Album Reviews

This live recording was made at the famed Village Vanguard. Hersh plays piano accompanied by bassist John Hebert and drummer Eric McPherson. Of the ten

Tropical Swing by a group called Hot Steel & Cool Ukulele is a gentle, friendly, and pleasing set of Hawaiian-inspired music. Hot Steel & Cool

Champions of the West Coast revival scene, the High Sierra Jazz Band has traveled the world playing countless festivals and concerts while holding together the

After a period of decline, small-group swing made a major comeback in the mid-1970s with the rise in prominence of tenor-saxophonist Scott Hamilton and cornetist

Dave McKenna (1930-2008) had a piano style that was difficult to resist. When he played hard-swinging pieces, his left hand’s urgent bass lines lifted up

One of the finest clarinetists to emerge from New Orleans and be active in the 1920s, Albert Nicholas (1900-73) worked with King Oliver, Jelly Roll

Trumpeter Oscar Celestin (1884-1954) was part of the New Orleans jazz scene as early as 1906, leading several groups with similar names (the Tuxedo Band,

It is a great time to be alive for early jazz enthusiasts. For decades fans waited for expensive LPs containing rare tracks from the acoustic era to arrive from

During the swing era, many of the more jazz-oriented big band leaders enjoyed playing occasional songs with small combos drawn out of their orchestra, a

PETRA VAN NUIS & DENNIS LUXION Petra van Nuis, a subtle and inviting jazz singer who is based in Chicago, often teams up with her

Veteran clarinetist Jim Beatty has had a long and colorful career which he fully outlined in his excellent memoirs Still Ramblin’. A few years ago

Pianist Charlie Johnson (1891-1959) is long forgotten today but he led five record dates during 1927-28 (and one in 1925) that rank with some of

Interestingly, I reviewed a previous two-CD set, Afterwords, exactly one year ago. On receiving this one, my expectations were pleasantly fulfilled. But, first some words

Tex Wyndham has played, studied, and written about Dixieland Jazz for over 50 years. He has won awards for his writing and his bands, the

The River Raisin Ragtime Revue is a theater orchestra based in Michigan that produces exciting performances of America’s original popular music. They have curated concerts

The Galvanized Jazz band has been playing together for 47 years, and many of them were over a decade into playing Dixieland already when the

Syncopated Times readers were introduced to guitarist Henry Acker back in March of 2017 by our Jazz Travels writer Bill Hoffman. Bill discovered Acker at

The Riverside Jazz Collective is a working band with a long residence at The Always Lounge Cabaret (not for the faint of heart) and now

The On The Levee Jazz Band takes its name from a San Francisco nightclub owned by Kid Ory between 1958 and 1961. The group was

Valaida Snow (1904-56) was a unique performer. Virtually the only female to become a superior swing trumpeter in the 1930s (she was preceded by Dolly

In the 1950s and ’60s, Monty Sunshine (1928-2010) and Terry Lightfoot (1935-2013) were household names in the world of British trad, playing in styles inspired

Trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton, who led one of the top British 1920s-inspired trad bands of 1949-55, was given a lot of heat and criticism from his

A major jazz clarinetist and alto-saxophonist in the 1920s, Jimmy Dorsey co-led the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra with younger brother Tommy during 1934-35 until a blowup

Tom Hook is best known as a fluent and good-humored stride pianist and singer. In his career he was a founding member of the New

Roseanna Vitro Tell Me The Truth Skyline Records  An open commentary on current affairs and a return to her Southern roots, Tell me The Truth

Most of the trad players in New Orleans seem to cycle in and out of bands and projects every few years, often juggling several at

They have a Friday night gig at Three Muses, their album was recorded at The Spotted Cat and engineered by John Dixon of the Shotgun

Cuphead is a video game released in September 2017 that has already sold more than three million copies. The game has a vintage feel reminiscent

Duke Ellington and his orchestra were featured on a series of weekly radio programs during 1945-46 that became known as The Treasury Shows. While the

MICHAEL GAMBLE’S RHYTHM SERENADERS Swing lives! While the big band era ended in 1946, Swing (the noun rather than the verb) never went away. Whether

From Connecticut, the Galvanized Jazz Band has performed regularly since its formation back in 1971, and the group is still active today. Recently the ensemble

DON SUHOR Although Don Suhor (1932-2003) worked steadily in New Orleans (mostly as a clarinetist) for decades, one can be forgiven for not recognizing his

In recent years, the married couple Stephanie Trick and Paolo Alderighi has often performed as a duo on one piano. While that setting shows listeners

James Conway, who plays trumpet and cornet for the Ten Bells Rag Band, was kind enough to inform me that Limehouse is “an old dockland

Danny Bacher received rave reviews for his 2016 debut album, Swing That Music, on which he covered a variety of tracks by the three Louis’-

Live at The Studio was recorded at a popular venue for Swing events in Nashville called, you guessed it, The Studio. Lots of planning went

While the double-CD Ain’t It Grand? from the Glenn Crytzer Orchestra was covered previously in The Syncopated Times, it is worthy of further discussion. Some

The release of Ain’t it Grand, a double CD of original and classic swing material is a milestone achievement in the resurgent popularity of prewar

The Rhythm Gamblers lean on the mature and experienced side of the swing continuum. Not because they average older—gray heads are common in the hippest

Stretching to eleven members and having survived for over a decade Lithuania’s Rhythm Junkies are as much a jazz collective as a traditional band. Think

Hot jazz in Europe draws closer to ragtime and marching band presentation because from polkas to mazurka’s the brass ensemble lived longer in public life

The Swing Shouters of Tours, France, grew out of the relationship between a dance school, a studio, and an association called Swing and Shout. You

Aurora Nealand is an artist with a creative sensibility that she duly brings to her music. Her parents exposed her to the music of the

Coming off an extensive tour in June and July of Lindy events all over the Northeast, Chelsea Reed and the Fair Weather Five have settled

Miss Myra leads with guitar and vocals in this busy Twin Cities trad band. They have 16 appearances scheduled in September, three on one day.

Cat’n Around by Cait and the Critters After agreeing to bring her band to a gig, Cait Jones suddenly found herself needing a band. A few

The Gentlemen & Gangsters are a hard-swinging sextet of true professionals with a firm rooting in the hot bands on the cusp of Swing Era.

It was St. Joseph’s Night 2006, a group of volunteers set off from the New Orleans suburb of Arabi in search of Mardi Gras Indians.

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