Jazz & Blues Lounge

Well, I was having issues Saturday morning when I was trying to post about jazz clubs in and around the Milwaukee area.  Every time I would try to paste my list of jazz clubs and then hit “publish” all of the clubs would vanish save for the first two.  I was also visiting with family, so I didn’t have time to keep playing around with it to make it look right.  As such, I had to leave everyone thinking Milwaukee had only two jazz clubs for a couple of days.
My apologies to those of you in Milwaukee and those of …read more

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Milwaukee is an interesting city.  It is maybe, at the most, two hours from Chicago.  By today’s standards, that practically makes it a suburb of Chicago, but don’t try telling that to anyone who lives or grew up in Milwaukee.  It’s a great city, really, and I have been to a few towns and cities in Wisconsin.  For me, Milwaukee is the only one I think I could live in and not go crazy.
So, of course, there is jazz here in Milwaukee.  This close to Chicago, of course there’s jazz, and Milwaukee has had a history of jazz and been a …read more

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Ah, the weekend is finally here.  Of course, I always kind of hated when people would say that to me on Friday morning.  “Yay, it’s Friday!” they would say.  “Yeah, but you still gotta get through Friday before it’s really the weekend,” I would reply.  Yes, I was, and probably still am, a bit of a pr**k.
Now I enjoy my job, so Fridays are much cooler than they used to be.  I am, as I mentioned yesterday, making a visit to relatives up in Milwaukee.  I love checking out music scenes in other cities, so I will see if I …read more

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Time to take a look at the weekend that is fast approaching for the Chicago area.  I am actually going to be visiting my brother and baby niece in Milwaukee this weekend, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy a fine jazz or blues show in and around the Windy City.  Maybe I will check out the jazz scene in Milwaukee and do some reporting on that next week.  I always feel bad that my scope is so narrow, but I am just one man and I happen to live in Chicago.
I have to, as always, acknowledge WDCB, the greatest …read more

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I feel like I have not done enough to provide education to all of you faithful readers out there.  There was a time several months ago when I used to try to do at least one article a week that was about a particular artist or area of the jazz or blues genre.  People really seemed to like these, but they were a lot of work.  I love doing research, mind you, and I write non-fiction books that require lots and lots of research.  The problem is, I also have this full-time job and it makes it tough to do …read more

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Does anyone know how the day Tuesday became the day for new releases?  I remember back when I worked at a music store and every Tuesday was the busiest day of the week because it was the day when all of the new releases came in.  You just hoped it was light on customers so you could get all of the product out.  Now that I have written books, I have also found that Tuesday is a day when new books come out too.  Movies come out on Fridays, books and music on Tuesdays.
So, here is a listing of the …read more

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Jazz is such a great genre.  I love just doing some searches online and finding new things and then sharing them with you.  I also love adding things to my own agenda of things to visit and check out the next time I travel.  I only just found the National Jazz Museum in Harlem and check out their website!
They have lots of great pictures and they have a lot of really cool programs.  For example, they have something called “Jazz for the Curious Listener” for those of you who may be new to the genre and are just interested in …read more

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A man by the name of Israel “Cachao” López has passed away.  He often just went by the name of Cachao (Ka-chow) and he was a bassist.  However, that would be like saying John Lennon was just a singer or Mozart was just a guy who can play piano.  Cachao was the man who pretty much invented the style of music we know today as “mambo.”
Now, technically speaking, mambo may not be jazz, but the way Cachao played, it was very close.  According to the WIKIPEDIA entry for Cachao:
“A possibly more important move took place in 1957, when Cachao gathered …read more

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Well, the weekend is here and once again it is snowing here in Chicago.  At the same time I am still fighting off the Martian Death Flu or whatever the heck it is I have.  I feel like something you might have stepped on while walking through the woods or something.  So, here are some of the things going on in and around Chicago as it relates to jazz and blues music. 
Thanks again, as always, to WDCB for their assistance with this list:
JAZZ
March 21, 2008
Prohibition Orchestra of Chicago
Bill’s Blues Bar, Evanston
March 21, 2008
Bobby Lewis R&B Band
Pete Miller’s – Evanston, Evanston
March …read more

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Well, your friendly neighborhood jazz and blues blogger apparently has come down with the flu.  I have been avoiding it all winter.  However, this past weekend I had to visit my grandmother in the hospital and there is no place worse to go when you want to avoid germs than a big building full of sick people.  I also had not slept well last week which always lowers the immune system’s defenses.
So, I am taking today to rest.  I would love to spend the day listening to jazz, in particular the Miles Davis Concert double-CD that is one of my favorites.  …read more

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