Rachel Domber and Arbors: A Great Jazz Legacy Continues
Lew Shaw
July 31, 2024
With all of the great musicians playing at Tucson’s Century Room for the past two years, a hometown trumpeter/vocalist was showcased earlier this month. James Williams, with the New Orleans-based Swamp Donkeys is a born and bred Tucsonan. We first met him in New Orleans at the Jazz Fest in
I’ve been attending jazz parties and festivals for twenty years, and each one has its own character. So to call one “the best” would be foolish. But the Redwood Coast Music Festival, held at the beginning of October in Eureka, California, is a musical banquet. No, make that several musical
This Jazz Age tale takes you from the streets of South Philly and the Boardwalk of Atlantic City to the nightclubs, vaudeville palaces, pool halls, and recording and broadcast studios dotting Gotham. Our protagonists are two pioneers of jazz who brought something entirely novel and extraordinary to the centuries-long tradition
Joe Sullivan and Bob Zurke had several things in common. They were both brilliant pianists with their own sound within the swing tradition of the 1930s, were alcoholics whose drinking affected their lives and careers, and crossed paths during one important period. Michael Joseph O’Sullivan was born on Nov. 4,
I was eleven years old when I hit one of Life’s lotteries, and began playing the trombone. I thought it might be fun. Because of this one youthful decision, I’ve met many incredible people, seen places around the world I never imagined I’d be able to visit, and made more
Studying history often comes with an inevitable fact that we will never be able to communicate with the people we are interested in. As frustrating as this is, the closest thing we can find are personal papers and letters that belonged to the person. Recently, a letter was shared online
This is an article I never expected to write. My interest in Scott Joplin was originally centered on his music; examination of his life came later, and I was pleased to discover how details of his life added to the understanding of his music. Thoughts of his parents rarely surfaced.
Over the five fascinating years I’ve been interviewing jazz musicians, a curious trend has emerged. It has interested, confounded and occasionally annoyed me—the last probably due to a (misguided) sense that my musical passions and practices are being slighted by implication. I’m talking about the tendency for pro musicians to
Jeff Barnhart: Dan, we have the pleasure of discussing the final four sides the Bennie Moten Orchestra recorded on Dec. 13, 1932, in Camden, NJ. Our discussion has thus far been almost as scintillating to me as the music itself, and I’m sure this entry will prove the same. Not
There are many (myself included) who regard this paper and music in general as a haven of peace and conviviality in a world that seems ever increasingly to be going mad. Aside from occasional sputterings (which are the essence of the Static described in this column heading) I have mostly
We got old. Fifty years added to our twenties, thirties, and forties in 1974 equals old for those who have managed to survive. And. for us who have survived, it was a marvelous reunion amid the throng of joyfully talented young and well-seasoned performers who entertained audiences of all ages.
June’s reminiscences of banjoist/festival director/Your Father’s Mustache founder Joel Schiavone garnered many emails and letters! I’ve left out churlish ones like “How can you eulogize a banjo player?” and “Now I’ll never get the ten bucks he owed me” to share some memories, stories and photos of this supreme showman.
William James Basie was born on August 21, 1904, in Red Bank, New Jersey. Basie’s mother gave him his first piano lessons. After moving to New York, Basie met Fats Waller, whom he heard playing organ for silent movies. In 1928 in Kansas City, he joined Walter Page’s Blue Devils,
Thunderbolt Rag (S. J. Stokes, 1910) is a straightforward “popular” rag in ABAC form with some neat idiosyncrasies. Prolonged A7 and Dm chords and low left hand octaves in the A and B sections give the piece a stormy, minor-key feel, contrasting nicely with sectional cadences in C major. The
First, a correction. In my January, 2024 report of the West Coast Ragtime Festival I attributed “Belle Adair,” played there by Richard Dowling, to him. The actual composer is Vincent Matthew Johnson, as I learned at the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival in late May. I apologize to Vincent for not
BIX BEIDERBECKE JAZZ FESTIVAL (Davenport, IA) – Aug. 1-3 Hot Jazz will return to the Upper Mississippi River next year during the Bix Beiderbecke Jazz Festival. On August 2, 2024, there will be even more music aboard the Celebration Belle, with Matt Tolentino’s Iowans playing on the main deck while
Will Anderson has written a book titled SONGBOOK SUMMIT: 15 Pioneers of American Sound that is scheduled for release in September. According to the author, it discusses the intersection between Jazz and The Great American Songbook in the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s. It has 15 chapters on these American figures:
Transcendentalists on TikTok Thoreau tried to post a preliminary draft Of On the Duty of Civil Disobedience But even his own mother Chose an exercise video instead. The words “duty” and “disobedience” Skewed the algorithm against him. Meanwhile, a fifteen-second clip Of Emerson eating his breakfast porridge Was viewed eleven
As mentioned in a recent Syncopated Times article about keyboardist Dick Hyman, jazz duet recordings can be the hardest things for two players to bring off owing to the need for the two musicians to support and instantly respond to each other, plus the fact that the slightest error can
On Sunday, July 7, at the Townsend Estate in New Haven CT, family and friends of Joel Schiavone gathered to remember the life and times of this consummate banjoist/politician/club owner/raconteur. Seating was limited to 150, not including the 16 musicians on-hand to provide appropriate music, and all were entranced by
To the Editor: I enjoyed the “Profiles in Jazz” article on Lil Hardin Armstrong by Scott Yanow which appeared in the June 2024 issue of TST. It brought back good memories of my friendship with Lil back in the early 1960s. I was a special investigator with the US Government
For the last year, along with an active tour schedule, appearing on recordings for others, and contributing his great column with Jeff Barnhart analyzing choice tracks from important jazz bands, Hal Smith has been rolling out albums for what he is calling the West Coast Jazz Heritage Series. Three albums
Reader, you know I love a good pianist. And you know I love anything to do with France. So let me cut out the fluff and simply say that this French record features a lot of exceptional piano, is everything I value most in a jazz record, and leave it
I was at Oxford Lindy Exchange last weekend, where British swing supergroup The Shirt Tail Stompers provided Sunday’s live dancing soundtrack. Before their set, bandleader Steven Coombe and co held a seminar on musicality in swing dance—a fascinating, hour-long workshop which could be summed up as a polite but insistent,
The New Wonders’ Steppin’ Out is out with thirty-nine minutes of delight and ten tracks of marvelous melodies! After observing hints of this imminent project since the spring of 2023, it was an immense joy when Turtle Bay Records announced the New Wonders’ album release in early April of 2024.
