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.

 

• “SWIGGLE” TURNS SIXTEEN! WITH A BAND. September 22, 2017
  My little friend “Swiggle” Murchison had her Sweet Sixteen party this summer, and it was a blast.  I should explain that the Murchisons are dear friends of mine — musical and otherwise — and that ever …
• BOTH “FINE” AND “DANDY”: PETRA VAN NUIS, JOHN DI MARTINO, NICKI PARROTT, HAL SMITH at the Cleveland Classic Jazz Party (September 17, 2017) September 21, 2017
  Photograph by Bill Klewitz One of the many pleasures of the recent Cleveland Classic Jazz Party was the opportunity to hear the wonderful singer Petra van Nuis, someone who has been pleasing Chicago a …
• MAKING THE MONTH SO MUCH BETTER: JEFF AND JOEL’S HOUSE PARTY (October 13-14-15, 2017, Guilford, Connecticut) September 20, 2017
  For me, October’s always been a long period to get through, a landscape of four weeks.  When I was a child, it was a slow trudge to Halloween (a holiday I no longer find thrilling); as a homeowner, it …
• A SUMMER NIGHT, EIGHT YEARS AGO (June 7, 2009) September 18, 2017
  Good times, fine sounds.  the calendar says they’re gone; we know they aren’t. The Ear Inn has been host to gatherings of joyous insight on Sunday nights since July 2007, and I think I was there for t …
• “OF THINGS PAST”: JIMMY KNEPPER, DICK KATZ, GEORGE MRAZ, MEL LEWIS (1986) September 15, 2017
  This doesn’t require much commentary: it is a gorgeously tender themeless improvisation on THESE FOOLISH THINGS by Jimmy Knepper, trombone; Dick Katz, piano; George Mraz, string bass; Mel Lewis, drums …