a home for my content writing, journalism and let's call this blog
Not long ago, I would receive several CDs a week by female jazz singers who hoped to be the next big thing. These releases announced themselves by their packaging: over-the-top glam shots on the front cover and credits for wardrobe, hair and makeup on the back, and they were almost uniformly dreary affairs.
Alyssa Allgood may or may not be the next big thing, but the Chicagoan who makes her Cleveland debut at BOP STOP Friday, is assertively not one of those jazz singers.
Comments closed
The solstice may be days away, but with temperatures in the 90s this week, no one in northeast Ohio can deny the early arrival of summer. Man, it’s hard to get anything done when it’s this hot, but that’s not why today’s usual feature post is taking a break. Bigger things are happening in let’s call this land. We’re moving.
Comments closed
For more than a century Detroit’s factories have sent tens of millions of vehicles into the world. That’s remarkable, but so too is the city’s assembly line of great jazz pianists: Hank Jones, Barry Harris, Tommy Flanagan, Alice Coltrane and Geri Allen. Lesser-known, but equally polished are figures such as Terry Pollard, Johnny O’Neal, Bob Neloms and Kirk Lightsey. Add 69-year-old David Janeway, who will appear at BOP STOP on Friday with Robert Hurst and Billy Hart, to that distinguished list.
Comments closed
Silent, Listening, Fred Hersch’s affecting new recording, begins with a moody cover of “Star Crossed Lovers,” an Ellington/Strayhorn composition that was also on Hersch’s first trio recording as a leader, Horizon (Concord Jazz,1985). But don’t read too much into the programming. In music and in life, Hersch, who will play a solo concert at the Treelawn Music Hall on Friday, takes things a day at a time.
Comments closed
Stephen Philip Harvey is a saxophonist, educator, composer, arranger, clinician, label executive, husband and son. Though he just turned 32 last Friday, you have to wonder where he gets the energy.
“I think it’s unfortunately a symptom of high functioning anxiety,” he said with a laugh that belied the sentiment. “Realistically, and emotionally,” he added, “I just really, really love music.”
Comments closed