Jazz Lives

Where “lives” is both noun and verb.  Written by Michael Steinman and Nominated as one of the Best Jazz Blogs of 2009 by the Jazz Journalists Association. Michael Steinman first heard Louis Armstrong on records in the 1950s, a transcendent experience. (He also saw Louis and the All-Stars in 1967.) An unashamed jazz addict, he writes for HOT HOUSE, Cadence and The New York Jazz Record. He has been published in CODA and other jazz periodicals, and was the New York correspondent for The Mississippi Rag. Michael is called upon frequently to write liner notes, which have been an integral part of compact discs on many labels, including Arbors, Nagel-Heyer, Stomp Off, NifNuf, Jazzology, Audiophile, LaLa, Azica, Little Simmy, Amber Lake, and GelberMusic.

 

• WON’T YOU PLEASE ARRANGE IT? (July 10, 2019) July 12, 2019
  We love Ray Skjelbred, who loves Jerome Kern, Dorothy Fields, Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire, and Joe Sullivan.  Here, he starts THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT — dedicated to Ginger, her hair a mass of shampoo …
• CELESTIAL VIBRATIONS FROM PLANET DOYLE: JONATHAN DOYLE, JACOB ZIMMERMAN, CHARLIE HALLORAN, KRIS TOKARSKI, JAMEY CUMMINS, STEVE PIKAL, HAL SMITH (Redwood Coast Music Festival, May 11, 2019) July 11, 2019
  The music that Jonathan Doyle writes, plays, and inspires is too expansive to fit into any box, but listening to these four glorious performances from the Redwood Coast Music Festival, I thought, “Wha …
• REMIX WELL! (Part Two): GORDON AU’S GRAND STREET STOMPERS at SWING REMIX (April 13, 2019) July 9, 2019
  Here’s the second part of a glorious evening of music and dance at Swing Remix, music provided and created by Gordon Au’s Grand Street Stompers — who were, for this gig, expanded: Gordon, trumpet, arr …
• WHEN BEING “MAD” IS PLEASURE (1924, 1938, and 2017) July 8, 2019
  Our subjects today are the overlap of “madness” and “pleasure.”  Please be prepared to take notes. “But first, this,” as they used to say on public radio. PLEASURE MAD, a Sidney Bechet composition, wa …
• RAY SKJELBRED and his CUBS at OLYMPIA, WASHINGTON (June 2019): RAY SKJELBRED, KIM CUSACK, JEFF HAMILTON, MATT WEINER, JOSH ROBERTS July 7, 2019
  I was closer to home — Beantown in Beverly, Massachusetts — when Ray Skjelbred and his Cubs played several sets (more than forty videos recorded and posted by Rae Ann Berry) at the 28th Annual Greater …