The Minnesota Hard Bop Collective (L-R, Dale Alexander, Jesse Simon, Ted Olsen, Omar AbdulKarim, Jeff Rinear © Mn Hard Bop Collective 2020) Good things have a way of sticking around. And few things are better than the music called hard bop which flourished roughly from 1955 to 1965. Luckily for those of us in the […]
Veronica Swift and The Emmet Cohen Trio © Kevin R. Mason On Friday, October 11, 2019, On Stage at Kingsborough’s “Jazz at the Lighthouse” series presented Veronica Swift & The Emmet Cohen Trio. Jazz at the Lighthouse offers panoramic views, delicious wine and cheese plates, and most of all, great music. Emmet Cohen […]
Review:JC Sanford QuartetKeratoconus(Shifting Paradigm Records) I had to learn a couple of things about JC Sanford before I could fully appreciate his 2019 release Keratoconus. For starters, Sanford is a funny man with a deadpan sense of humor. On the bandstand, he’ll share anecdotes about pyramid schemes, or a love for Billy Joel that was […]
Luke Peterson Something about drummer Luke Peterson impressed me long before he completed his degree in math and physics at Northwestern, long before he started graduate studies in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Colorado, even before he graduated from Apple Valley High School and a year with the Dakota Combo. He just wasn’t the […]
Irv Williams 1919-2019 Either “the coolest old guy or the oldest cool guy…” — Pioneer Press Like a bobo doll, saxophonist Irv Williams seemed as if he would bounce back for an eternity. His career spanned more than 8 decades. He must have “retired” a dozen times, issuing new recordings and playing countless happy hour […]
Mwenso & The Shakes © Kevin R. Mason The 2019 JazzFest White Plains took place from September 15 to 19 in White Plains, New York, a city in Westchester County located about 45 minutes north of New York City. From Wednesday to Friday, there were several free afternoon shows, including singer/multi-instrumentalist Danny […]