Jazz & Blues Lounge

Is it really the last week in the month of May, already? Wasn’t it just New Years Day like, yesterday? At this rate the holidays will be here in the blink of an eye. I will be celebrating my niece’s birthday before I know it. Jeez, who hit the Fast-Forward button?
Anyway, AllAboutJazz.com has a great list of CD reviews and they have this great list of new releases and reissues. It’s a cool website filled with lots of news and other things too. It is mostly volunteer and they are currently looking for volunteers, …read more

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Ah, the saga of the Sad Salamanders and their video or their rockin’ (or is that, jazzin’) tune “My Parents Are Swingers.” Just to recap: The Salamanders are this awesome group that reached out to me back around February wondering if I would give their new CD “Cigarettes and Fishnets” a listen. I am always open for free stuff, so I said yes. Turns out, the CD is awesome and I have raved about them ever since and done everything I can to promote the hell out of the thing and get everyone to listen. One …read more

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Ah, Tuesday, it’s such a lovely day. Seldom does Tuesday get much respect. People have football on Monday and they love to complain about it. They have Wednesday and the call it “hump day” and celebrate the fact that it is the middle of the week. On Thursday you have Must See TV or whatever they hell they are calling it today. For me it means watching Smallville, the Office and Lost. Then there’s Friday which is everyone’s day to party, I guess. For me, I always wondered why everyone was do damn …read more

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I got an e-mail from the fearless leader of the Sad Salamanders the other day. It appears that the video, which you have seen oosted here and linked to here and talked about here, has been removed from YouTube. I hope Scooter doesn’t mind me cutting and pasting his e-mail, but he writes:
“As if there aren’t enough problems in the world, we must contend with this!
For some unexplained reason, the video to the Sad Salamanders song ‘My Parents Are Swingers’ has been taken down from YouTube. I’m trying to figure out why, but as with any typical corporate …read more

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It is another Tuesday and that means new releases and reissues galore. Unlike last week, it seems that the record companies have plenty they want you to check out this coming week. This is, once again, from AllAboutJazz.com which is a great online magazine all about jazz (hence the name, I am gathering). There are some very in-depth CD and concert reviews. There are also stories much like you would find in a magazine on a newsstand.
So, please make a note of the new releases below. If you happen to contact any …read more

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Well, it is a Monday morning and I am still in my Blues Training phase. I am loving it. The friend who created the blues CD for me certainly selected some great tunes. Of course, the first part of the CD was the Buddy Guy album “Sweet Tea” that I raved about the other day. I now cannot get through a day without listening to “Baby Please Don’t Leave Me” at least once.
There is another name within the blues world that pretty much every one knows. That is, of course, John Lee Hooker. Yes, …read more

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It is Saturday morning. It is a good morning for me because I have found some new music to love. You see, and as you may have noticed, I am more of a jazz guy than a blues guy. Why? Well, I fell in love with jazz first because of the time I spent at a college radio station that played jazz. I have tried to get into the blues, but something never quite clicke with me. It was OK, I appreciated it, I liked songs and parts of it, but something about it …read more

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The spring season has kicked into high gear and things are getting busy in the music world. Things are also getting busy amongst us here at b5media. So, I missed the normal release date when it came to the new releases and the reissues. Actually, this month so far the new releases are not as extensive as in previous weeks. It’s interesting to note that and I am not sure what that means.
Since I have found out that my use of the WDCB website has yielded some results, I want to point out I rely on …read more

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I love writing this blog. When I started, I just hoped a few folks who were devoted to, primarily, jazz would stop by and read a few things and I would have been happy. However, I have been surprised by how much this site and this blog has grown. I was delighted when Scooter Pietsch approached me, via e-mail, asking if I would like to review the new album for the Sad Salamanders entitled “Cigarettes and Fishnets.”
Now, I write movie, DVD and television reviews for another website. I get approached there all the time by filmmakers …read more

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It is a Saturday morning here in Chicago and the weather is vintage Chicago. In short, it was sunny and bright when I woke up, but now it’s cloudly and threatening rain less than an hour later. It is also that weird mid-ranged temperature when you really should wear a jacket, but it may just be warm enough to get away without wearing on at the same time. No wonder every Chicagoan about this time of year is sick or has a constant headache.
So, I was noodling around on my computer and started playing “Cigarettes and Fishnets” …read more

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