Album Reviews

Erroll Garner had such a unique style on the piano that it used to be very difficult for other pianists (which included George Shearing and

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