Reviews

On April 21, husband-and-wife performers Eric Comstock and Barbara Fasano brought the buzz they have been creating Saturday nights at Birdland in Manhattan to a

Since 1976, Vince Giordano has led one of the most authentic-sounding small big bands in 1920s jazz, an 11-piece orchestra that really sounds as if

I can’t think of a musical production I’ve looked forward to for quite as long as Hoagy Carmichael’s Stardust Road. Nor one that has disappointed

The Nutcracker was composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-93) in 1892 for a two-act ballet. Nine of the numbers from the ballet were selected by

Glenn Jenks was a favorite at ragtime events, both as a pianist and for his compositions. Though he had a significant following in the ragtime

The eleventh edition of Mike Durham’s International Classic Jazz Party was two years in the making but definitely worth the wait. Like most such events,

To those who would deem ragtime deceased, Bob Darch, pianist and entertainer from the revival era, had a ready rejoinder: “Ragtime Dead? Hell, it ain’t

Once again it was our pleasure to spend a week of relaxation with a group of brilliant musicians at the annual JazzFest at Sea in

One could fill a bookshelf with Louis Armstrong biographies, and any film that would tell the great man’s complete story would have to be many

Hotshot pianist Emmet Cohen brought his well-traveled trio with bassist Yasushi Nakamura and drummer Kyle Poole to Ithaca College August 26, 2022, for a freewheeling

Invoking Lady Day and Frank Sinatra has obvious benefits and risks. While it can attract an audience, it can also invite comparisons. When Catherine Russell

The ghosts of George Lewis, Kid Thomas, Jim Robinson, Kid Ory, and the other wonderful New Orleans Jazz revivalists happily roam the fields and shires

It would be impossible to put together a documentary on the brilliant cornetist Bix Beiderbecke today without relying exclusively on third-hand accounts. Since Bix passed

For the first time since 2020, now able to return to Carnegie Hall after the long pandemic “intermission,” the American Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leon

For almost 30 years Shanghai Jazz in Madison New Jersey has been sought out by both musicians and fans of various jazz styles. Tom Donohoe

Sometimes the ownership of a property changes rapidly. That happens whenever proprietor Tom Donohoe introduced Catherine Russell to a house always packed with her devoted

Considering that Israel is a country about the size of New Jersey with a population of about nine million, I would guess that per capita,

The weekend of June 4-5 belonged to the virtual concerts and symposia of the Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival Foundation. That would ordinarily have been

Dr. Ian Hominick at the University of Mississippi in Oxford produced a fine 2021 virtual program to keep the Old Time Piano Playing Contest at

Billie Holiday has inspired a number of books–often with conflicting views–that try to get a handle on her tumultuous and complex life. There’s an autobiography

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

I remember reading Bill Hoffman’s fine column last year in The Syncopated Times describing his first visit to a West Coast Ragtime Festival (WCRF) and