The trumpeter Bunk Johnson has received plenty of press, including several features and a full profile—written last year by Scott Yanow—in this magazine. This coverage
As I write this, I’m lying in bed with a banging headache, running a temperature. Listening to this album through headphones made the headache worse—no
I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: I have a soft spot for jazz in a Continental accent. And by that I mean
I’m pretty sure that my desert island disc would be a Louis Jordan one, possibly his collaboration with Chris Barber titled Louis Jordan Swings! Jordan’s
It’s a story almost as old as jazz itself: A musician is born in New Orleans, some time between 1900 and 1920, drawn magnetically to
I went to a dance last week—not an awkward daytime shuffle on asphalt, but an honest-to-goodness indoor, after-dark event on a wooden floor and everything.
I don’t listen to music quietly. When my wife and I jump in the car and the stereo comes on, blaring out whatever CD I
Last year I edited a biography of John Hendricks, founding member of multi-award winning vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. Together with Dave Lambert and
What was the Caribbean up to while New Orleans, New York, and Chicago were bouncing to the sounds of ragtime, jazz, and swing? If you’re
Balboa is my thing, right now. There’s been a real dearth of dancing in my life since 2019, other than one online camp and the
Seeing The UnSwung Heroes in concert was an emotional roller coaster. Their website promised a New Orleans-style “Dixieland” outfit (forgive them the term—we haven’t really
Listening to Le Dancing Pepa’s latest album while doing the dishes, I wasn’t won over. The pace was frenetic, the hooks not memorable, the harmonies
The pandemic has brought naught but misery to a lot of musicians, no doubt about it. When artists look back on these two years—and hopefully
It was my birthday yesterday. “Bully for you,” you say. “So what?” I’ll tell you what: My gift to myself was some new headphones. Not
Sometimes this job makes me feel uneasy. Because it can’t be easy hawking jazz records at the best of times—which must seem a long, long
Keenan McKenzie has his own bands: the Riffers are a popular dance-oriented swing combo with a three-horn front line, while the Keenan McKenzie Orchestra is
The British weather has been … changeable, over the last month. I know, bad weather in Britain—quelle surprise. But honestly, the sun has been unusually
Band names don’t get much grander than The Intercontinental Jazz Ambassadors. But then lockdown-driven remote recording projects don’t get much more ambitious than the tri-continental,
What is authentic swing music? It depends who you ask. Plenty of modern outfits advertise themselves as “authentic” swing musicians—many of them function bands, sporting
Ask a top swing dancer (or any swing dancer) what first brought them to the hobby, and most will reply: “the music.” Less often does
All being well, the socially distanced performance of jazz will soon be a thing of the past. Musicians will be able to gather again, arranging
Jazz is pretty powerful stuff: it can move us to tears, or it can move us to dance all night long. But can it help
Was your 2020 a bit of a let-down? Mine was. I’d just moved to a new city. I had big plans for my little business,
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