Ford Dabney (1883-1958) is just a footnote in jazz history. A long-forgotten figure, if he is remembered at all it is for composing the jazz standard “Shine.” But as the extensive liner notes and the music reissued in Archeophone’s After Midnight point out, he was a significant contributor to the
I recently featured Adrian Rollini as the subject of one of my Jazz Profile columns along with Frank Trumbauer. Rollini was the king of the bass saxophone, an instrument that he taught himself and mastered within a few weeks. In Digby Fairweather’s liner notes to the single-CD Swing Low, he
Eyal Vilner, who plays alto, clarinet and flute in addition to writing arrangements, has been leading his ten-piece band (counting singer Imani Rousselle) in New York since 2008. Swingin’ Uptown is his orchestra’s seventh recording and it finds the group growing in power, depth and originality while retaining its infectious
JAZZ CLASSIC OF THE MONTH Cornetist Wild Bill Davison (1906-89) recorded prolifically during his career from 1940 on, whether with Eddie Condon, all-star groups, or as a leader. While most of his recordings can be found without too much of an effort, his collaborations during 1957-58 with the Spree Coast
In her two previous recordings, The Night We Couldn’t Say Good Night and Love For Connoisseurs, Angela Verbrugge made a strong impression as both a warm and inviting jazz singer and a songwriter-lyricist. Her new EP, which clocks in just short of 30 minutes, consists of additional performances (all but
The brilliant clarinetist and tenor-saxophonist Ken Peplowski has largely overcome (or at least learned to live with) some very serious health problems to resume his important career. His playing throughout the recent Live At Mezzrow is so strong that, if a comeback of the year award were given out to
Jewel Brown, known most famously for her world tours singing with Louis Armstrong between 1961 and 1968, died on June 25th, she was 86 years old. Born in 1937 she was recording by the time she was a teenager, releasing singles on the Duke and Liberty record labels, and making
Bob Chmel, a drummer who over decades in music played with the ghost bands of Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Les and Larry Elgart, and Woody Herman died on June 28th, he was 80 years old. He toured the world as well as the country while keeping
Geoff Cole. a British trombonist with a career going back to the 1950s, died on June 25th, he was 90 years old. He was part of Ken Colyer’s band throughout the 60s and led his own Hot Five and Hot Seven bands for five albums on Big Bill Bissonete’s Jazz
Vol.9, No.8 August 2024
Rachel Domber and Arbors: A Great Jazz Legacy Continues, by Lew Shaw
Joplin’s Parents: Truths, Fabrications, and Revelations, by E. Berlin & S. Caputo
Jonah and the Wailers: A Jazz Reminiscence, by Dan Barrett
Eureka! The Redwood Coast Music Festival, by Michael Steinman
The Art of the Duet, by Ted des Plantes
Goin’ Places & Doin’ Things: Venuti & Lang in the Jazz Age, by Mike Peters
Starting on Piano (and Finishing Somewhere Else), by Dave Doyle
Jazz Birthday of the Month: Count Basie, illustration by Sara Lièvre
Static from my Attic, by Andy Senior
Final Chorus, compiled by Joe Bebco
Jazz Travels: The Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival, by Bill Hoffman
My Inspirations: Remembering Joel: Readers Respond, by Jeff Barnhart
Ragtime Vignettes: Thunderbolt Rag, by Brandon Byrne
Quarter Notes: Another Tucson-NOLA Connection, by Shelly Gallichio
Justin Ring and the Phonograph Scholars, by R.S. Baker
Festival Roundup, compiled by Joe Bebco; illustration by Joe Busam
Profiles in Jazz: Joe Sullivan and Bob Zurke, by Scott Yanow
Blowing off the Dust: Fifty Years Later, Here We Are!, by Larry Melton
Ain’t Cha Got Music: Bennie Moten’s Final Four, by J. Barnhart & D. Barrett
Will Anderson Ventures into the Literary Field with New Book, by Lew Shaw
My Friend Lil, by John William Gahan
Thank You, Joel: The Celebration of Joel Schiavone’s Life, by Jeff Barnhart
“Transcendentalists on TikTok” and “Ignore Remus” (poems), by Andy Senior
Doyle’s Discs, CD reviews by Dave Doyle
Nights at the Turntable, CD reviews by Scott Yanow
The New Wonders’ Steppin’ Out Is In!, CD review by Clorinda Nickols
Off the Beaten Tracks, by CD reviews by Joe Bebco
Classic Bobby Hutcherson Blue Note Sessions 1963-1970, by B.A. Nilsson
