Album Reviews

Trombonist Ralph Grugel was a major force in keeping Dixieland alive and well in the Cleveland area for many years. He led a band that

There’s a relaxed, mellow feeling throughout this disc that is evident right from the start.  Many ragtime fans will remember Will Perkins as part of

Do you remember 1909? If one has to be at least four years old to have long-term memory of any event, then first-hand memories of

Trombonist Wilbur De Paris’ New New Orleans Jazz Band was one of the most exciting trad jazz bands of the 1950s. De Paris teamed up

What would the music have sounded like if Sidney Bechet and Django Reinhardt (who were both in France in the early 1950s) had recorded together,

The Dime Notes is a young group based in Great Britain although its leader-pianist Andrew Oliver is originally from Oregon. Comprised of Oliver, clarinetist David

This Arbors CD is vocalist/string bassist Nicki Parrott’s interpretation of songs associated with late vocalist/pianist Blossom Dearie. It’s interesting to compare and contrast these two

Johnny Burke (1908-64) may be a little-known name today but he was one of the top lyricists of the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s. Among the

Tim Laughlin has long had a fluent and infectious style, a beautiful tone on his instrument, and the ability to conceive of and record definitive

Duke Ellington has been gone for 43 years but “new” music by him still continues to be discovered and released. It is fair to say

Ella In Hollywood, a live set from 1961 when Ella Fitzgerald was 44, features her at the peak of her powers on a very jazz-oriented

Earl Hines was one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time. Most biographies on Hines go something like this: In the 1920s he developed

Clarinetist Leif Juul Jorgensen took a long time before finally deciding to play jazz fulltime. He took up the clarinet nearly 70 years ago but,

Jean-Francois Bonnel is a reed player best known for his decade as one of the solo stars of the Hot Antic Jazz Band. In the

The concert hall experience is by its very nature ephemeral—once the notes drift and reverberate they are remembered only by those in attendance. Sometimes, however,

Anders Bergcrantz is a prize-winning Swedish trumpeter/composer. He has just released this recording of seven compositions, six of which are his originals and the seventh

Here’s a professionally performed CD—just vocal and piano with fifteen tunes by Gershwin, Ellington, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, and others. What makes it special is

During the first years of the swing era, freewheeling jazz of the 1920s was considered out of vogue and old fashioned despite being less than

In the fall of 1957, an all-star group filled mostly with Louis Armstrong alumni toured England. Co-led by trombonist Jack Teagarden and pianist Earl Hines,

Late last year, Gordon Au—trumpeter, arranger, composer, bandleader, writer, thinker, scientist, satirist, linguist—sent me the digital files for the second CD by the Grand Street

Kid Ory was one of the most important early jazz trombonists, leading legendary early groups in New Orleans during the 1910-20 period that had such

46 years after his death, Louis Armstrong is still the most famous, beloved and influential figure in jazz history. As an innovative trumpeter, singer and

This April 25 marks the centennial of Ella Fitzgerald’s birth. The First Lady Of Song was at one of the turning points in her career