Album Reviews

Children’s music is trash, isn’t it? Take “Baby Shark,” or that Colomelon dross, or anything released by the cringeworthy cover factory Kidz Bop—it’s all a

Paying tribute to a jazz instrumentalist can be a tricky proposition, particularly if one plays the same instrument. A balance has to be found between

Some records you really can judge by their cover. Take the latest release by Jane Scheckter, for instance. There’s a picture of Jane on the

In these days of diminishing audiences and venues, it takes a brave soul to start a traditional jazz band, not alone keep an existing band

These days we seem to be witnessing the sunset of traditional jazz. The number of traditional jazz clubs and festivals, along with that of their

Noelle Goforth has a beautiful voice and a love for swing standards. On her CD ’Deed I Do, she performs a dozen of her favorite

JAZZ CLASSIC OF THE MONTH Jimmy McPartland (1907-91) played rewarding cornet solos for over a half-century. McPartland also took an occasional vocal and was always

2024 is the centennial of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody In Blue,” serving as an excellent excuse for exploring his music. Classical pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and pianist-singer

Listening to Al Jolson (1896-1950) is always a guilty pleasure for me. On the one hand, he was considered by many to be the world’s

There are some albums which are done a terrible disservice by either not getting the press nor the reviews they deserve. Such is the case

Work has had me on the road a lot lately, so that new in-car MP3 player has been a lot of use. (Promoters, take note:

With the UK state pension now standing at 68 for people born in 1987—and likely to rise further, given our shambles of an economy and

Over the past years, I have seen it claimed quite often, sometimes with a tinge of resentment by black speakers, that Elvis Presley co-opted the

I have read praise for cornetist and trumpet player Malo Mazurié for years and have enjoyed listening deeply for him in several groups where he

This album got lost in the shuffle, many of my notes date back a full year and I needed to refamiliarize myself with many of

This album extends outside of our normal range at TST, but I see Tom Rigney’s zydeco band scheduled at nearly every festival and I think

It has been a few years since I last reviewed an album of Golden Age jazz. The peak of which in my reckoning being that

Although I never thought that I would have the name of Elvis Presley in any of my Syncopated Times reviews, the recent compilation Inspiring Elvis

Few swing era sidemen had as much commercial success in later years as Jonah Jones (1908-2000). A hot trumpeter with Stuff Smith’s combo on 52nd

Jazz Classic of the Month Doc Evans (1907-77) was a reliably hot cornetist who spent much of his life living and playing in Minnesota. He

Pete Allen has been leading bands for 45 years and, although the personnel of his sextet has changed many times, his brand of joyful and

When Royce Martin’s profile ran on our cover in December we received a thank you from an accomplished musician in her 40s, the unspoken implication