Album Reviews

Humphrey Lyttelton’s Conway Hall Revisited is a reunion of the frontline of his most popular group. Trumpeter Lyttleton, clarinetist Wally Fawkes, and trombonist Keith Christie

The Crane River Jazz Band, which first came together in 1949, looked towards Bunk Johnson and George Lewis for their inspiration. Their most famous member,

Since the earliest days of jazz New York City has been a beacon for performers looking to make a go of it. From the teens

Balboa is my thing, right now. There’s been a real dearth of dancing in my life since 2019, other than one online camp and the

Chema Peñalver is an accomplished clarinetist and music professor in Spain but may be unfamiliar to our readers. That will hopefully change in coming months

Listening to Le Dancing Pepa’s latest album while doing the dishes, I wasn’t won over. The pace was frenetic, the hooks not memorable, the harmonies

A few months back Dan Barrett had an essay subtitled “What’s in a Name?” which listed off all the amazing jazzmen blessed with monikers that

When “ragtime” is mentioned, many people—perhaps most—think immediately of piano players. In the early 1900s, ragtime was the domain of piano players. Ragtime was “revived,”

Klaus Lessmann’s trad chops are real: his other works have included a sextet tribute to Jelly Roll Morton and his Abbey Road Dixie Band plays

One of the more successful big bands in NYC, certainly of those run by young people, the Eyal Vilner Big Band can be heard at

This trio album is, broadly speaking, the most “traditional” of my reviews this month. That’s saying something considering a mere 18 months ago the means

A couple of years ago when reviewing the Missing Pieces CD, I wrote this: Two years from now the New Black Eagle Jazz Band will

Michael McQuaid should be a household name among traditional jazz fans. He’s one of the top reedmen of this generation and a force behind many

It was my birthday yesterday. “Bully for you,” you say. “So what?” I’ll tell you what: My gift to myself was some new headphones. Not

While Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson among others have sometimes been criticizing for having “too much technique,” I never thought that that was a problem

Singer and trombonist Emily Asher made her recording debut back in 2005 with the Jim Cutler Jazz Orchestra and the Mighty Aphrodite Jazz Band, playing

One of the greatest jazz clarinetists of all time, Artie Shaw (1910-2004), had a surprisingly brief career considering his stature and his long life. While

Sometimes this job makes me feel uneasy. Because it can’t be easy hawking jazz records at the best of times—which must seem a long, long

The Alpha Rhythm Kings are a frequently rollicking band whose music crosses the boundaries between small-group swing a la Louis Jordan, early rock and roll,

Pete Malinverni is a jazz pianist who has led 15 albums of his own and is normally heard in modern jazz settings. Juliet Kurtzman is

The Secret Six is a pandemic inspired ensemble featuring core members of the Smoking Times Jazz Club, one of my favorite New Orleans bands, as

The West Coast of the U.S. has long been blessed with a large complement of traditional jazz bands—professional and semi-professional—societies, and festivals, it seems. Before

Band names don’t get much grander than The Intercontinental Jazz Ambassadors. But then lockdown-driven remote recording projects don’t get much more ambitious than the tri-continental,