Jazz & Blues Lounge

The record label known as Verve has released a huge chunk of music for your jazz romance lovers.  It is coming out today and it is a series known as the “..for Lovers” collection.  I know, it sounds a bit hokey and silly and probably it’s a thing to try to jump on the Valentine’s Day bandwagon, but it’s still an impressive collection of jazz greats.  You can click HERE to find the list of releases.
Verve is a record label that has been around for a while, so they have that going for them.  They have also been the leading …read more

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If there is a name you need to familiarize yourself with if you intend to be interested in jazz, it would probably be John Coltrane.  In my experience, even more than names like Dizzy, Bird and Miles, you hear the name of John Coltrane.  Heck, Lucinda Williams has a song that specifically mentions listening to John.  Coltrane’s music plays a significant role in the movie “Mr. Holland’s Opus” starring Richard Dreyfuss. 
Even I have to admit having an admiration for the man.  I am not the world’s biggest expert on Mr. Coltrane.  I am one of those folks who feel that …read more

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I can’t get enough of YouTube.  I shouldn’t write about them so much, I suppose and you can just as easily spend half your day doing searches there like I have been doing.  Still, I am trying to save you some time and effort by pointing you to the great jazz performances.
Not long ago I wrote about the man who called himself the “inventor of jazz” Jelly Roll Morton.  Well, there isn’t any video of him that I can find, but you can still listen to his music at YouTube.  Click right HERE and hear one of his classic compositions, …read more

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I have completely fallen in love with the stuff on YouTube.  Well, that is to say, I was already wasting for too much time hanging around looking at stuff on YouTube, but now that I found some very cool concert footage of some of the artists I talk about here, I can’t stop looking.  You knew it was only a matter of time before I looked up some Miles Davis stuff.
Well, I found it.  What was even more cool was the sheer amount of classic 1950s and 60s Miles Davis footage I was able to find.  For my money, this …read more

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Let’s be upfront about things.  As I write this, I am 36-years-old.  I am not of the age where I should be having so many “senior moments” like I am having now.  At the same time, I have written so many posts here, it is only a matter of time before I start repeating myself.  If I have mentioned this list before, I apologize, but I like sparking a debate and more people are reading this blog these days, so why not bring it up again?
The list of the “25 Must-Have Jazz CDs of All Time.”  It is on a …read more

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It has been well established here that I am a fan of the horn when it comes to jazz.  That is true, for the most part.  I love a good Monk piano piece or perhaps Keith Jarrett or Herbie Hancock.  However, I would rather listen to Miles or Charlie or Dizzy and that’s just my personal taste.  There is one very notable exception and that would be a guy who plays the vibraphone.
Also known as the “vibes”  you may be asking, what the hell are they?  Well, it looks like a xylophone except that the bars you hit with the …read more

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Writing yesterday about Ramsey Lewis and his morning show on WNUA here in Chicago got me thinking about the two major types of jazz that most people probably know.  Of course, like most genres of music, the various types of jazz just show what a wide and diverse and exciting genre it is.
Of course, Chip and other purists will be quick to point out there are a lot more than two types of jazz.  I know that.  There’s Latin jazz and other forms of jazz from around the world.  New Orleans jazz is just a little different than Chicago jazz …read more

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When it comes to jazz, there is one label that you have to keep in mind.  It is the label known as Blue Note and if you don’t know it and have an interest in jazz, you really need to know it. Here’s a great article about the label available at Wikipedia, but I just wanted to post about this label again. 
I realized that when I was talking about some of the great classic jazz albums that I have loved, how many of them are on Blue Note.  That Cannonball Adderly album “Somethin’ Else” is a Blue Note release.  All …read more

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