This is a re-written version of a piece from last April, which I'm reprising as a pre-quel to a post later this week about the Occupy mo...

It's a hoary concept, but still viable. Although it's possible that some of the non-candidates are not Republican. I have tried to e...

Once again, the academic slavies in Brilliant Corners U. (Uber-Graduate division) have been plowing through a book about jazz and popular cu...

In 1971, this callow trumpet player enrolled in the Jack's Drum Shop (J.D.S.) School of Music. Even though the institution flashed only ...

A tip 'o the hat to my progenitors at this blog-Chris, Matt and other guests, on whose shoulders I stand. Brilliant Corners, the Little ...

Since the 1960's, it's become common for bass players to keep a bow handy, and many became adept users-Jimmy Garrison, Ray Brown, Ed...

My l ast post showed some of ways mutes have been used in jazz trumpet playing.  The technological extension of the  sound alteration/manipu...

I. e., the thing you stick in the bell of your horn to change the sound and/or make it softer. Could be anything. I'll do a quick recap ...

A recent post on Playjazz , a site with much to offer aspiring jazz musicians, said this: This is why it's so important to listen to m...

I'm sure this has been bruited about more than several times in the jazz blogs, but hell, the skies are dark and the wind is howling. So...

"Or maybe your granny (great-granny?) was a weathered-but-gorgeous sharecropper, a Dust Bowl refugee in frayed frock and battered boots...

The  recent announcement  of a statue honoring Celtics great  Bill Russell  inspired a personal wave of public art paranoia and this expansi...

Ed L. recently did a sweet post about Eric Von Schmidt and the Cambridge folk scene of the 1960's. I commented thusly: Growing up in ...

It's a truism that jazz was forged from a number of different elements: ragtime, blues, folk songs, European structures... As the music ...

Here's a glib little test designed to help pass the lonely hours. Apologies to Flann O'Brien. Circle the appropriate cliche (Key...

The Actual Lock on the Park Plaza Piano (cel phone photo) A Piano Lock(so you can actually see one) SCENE: Executive Board Room, 13t...

My last post(see just below) got a thread going on the Yahoo group of my band . Much of the conversation is about why young people-even thos...