INTERNATIONAL JAZZ PIANIST BOBBY WEST WOWS AUDIENCE AT SEA BIRD LOUNGE


posted by Robert J. Carmack  #@blues2jazzguy In a rare performance in Long Beach as part of a concept jazz band, Acknowledgement, Bobby West longtime resident of many European countries, had the audience eating out of his hands ,musically speaking. Fronting an able quintet made up of local L.A.musicians, West exposed his entire arsenal of styles…

RETRO HIPSTER -SONNY FORTUNE: THANK GOD FOR THAT DAY JOB


posted by CHUCK KOTON,  Photo Journalist Contributor “ I was in the learning stage and I was going to jam sessions with guys who became the cats. ” With an auspicious name like Sonny Fortune, could there be any doubt that this man would find success and fulfillment down whatever path he chose to follow in life. Fortune-ately for jazz lovers, he…

BONE SOIR, CONRAD HERWIG EXPANDING THE LEGACY OF GREATNESS


posted by Robert J. Carmack -#blues2jazzguy In an era where the only thing that counts is Butts in the seat and the cling-clang of a CASH REGISTER while musicians struggle to play a solo over the YAMMERIN’ OF PSUEDO-HIPSTERS TALKING ABOUT ANY AND ALL THINGS EXCEPT THE MUSIC??  So what happens is, most musicians just…

THE WORLD STAGE 25TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION


posted by Robert J. Carmack      @blues2jazzguy SUNDAY, AUGUST 24, 2014 6PM The World Stage returns to the Ford Theatres to recognize local jazz legend and L.A. native Billy Higgins. His profound contribution to the Los Angeles jazz community lives on in the work of the musicians he instructed and inspired. Performances by former students…

HOUSTON AFICIONADO BUILDS A HOUSE OF JAZZ


Posted by Carl Glatzel Houston-based Art Director and Jazz Blogger. The Collector: A Houston Saxophonist’s House of Jazz An unassuming mid-century bungalow in southwest Houston holds a jazz horde to be reckoned with. Local musician, photographer and jazz aficionado, Lindy Pollard, has turned his small but tasteful home into a living jazz museum. Some 5,000 titles…

HIPSTER RETRO-JAZZ SERIES: GRANT GREEN IDLE MOMENTS


Grant Green  review by Justin  Scoville (1935-1979) was an overlooked guitarist who melded blues, bebop, latin, and funk influences into a unique, linear guitar style. Largely overshadowed by the more conventional jazz guitarists of his time, Green’s harmonic approach was an outgrowth of Charlie Christian and set the stage for many modern jazz guitarists (such as…

HIPSTER RETRO-JAZZ SERIES: POINT OF DEPARTURE * ANDREW HILL


  POINT of DEPARTURE -Andrew Hill  posted by  Justin Scoville     Andrew Hill (1931-2007) was a masterful jazz pianist and composer whose impact on jazz is only beginning to be understood and appreciated. Largely overshadowed during his early career by both the monumental contributions of Miles Davis’s “Second Quintet” and John Coltrane’s cosmic forays…

JAZZ TRUMPETER LEE MORGAN: HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE LEE


posted by   Robert J. Carmack      #@blues2jazzguy Lee Morgan  Musician,Composer and Bandleader b. July 10, 1938 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania d. February 19, 1972 in New York City, New York Jazz trumpeter, mainly associated with hard bop, known for his work with Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, and Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, as…