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,
Louis Armstrong entered a new and lucrative phase of his career in 1947 when he broke up his big band and formed his All-Stars. While
I’ve been waiting patiently for Cait and the Critters to release another full length album. Cait Jones is one of many talented young bandleaders in
This is a most unusual album for Dick Hyman because the great pianist does not play a note. Instead, three of his works are interpreted
At 19 years old Shaymus Hanlin is one of the younger musicians you are likely to see on stage at West Coast jazz festivals this
Albert Nicholas (1900-73) was a masterful New Orleans clarinetist with his own distinctive sound. After gaining experience playing in New Orleans, he was part of
Nicki Parrott is well-known as a popular bassist and occasional vocalist who has performed at a countless number of swing-oriented jazz record dates, parties, clubs,
In October 2019 a group of top tier traditional jazz musicians decided to learn from King Oliver‘s iconic Creole jazz Band recordings by playing them
There are scores of swing era big bands whose recorded histories are well worth exploring. Once one has heard the highlights of the obvious greats
Chris Hopkins leads the fine Echoes of Swing group, which we profiled several years ago when they released a double album tribute to Bix. An
Jazz history of the 20th century will be best remembered through its recordings. Just as stage actors who did not appear in films are doomed
Remote recording albums may stick around post Covid-19. Younger musicians have been jamming with each other online for years. In the studio playing in separate
Big Bill Bissonnette (1937-2018) was a spirited trombonist (inspired by his idol Jim Robinson), an occasional drummer, and the leader of the Easy Riders Jazz
When an iconic female vocalist steps up to front the world’s spunkiest, funkiest trad-jazz combo, musical fireworks soon ensue. The icon is jug-band veteran Maria
Roya Naldi, a singer with a deep and haunting voice, is most inspired by Al Bowlly while at various times hinting at Annette Hanshaw, early
No doubt that readers of The Syncopated Times are as leery of stylistic fusion and “cross-over” projects as I am. I’m not a die hard
The Archeophone label, in their Yearbook series, had previously released CDs dedicated to the music of every year from 1906-1922 (not to mention two CDs
A number of jazz concerts aired in the U.K. on BBC Radio in the early 1960s while the “trad boom” was underway and rock and
Back in my salad days when I first was becoming interested in jazz, I ran across the wonderful name “Muggsy Spanier.” For some reason, that
Lester Young (1909-59) was one of the all-time great tenor-saxophonists, a non-conformist whose floating cool-toned style was much different than that of the dominant influence
It took most European musicians a bit of time to get comfortable playing jazz. In the early-to-mid 1920s, relatively few American jazz recordings were available
