Jazzville, NJ

Chicago Jazz Fest Tickles And Delights

// September 7th, 2010 // No Comments » // Jazz Events, Recaps & Reviews

Rene Marie & her High Maintenance Quartet opened their set with a jazz-laden version of Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit"

Most people celebrate Labor Day with one final beach outing or barbeque. But for the past 30 years, Chicago natives have been marking the end of summer with a lakefront music festival. The Chicago Jazz Festival always strives to bring audiences a wide range of jazz styles, and this year was no different. The 32nd  annual event was expanded to three locations over several days and showcased an eclectic bill of artists.
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Bickford Audience Boogie Woogies With Bob Milne

// August 21st, 2010 // No Comments » // Bickford Theatre, Morristown, NJ, Jazz Events

Self-taught ragtime and boogie-woogie pianist Bob Milne travels the world making these difficult piano formats look easy for audiences. PHOTO CREDIT: Dogwood Center For Performing Arts

“Why do I play everything by ear? Because the audience listens by ear,” explained ragtime and boogie-woogie pianist Bob Milne during a Q&A session following his August 16^th performance at The BickFord Theatre.

The self-taught musician left an indelible mark on the Jazz SummerFest series that’s been taking place in Morristown these last few weeks. His low-key, unassuming manner allowed the music to take center stage that night. Milne’s storytelling took audience members on a journey through time as he described the cultural and musical background behind each piece he performed. Through the course of the evening, we traveled from New Orleans to Michigan and everywhere in between, getting a feel for how jazz evolved from the late 1800s to the early part of the twentieth century.

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Anat Cohen and Jamie Cullum Bring Down The House At The Newport Jazz Festival (Newport 2010 Recap, Part 6 of 6)

// August 20th, 2010 // No Comments » // Jazz Events, Recaps & Reviews

Clarinetist Anat Cohen drops jaws with a riveting solo at the Newport Jazz Festival.

With heavy hearts, D.A. and I geared up for the last two sets of the day. We managed to find great close-up seats at Harbor Stage for clarinetist Anat Cohen, whom we had seen earlier with George Wein’s Newport Allstars. Once she launched into her first song, it was obvious why she had been part of that brilliant group of musicians.

What can I say about her playing that could do her technique justice? The girl’s got soul and funk, plain and simple. Each note seemed to take the very last breath from her body. At times she played one-handed in order to wipe the sweat from her brow. Sometimes she scrunched her face and twisted her body, as if the melody was being taken from her very soul. Likewise, it was truly fascinating to watch Cohen wandering the stage in between her solos. Alternating between fits of ecstasy, bouts of anger or simply smiling at someone off stage, all eyes were glued to her to see what she would do next.

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Newport Jazz Fest 2010 – A Survival Guide For Those Left Behind

// August 1st, 2010 // No Comments » // Commentary, History, Jazz Events, News

The Ben Allison Quartet performing during my fateful 2007 Newport Jazz Festival trip.

In August of 2007, I took a week-long road trip through New England with a friend of mine. The first night’s itinerary called for a stop in my favorite New England town – Newport, Rhode Island.

Since the trip was a spur-of-the-moment event, I was blissfully unaware that we were about to drive into town on one of the most popular summer weekends – that of the Newport Jazz Festival. After driving around to a few bed & breakfasts, we realized finding a room was not going to be easy. But it was only after speaking with the folks at the majestic Hotel Viking and being quoted a rate of $700/night that we found out why we were having such trouble.

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A Return To Nostalgia: String of Pearls Review (w/ audio)

// July 13th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Bickford Theatre, Morristown, NJ, Recaps & Reviews

Holli Ross, Sue Halloran and Jeanne O'Connor make up the String of Pearls vocal jazz trio. PHOTO CREDIT: Judy Jalbert / ionaprint.com

As the female vocal trio took the stage last night at The Bickford Theater wearing leg and neck braces and sporting crutches, I thought, “Uh-oh, I’m in for a long night.” My fears were somewhat confirmed when the group started singing “Crazy People” and overdramatizing their “injuries.”

But once they took the props off (all done as a sort of gag to support member Holli Ross who recently underwent surgery) and launched into numbers such as “A String of Pearls,” “Mr. Sandman” and “Sukiyaki,” it became obvious why String of Pearls has achieved the worldwide following that it has.

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A Little (belated) Thanksgiving Jazz Humor

// December 1st, 2009 // No Comments » // Commentary

Ok, admittedly this has little to nothing to do with New Jersey, but it does deal with Jazz and being that we just had Thanksgiving a few days ago, I figured I’d be forgiven for sharing this humorous litle ditty.

Sung by Garrison Keillor of NPR’s “A Prarie Home Companion“, here is a humorous recounting of some (presumably) fictional Thanksgiving statistics.

Listen here:

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Something Magical At Crossroads Jazz Jam, Tuesday 11/24/2009 (with audio)

// November 26th, 2009 // No Comments » // Cornell McGhee, Crossroads, Garwood, NJ, Dave Ginsberg, David Petrucelli, Earl Grice, James Gibbs III, Jazz Events, John Petrucelli, Radam Schwartz, Recaps & Reviews, Stan Myers

Performers (L to R) organist Radam Schwartz, David Ginsberg, Earl Grice, Cornell McGhee and unknown guitarrist

Something magical happened at The Crossroads this past Tuesday night. It follows a familiar pattern this time of year:

As the students who have been away at college for several months come home for the holidays, they bless us with the musical gifts they have been honing in the halls of academia. The energy is high as some friendly back-and-forth takes place between the musicians as they vie for their place on the proverbial totem pole. (more…)