Search results for "Barney Bigard"

Barney Bigard & Art Hodes: Bucket's Got A Hole In It (Rating: 96/100) posted in Music March 09, 09

This is the first track on the excellent album from Delmark (Bob Koester's significant independent Chicago record com...

Barney Bigard & Art Hodes: Hesitating Blues (Rating: 96/100) posted in Music March 09, 09

From the first striking, keening high note, this tune is a festival of virtuoso clarinet playing by the mature master...

Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington: Mood Indigo (Rating: 98/100) posted in Music February 24, 09

It's interesting to compare this recording of "Mood Indigo" with Ellington's December 1930 version, the more instrume...

Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington: Black and Tan Fantasy (Rating: 100/100) posted in Music February 10, 09

In the movie Amadeus, Salieri speaks about the perfection of Mozart's music, saying: "And music finished as no music ...

Lonnie Johnson with Duke Ellington: Move Over (Rating: 92/100) posted in Music March 09, 09

This track was the second recording on which Lonnie Johnson joined Duke's band, adding a virtuoso guitar part. The ba...

Duke Ellington: Beggar's Blues (Rating: 88/100) posted in Music March 15, 09

The elegant Duke Ellington band is a rather surprising source for a track titled "Beggar's Blues." Yet with this tune...

Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington: It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) (Rating: 98/100) posted in Music February 24, 09

This recording of the de facto Jazz National Anthem is my favorite of the Ellington versions or anyone else's. After ...

Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington: The Beautiful American (Rating: 96/100) posted in Music April 07, 09

What does it mean to be an American? When Louis Armstrong was coming up in New Orleans, it meant being an orphan and ...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: MUSICAL AMERICANA

         Jazz Americana, artwork by Suzanne Cerny Shortly ...

Django Reinhardt: Low Cotton (Rating: 96/100) posted in Music February 18, 09

Some of the finest but least-known small group recordings of the Swing Era were five tracks recorded in Paris in 1939...

Louis Armstrong: (What Did I Do To Be So) Black and Blue (1955) (Rating: 98/100) posted in Music February 23, 09

That remarkable songwriter, musician and world-class character Thomas "Fats" Waller wrote this tune for the 1929 Broa...

Jelly Roll Morton: Sidewalk Blues (Take 3) (Rating: 96/100) posted in Music March 11, 09

According to Rex Stewart's fine book, Jazz Masters of the '30s, Omer Simeon was elsewhere for this track, and the you...

Jelly Roll Morton: Dead Man Blues (Take 1) (Rating: 96/100) posted in Music March 11, 09

According to Rex Stewart's fine book, Jazz Masters of the '30s, Omer Simeon was elsewhere for this track, and the you...

Duke Ellington: Across the Track Blues (Rating: 100/100) posted in Music January 12, 09

As the premier bandleader of the 20th century, Duke didn’t really need to maintain the stride abilities he acquired a...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: ETHAN IVERSON ON STRIDE PIANO

Editor's Note: Music fans, jazz-oriented or otherwise, may know Ethan Iverson solely as the pianist in The Bad Plus—t...

Duke Ellington: Rockin' in Rhythm (Rating: 91/100) posted in Music March 09, 09

This standard for the Ellington band came, as Duke said, "as close as an arrangement gets to sounding spontaneous," w...

Duke Ellington: Caravan (1936) (Rating: 100/100) posted in Music November 21, 07

Duke Ellington's first "Caravan" set off from Hollywood five months before his better-known 1937 big-band excursion ...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: JAZZ EXOTICA

Exotica is armchair tourism. We experience foreign strangeness without the hassles of leaving home. No passports, imm...

Duke Ellington: Limehouse Blues (Rating: 92/100) posted in Music September 15, 09

"Limehouse Blues" is not a blues, but it was inspired by the London neighborhood. When Duke Ellington recorded the so...

Louis Armstrong: The Memphis Blues (Rating: 94/100) posted in Music November 19, 07

This pairing of Armstrong’s artistry with Handy’s music seems so obvious that one might question why it took until 19...

Duke Ellington: Sophisticated Lady (Rating: 91/100) posted in Music December 03, 07

During his illustrious 50-year recording career, Duke Ellington led >1,000 sessions, each yielding multiple tracks. W...

King Oliver's Jazz Band: Snag It (Rating: 90/100) posted in Music March 25, 09

Once New Orleans musicians started moving to Chicago in the 19-teens, South Side club owners began losing interest in...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: KING OLIVER

Joseph "King" Oliver helped deliver polyphonic ensemble swing from the New Orleans backwater. Oliver's Creole Jaz...

The Mills Brothers with Duke Ellington: Diga Diga Doo (Rating: 94/100) posted in Music March 09, 09

This song, written for the significant early black musical Lew Leslie's Blackbirds of 1928, is best characterized as ...

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