy Young, clarinetist

George Buck (1928-2013) had quite a career as the head of GHB and Jazzology Records (both of which he founded) and other labels such as

In 2014, during the festival season in New Orleans, cornetist Jamie Wight invited some of his favorite musicians who were in town to do some

For 42 years Rich Conaty, who passed away near the end of 2016, delighted in playing rare recordings from the 1920s and ‘30s on his

Jimmie Noone (1895-1944) was one of the great clarinetists to emerge from New Orleans. Compared to Sidney Bechet and Johnny Dodds, Noone had a softer

The British Lake label has reissued hundreds of valuable sessions by most of the best-known and most influential trad players of the 1950s and ’60s

Jonathan Ng, is a lindy hop, balboa, and blues dancer with classical violin training. He traveled widely with Ellis Dyson & the Shambles, a band that

Let’s Go To Town has four National Guard radio shows that probably date from 1961. While the pitching for the National Guard (and its “up-to-the-minute

Due to the popularity of Dixieland and New Orleans jazz in the United States during the 1950s, bands were often featured on the radio, including

The Messy Cookers have been heating up the New Orleans night since 2012. Led by trumpet player Alex Owen and including on this album Crescent

During October and November 1957, trombonist Jack Teagarden and pianist Earl Hines co-led an all-star group that toured England and France. In ways, the sextet

Ziggy Elman (1914-68) could have been a contender but he waited too long to start his own big band. Born Harry Finkleman, he learned to

For the 78 RPM record collector there is something missing from nearly all new recordings of early jazz. No, I don’t mean the hiss and