Jazz & Blues Lounge

I am declaring this Mingus Monday. I have no idea why other than I was rooting around online for some cool jazz to listen to and came across some of Charles and his and from 1975 which you will see below. He was playing live at Montreux at the time and playing his classic “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat.” I don’t even know what a Pork Pie Hat is, but I like the music.
For me, my all-time favorite Charles Mingus tune is called “Haitian Fight Song.” You will be hard-pressed to find a tune that builds …read more

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At the “Blues on the Fox” festival this weekend the featured artist is a remarkable musician named KennY Wayne Shepherd. If you do not know of him, you really should. In my opinion he is one of the greatest living guitar players around. He first burts onto the scene back in the late 90s as a nineteen-year-old with amazing guitar licks and apparently channeling the spirit of Stevie Ray Vaughan. His first big album that got lots of radio play was “Trouble Is” and it contained what is still one of my all-time favorite songs “Blue …read more

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Well, the 25th Annual Chicago Blues Festival kicked off officially today. I did not get a chance to go downtown and see the concerts today because I have this, you know, job thing to take care of. However, thanks to radio station WXRT I was able to listen to performers from the Blues Festival. XRT is a great radio station and they still play a lot of blues music.
Tonight they had a show celebrating the start of the Blues Festival and it was at Buddy Guy’s Legends. Buddy Guy was performing, but the one guy who …read more

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Well, as you know, we lost one of the biggest names and influences on modern music this week. He is known as a bluesman, but he really influenced rock and roll right along with some of the earliest rock and roll musicians. I felt like I hadn’t really done the man justice with my little blurb-like blog entry on the day he passed away. What better way to appreciate Bo, however, than watching and listening to the man. So, thanks to YouTube for the following:
Here’s Bo in the 60s, complete with 60s clothing and freaky background …read more

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Tonight I am just in a mellow mood. It’s been a rough couple of nights for your humble writer of the Jazz and Blues Lounge. For some reason, I have not slept well in a couple of nights. So, as I write this one, I am barely conscious. When I get that way, man, I love to find something me relatiely mellow and just, cool, to listen to. You can’t do much bette for that than Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers.
I have written about Art before on this blog. He was a hugely …read more

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Please understand that I understand that there are more blues musicans out there besides Buddy Guy. Just like I do understand that there are other jazz musicians out there besides Miles Davis. I just get into these moods. Right now, I am in the Buddy Guy mode when it comes to my blues music. Since my friend gave me the album “Sweet Tea” I have been listening to him on a nearly daily basis.
So, I decided to look online, and at YouTube, and see if I could find another performance or tune or something. …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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If you have not found the Sad Salamanders yet, you need to.  I have mentioned them before and I am attempting to champion them as one of the premier jazz bands out there right now.  They are, at the very least, a helluva lot of fun to listen to.  Well, now they have released their first video.
Click HERE to check out the video for “My Parents Were Swingers.”
This music video has already gone on my personal rotation.  It is sexy without being perverted and the song just rocks.  I love this tune, actually, and it’s the one that kicks of …read more

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I have to admit I am fairly new (and now a little late) to the music of Jeff Healey.  Since I started writing this particular blog, I have been trying to expand some of my music listening.  So, it is only since I started writing here that I came across the blind guitar player.  As I mentioned, Jeff, sadly, passed away this past weekend.
I wanted to post a bit of his music for you to enjoy.  As always, I turn to YouTube for video clips.  As always, YouTube has not let me down and I found some great performances. 
For example …read more

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It was my original intent to hunt down some video somewhere of the Sad Salamanders performing live.  Apparently such an animal does not, as yet, exist.  Guys, you need to get on that.  Start posting to YouTube or something, wouldja?  I spent the whole weekend grooving to your awesome CD “Cigarettes and Fishnets” and wanted to spread a little more cheer around the the public, and couldn’t.
So, I found THIS instead.  What is it?  Why nothing more than Miles Davis and the great John Coltrane performing “So What.”  I love that tune and the look of Miles Davis in his …read more

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