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,
Twenty years ago, Chicago composer Reginald R. Robinson recorded his fourth studio album, Man Out of Time. Today, Man Out of Time is once again
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
The band Tuba Skinny (name inspired, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, by a local musician billed as Tuba Fats) was formed as a loose New Orleans street band
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
