You’ve gotta love a musical curmudgeon. Better still, a musical curmudgeon with a ton of great ideas. You May Also Like: No related posts.

“Sex on the screen should be suspenseful,” Alfred Hitchcock told François Truffaut. “If sex is too blatant or obvious, there’s no suspense. You May Also Like: Aviation Blondes – ‘Edge of Forever’ (2009): Forgotten Series

On April 22, Jean-Baptiste Frederic Isidor “Toots” Thielemans turns 90 years old. Four weeks before that comes a look back on one of the richest and yet disregarded career in jazz music, Yesterday & Today. You May Also Like: Eliane Elias Confidently Expanded Her Main Influences on ‘Bossa Nova Stories’

A new documentary on legendary bandleader and showman Cab Calloway will air on the PBS program “American Masters” as part of Black History Month. Cab Calloway: Sketches premieres nationally on Monday, February 27. You May Also Like: No related posts.

On this special edition of Something Else! Reviews’ One Track Mind, we hand the reins over to jazz drummer Chico Hamilton. You May Also Like: Digging Into Craft Recordings’ 2021 Chet Baker Vinyl Reissues

Jazz legend Chico Hamilton celebrated turning 90 last month — how else? — but issuing another album. With Revelation, the NEA Jazz Master’s 60th project, Hamilton continues to build on a remarkable recording career dating back to 1941. You May Also Like: Paul Jolly, free jazz musician, club owner andRead More

By Mark Saleski It was about two years ago that me and TheWife™ went to a folk-ish show in the unassuming function hall of a local church. The band was The Low Anthem. We had never heard of them but not long into the set, in the middle of aRead More

Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter was a man of sweeping appetites, for songs, for drink and for life. This made his music rugged and true, but also got him into his share of big trouble. Very big. Ledbetter, born on Jan. 29, 1885 on the Jeter Plantation near Mooringsport, La., wouldRead More

This is a whodathunkit moment that nearly went un-thunk. Sarah Vaughan, a singer of dizzying range; and clarinetist Woody Herman (then leader of “The Swingin’est Big Band Ever,” as another 1963 recording trumpeted) were jazz legends, both. But they never released a studio recording together, until these broadcast programs —Read More

NICK DERISO: This Smithsonian Folkways release, issued today, is a hot-dawg compilation that sets up both as primer for the new-to-this and reminder for the been-there-done-that crowd. A remarkably deep catalogue has helped the label continue for years with a series of myth-confirming sets. “Classic Piano Blues” is no different,Read More