Album Reviews

This is an unusual jazz album—pedal steel guitar is a rarely-used instrument in jazz recording and this is a self-produced album by a group who

Here’s a CD which should appeal to clarinet and swing enthusiasts. As the title suggests all ten songs are familiar swing tunes. And there’s a

The L.A. Swing Barons are all dancers as well as musicians and it shows in the driving sound they capture in their first album, Kansas

Lovers of the weird will beam from the first notes of Book of Rhapsodies Vol. II, the fourth album from the critically acclaimed Ghost Train

The Dirty River Dixie Band was founded in 2014 after two music students at Texas Lutheran University were wowed by a live show of the

One of the greatest trumpeters in jazz history and an exciting musical force throughout the 1930s, Bunny Berigan led big bands during 1937-42 and starred

In 1917 the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (comprised of cornetist Nick LaRocca, trombonist Eddie Edwards, clarinetist Larry Shields, pianist Henry Ragas, and drummer Tony Sbarbaro)

Billie Holiday’s recording career can easily be divided into three main parts. Her 1935-42 recordings for Brunswick, Vocalion, and Okeh, both as a leader and

Early jazz collectors who are close to owning all of the significant American and British jazz recordings will find much of interest in the Svensk

Thomas Edison, a genius on so many levels, had the reputation of having poor taste in music. He may have invented the phonograph but his

The great New Orleans soprano-saxophonist and clarinetist Sidney Bechet was 52 when he went to Paris in 1949 to perform at a jazz festival. The

Nothing is lost in translation with the fantastic Five O’Clock Orchestra who are celebrating 45 years of spreading the gospel of hot jazz to audiences

Here we have preserved for posterity the memorable collaboration between Willie “The Lion” Smith and Don Ewell. They were first brought together for a Canadian

In 1950, Louis Armstrong acquired his first reel to reel tape recorder. During the next 20 years, he often recorded his own band’s performances which

Mike Davis is one of the bright new voices in classic jazz. The 25-year old New York-based cornetist has forged his own musical path by

I first listened to Lessons Lyrical, the new disc from husband and wife duo Petra van Nuis & Andy Brown, during the mad rush of

Flip Phillips is known for playing tenor sax with Jazz at the Philharmonic between 1946 and 1957. During the semi-retirement that followed he developed a

This is the infamous New Reformation Jazz Band “Lithuanian set” from 1986. Bandleader Dave Tatrow decided at the last minute to riff on the importation

Francesca Biagi’s love of mid-century and earlier American theater, cinema, and jazz is genuine. Well known in Italy, and on the European scene generally, she

Muggsy Spanier loved to perform New Orleans and early jazz songs. The cornetist considered King Oliver and Louis Armstrong his musical heroes but he had