Jazz & Blues Lounge

Hello there faithful readers.  I hope you have a great weekend.  If you are visiting Chicago this weekend, I hope you have snow-shoes.  Chicago got hit with at least a foot of snow last night and into today.  Despite this, I did manage to get a flight out of Chicago and to St. Louis to hang with friends and watch the Super Bowl.
So, I will be here for a few days.  I did that last year too and posted a few jazz and blues things going on here in the Gateway City.  People seemed to enjoy that.  One thing is …read more

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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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When it comes to jazz festivals, there are very few who could argue with the fact that one of the most-respected, and probably the highest and biggest, is the Monterey Jazz Festival.  It is the festival that has defined jazz for 50 years now.  It’s the place where Miles and Trane and dozens of other musicians played and their performances have become legendary.
In 2007, the Monterey Jazz Festival celebrated that 50th anniversary.  It lined up, as you might expect, some of the best and brightes in the genre today.  Now, in case you just couldn’t quit get to Monterey last …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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The problem with the older blues musicians is the exact same problem we have with the older jazz musicians.  Namely, the problem is, they keep dying off.  Of course, sometimes they die off for reasons that seem rather stupid.  In this case, it wasn’t drug use, but it was smoking and the fire a cigarette caused.
This story is from the Associated Press and is copyright 2007 by The Associated Press and was found on my Comcast News home page:
Blues Artist “Weepin” Willie Dies at 81
Weepin’ Willie Robinson, a blues singer who performed with Steven Tyler and Bonnie Raitt but also spent …read more

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The problem with being such a fan of classic jazz is that, for the most part, the musicians who played that great music are either dead or quite elderly and, therefore, likely to pass away.  I am sorry to report that another musician who was key to my early jazz days, especially during my time working for KSLH radio, piano great Oscar Peterson has passed away in his home near Toronto.  Oscar was 82-years-old and, really, one of the best there ever was.
Within the music vaults of KSLH we had several Oscare Peterson Trio CDs.  The best ones were the …read more

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Not too much to write about tonight.  I just wanted to drop a quick line to all of my regular readers and wish you a very safe and happy holiday weekend.  It’s a crazy weekend.  I know, I was out in the crowds just trying to get my grocery shopping done.
So, take your favorite jazz and blues music with you wherever your travels may take you for the holiday.  Be careful at those Christmas parties and drive safely.  I hope you all get your favorite musicians, music, CD collections and what-not for Christmas.
Thanks for reading this blog on a regular …read more

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Of course, there are no end to the experts in the music world. As I mentioned, one of the biggest places to find lists of all kinds is Amazon.com.  Who are these people?  Then again, who am I?  I’m a guy who answered an ad he found online and now I am considered an expert in jazz and blues, despite the fact I have openly admitted here my blues knowledge was not nearly as great as my jazz knowledge.  Even then, there are people who have left comments here who obviously know more about jazz than me.
That being said, I …read more

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It’s actually become quite fun to track down the many “Best of” lists that have started to pop up.  It’s also interesting to note that there seem to be quite a few Best of Jazz lists and they tend to have various and slightly different selections.  I guess this is a really good thing.  It shows that the death of Jazz may have been slightly incorrect.  In fact, it may be thriving just as well as always.
This one comes from the online magazine known as Slate.com.  I have even attempted to write for them and, well, that hasn’t quite happened.  …read more

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When it comes to the blues, I have to admit, it’s a little bit tougher for me.  For those of you who come here fairly often, that is probably obvious.  The vast majority of the blog entries here have to do with jazz.  What can I say, I spent some time at a jazz radio station and fell in love with the music.  I never quite had that epiphany with the blues.
I first gained some respect for the blues when I was in college.  I had a teacher who was a big blues fan.  She was a music critic for …read more

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