Album Reviews

She was the most versatile singer to emerge from the classic blues movement of the early 1920s. Ethel Waters (1896-1977), who had a very rough

When the Original Dixieland Jazz Band settled in London for an extended stay in 1919, they were essentially introducing jazz to the United Kingdom. While

This compilation of tracks by the West London Rhythm Kings gives some idea of the various personnel who played with the band or “depped” (“subbed”

Let’s see just how far off the beaten tracks I can go in this column! If your 78 RPM collection casts its net wide enough

Spain has an abundance of traditional jazz that would surprise most Americans. Enric Peidro brings players from America including Jonathan Stout, Glenn Crytzer, and Dan

The Wit’s End Brass Band is a large community band in New Orleans “gathered and guided” by Shaye Cohn of Tuba Skinny. Founded in 2012,

All I know about The Rag Messengers is that they hail from Montpellier, France, and play New Orleans jazz as hot as the weather there

Down for the Count is down for anything. The UK based collective includes 30 musicians on call in various formats, all of them within this

A reader suggested this album to me just in time for summer and I’m glad they did! I was expecting just another ukulele album but

Do you like scat singing? My Mum absolutely hates it—the wordless vocal improvisation featured on so many of Ella Fitzgerald’s sides (which she loves, by

How many albums is “a lot of albums”? Not to own, I mean—I’ve got around a hundred LPs, a number which most collectors would consider

It takes a brave and very skilled saxophonist to want to share a frontline with Ken Peplowski. After all, Peplowski has been one of the

One of the few ragtime ensembles on the level of the Paragon Orchestra is the Peacherine Ragtime Society Orchestra. It was founded by Andrew Greene

Rick Benjamin’s Paragon Ragtime Orchestra has been together for over 37 years, with Deuces Wild being their 20th recording. Benjamin’s discovery of thousands of arrangements

Trombonist and label owner Big Bill Bissonnette loved to play and document a rough and spirited type of New Orleans jazz that put the emphasis

Raymond Scott (1908-94) was a true eccentric, a musical innovator who followed his own unusual path. Born Harry Warnow, he worked as a pianist for

JAZZ CLASSIC OF THE MONTH Rod Mason (1940-2017) may not be a household name in the U.S. but he was one of the top traditional

I stuck this record on without first looking at the track list. As the first number opened, I felt a thrill of excitement—it sounded like

I did a double take when I read this album’s cover. From the title and band name I half expected—with a mixture of excitement and

Author, playwright and record collector Chip Deffaa recently compiled a CD filled with some of his favorite recordings of early giants from Broadway and vaudeville.

To celebrate the legacy of Gennett Records in the 1920s, the Buselli/Wallarab Jazz Orchestra, co-led by trumpeter Mark Buselli and arranger Brent Wallarab, have recorded

The Retrospectives series put out by the Nimbus label is a series of two-CD sets that include many of the highpoints of a jazz great’s

The Retrospectives series put out by the Nimbus label is a series of two-CD sets that include many of the highpoints of a jazz great’s

A few months ago, I wrote about George Lewis With Ken Colyer’s Jazzmen, a CD that contained the second set of an April 27, 1957,