So this rotten thing seems set to follow us, in one strain or another, into the long-awaited year of 2021—the blockade on gigs, festivals and
I’ve been waiting a long time to review Swing in Place. Or maybe it just felt like a long time, in this Groundhog Day mush
Is bear meat sweet? I’ll never know for sure—I’m vegetarian. Johnny Hodges seemed to think so, when titling the 1954 track which lends its name
The year 2020 will go down in jazz history as the one in which live music was silenced and dancing stood still worldwide. But it
I love a three-piece jazz combo. More so than a big band, if I’m honest, although saying so feels blasphemous: as a swing dancer, surely
As much as I’ve missed dancing during the pandemic—more than I can express, really—it’s not something I’ve sought out online. People have put a ton
It’s tempting to describe Jen Hodge—female bassist, bandleader, composer, arranger and singer—as a rare phenomenon. But that’s not how she saw herself, growing up surrounded
Here in the UK, speech isn’t entirely free. The right to offend whomever we want isn’t enshrined in statute, as in the US Constitution. We
I can’t imagine that any other cultural phenomenon has had the same impact as jazz, worldwide. I know I’m expected to think that, as a
In a normal year (if you can recall those), I’d call the holiday season peak swing dance. Sure, summer has its big camps with celebrity
Pioneering dancer Norma Miller—dubbed the “Queen of Swing”—has been honored with a memorial alongside those of King Oliver, W.C. Handy, Duke Ellington and other jazz
I’m almost beginning to appreciate this pandemic—just a minuscule bit, mind you—for forcing jazz musicians worldwide back into the studio and me off the dance
As anyone who’s read one of my reviews will know, I love a good keyboardist. Well, if I were naming The Schwings Band’s new album
Pulled at random from a bag of new releases, The Oxblood Melodians is the second disc I’ve reviewed recently which is bookended by two versions
There are plenty of outfits striving to reproduce the sounds of classic jazz recordings, be they big band or small group. There are plenty writing
Physical distancing is a sensible reaction to infectious disease; the cure for what ails our society. Yet, like cod liver oil or chemotherapy, taking this
The Tenement Jazz Band is so trad that it’s barely even online, despite being only a two-year-old project with a mostly thirty-something line-up. Google them
I like the oldies. Back when I hosted a swing radio show, I had a strict limit of two modern tracks per broadcast—the rest was
If you’re a swing dancer, you know how frustrating it is when the band booked for an event hasn’t been briefed on what good dancing
Exhausted by six months without swinging out, sociable swing dancers are finding other ways to scratch that interaction itch: outdoor tea dances, pub garden socials,
For two chaps with a guitar and a washboard, Martyn Roper and Jack Amblin—a.k.a. the Washboard Resonators—can really belt it out. They’ve proved as much
It’s tricky to find much online about Olivia Cook—unless you’re seeking her almost-namesake Olivia Cooke, the English actress who starred in Psycho prequel Bates Motel.
Some sequels are unwarranted and altogether unwelcome: A second coronavirus outbreak. World War II. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. But there was one return I was
Global pandemics aside, the Mint Julep Jazz Band is enjoying great demand. With band members featured at North Carolina’s Lindy Focus—one of the planet’s biggest
