Jazz & Blues Lounge

I know this is a day late. That’s what happens when your critical lifeline, AllAboutJazz.com, goes down and won’t come up during the time I slot to write this particular blog. That’s what happened to me on Tuesday and I had to go with another blog about the Chicago Jazz Festival. I hate it when my personal schedule gets disrupted.
It’s a busy week for new releases and reissues. So, without further ado, here is the list from the fine folks at AllAboutJazz.com:
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
NEW RELEASES
32 Festival De Jazz De Vitoria-Gasteiz – 32 Festival De Jazz …read more

1 Comment

The end of July is fast approaching. The dog days of summer have left the Chicago area for a time and the breeze is off the lake. This has caused the sky to clear, pushing out the pollution and making the sky a brilliant blue. It’s quite nice and it’s a good time to check out those live outdoor shows. However, thanks to radio station WDCB, I can also tell you about all of the jazz and blues performances around the area. I strongly recommend that you click on that link and check out their …read more

Comments Off

Chicago has a lot of cool places to see live music but, without a doubt, one of the coolest is Millenium Park, which is right downtown. I meant RIGHT downtown, with the buildings rising all around you, except for the part that points toward the lake, of course. You can sit on the lawn and above you is a metal laticework that has speakers, so you can see the stars and the buildings and still hear the music. Then there is the pavillion, colored red, each with a great view of the stage. Meanwhile, the stage …read more

2 Comments

There is a website I visit every week. I try hard to mention them here and give them as much credit as I can. They deserve it. The world of jazz music is filled with organizations trying to keep jazz music alive and doing so on an entirely volunteer basis. It’s tough to get paid when you love jazz. It’s a great genre of music, as is the blues, but jazz is not the most popular form of music out there. People are intimidated by it and that is too bad.
I am, of course, …read more

Comments Off

I was a punk kid who was into Pink Floyd. What I really wanted to do was be on the radio. I thought I was going to be the next Howard Stern or, more likely, the next Steve and Garry (two Chicago radio legends). I had worked at the tiny AM station that my college, Webster University, has created first. It was known as WEBU AM 660 and you could pick pretty much any shift you wanted and play whatever the hell you wanted. This created a scattered program schedule and no one ever listened. …read more

Comments Off

As I mentioned in an earlier post today, there is a jazz festival in the Chicago are. This is known as the JVC Jazz Festival and they apparently do festivals all over the country. I also appears to be performances at a whole variety of very cool Chicago jazz clubs.
From their website (linked above) the line up is:
Friday, July 18, 2008
Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo
House of Blues
329 N. Dearborn Street
(312) 923-2000
Doors open at 7:30pm
Show at 9pm
Tickets: Standing only: $45.50
Age: 17+
The Corey Wilkes Quartet featuring Greg Osby
Andy’s Jazz Club
11 E. Hubbard Street
(312) 642-6805
8pm & 10:30pm
Tickets: $21.50 in …read more

1 Comment

Earlier this year you may remember me raving about Cassie Taylor, the daughter of the great blues musician Otis Taylor. Cassie is a fantastic musician in her own right, of course, and I mean no slight by mentioning her father. I saw her at the Chicago Blues Festival last month and I was captivated. Not only is she gorgeous, she is also very talented. She also was trying to get onto the Blues Foundation as one of the youngest members.
Unfortunately, I have not heard from her since that time. I did hope to …read more

Comments Off

This has been a very strange week for me. I have spent the entire week convinced it was actually the day before what it really was. So, I spent all of Tuesday convinced it was Monday. I spent Wednesday thinking it was Tuesday. Then I spent Tuesday night out with friends until very late and that just threw everything off. Have you ever had weeks like that? Sheesh!
WDCB is the radio station that provides me with the jazz and blues concerts and performances that you find here. I will never stop raving about …read more

Comments Off

The summer is speeding past like a speeding bullet. Nothing makes that slow down just a little bit more than a cool jazz or blues album or tune to add to your collection. I do not have a record player myself, but when I worked at the jazz radio station, we would sometimes get the tunes on vinyl. I actually learned how to cue up a record just like the old-time DJs. There was just something cool, so very cool and warm, about listening to those jazz tunes on vinyl. It’s how I first listened …read more

Comments Off

Well, it is the last weekend in the month of June for 2008. I still cannot believe I am writing that. The mere thought that my niece’s birthday will be here before I know it, her first birthday, is just beyond my imagining. How does time move so fast?
Anyway, the weather people are predicting a chance of storms around the Chicago area this weekend. It’s another great weekend to catch a live jazz or blues show. I want to thank and credit radio station WDCB for providing the information about the performances you will find …read more

Comments Off