Posts

The Revivalists, The Mint

September, 11, 2012 Jazz Fest’s surprise moments can happen any time. One of mine came this year when The Revivalists kicked off the Fest from the Gentilly stage before noon on the opening Friday. While the band has played the Fest the…

Terence Blanchard Quintet, Catalina Bar & Grill

August 17, 2012 There are few musicians I can point to more visually evocative than Terence Blanchard (and I’m not just talking about his 20+ year filmography). Blanchard paints fully expressed textures with sound, creating jazz that is…

Honey Island Swamp Band Returns to The Mint

August 14, 2012 It’s apropos that the Honey Island Swamp Band would return for a summer gig at The Mint following an appearance at Outside Lands the prior weekend. After all, the Bay Area figures so prominently in this NOLA band’s origin…

Buddy Guy and Jonny Lang, City National Grove of Anaheim

August 10, 2012 Into the blues or not, it was impossible not to look forward to the crossroads on the road summit of Buddy Guy and Jonny Lang - two giant slingers for the ages. Myself, I’ll get me some 8/12-bars all night long from just…

Rock ‘n Roll Will Never Die Exhibit

Jim Brock Photography is pleased to have images of the Beach Boys featured at the Canadian National Exposition's "Rock 'n Roll Will Never Die" exhibit in Toronto. CanEx kicks off August 17th and draws an estimated 1.3 million visitors during…

Moncef Genoud Trio, Vitello’s

July 12, 2012 Jazz is constant discovery. Notes become threads, stories become journeys. Artists find a larger audience. Old things are expressed in new and surprising ways. All were elemental to the first of two nights with the Moncef Genoud…

Robert Walter Residency, with the 20th Congress, The Mint

June 13, 2012 There is no sound quite as satisfying as a Hammond B-3 organ through a Leslie speaker. In the right hands, the B-3 can be pure blues drenched, Sunday church joy, straight up bop, prog rock majesty, soul master and classic rock…

Matt Chamberlain Residency with Bill Frisell, The Mint

May 30, 2012 A guitar’s frequent absence from a jazz arrangement is both a uniqueness of the idiom and distinguishes it from the string driven sound of rock and blues. As an early ‘70s kid I was wide eyed about rock and all about guitars.…

Jazzfest 2012 Reflections

From the Revivalists passionate opening Gentilly set to the final moments of Springsteen’s plaintive reading of Saints, the first weekend of Jazzfest 2012 was an abundance of special moments.  Yes, the draws were the Acura headliners.…

Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Jack DeJohnette, Catalina Bar and Grill

May 15, 2012 It’s been said that Los Angeles is a tough jazz town. New York, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago all have thriving jazz scenes in vibrant urban settings. Los Angeles, with its diasporadic lifestyle and geography, requires the…