Posts

Billy Cobham’s Spectrum 40 Band, The Mint
January 26, 2013
Mahavishnu Orchestra is in the pantheon of jazz fusion pioneers. Black hole density, volcanic intensity and ridiculous virtuosity. I had never heard anything quite like John McLaughlin’s searing fretwork, Jan Hammer’s…

Dragon Smoke, The Mint
December 12, 2012
Certain celestial alignments skip decades, if not lifetimes, or at a minimum, involve covering great distances at greater expense. Think solar eclipses, Comet Hale-Bopp or if you get around, the aurora. Even then, there…

Voodoo Experience 2012
October 26-28, 2012
As an unabashed Jazzfest vet, I approached my first Voodoo with excitement and a hint of fear. The mix of rap, EDM, and the often indefinable, sprinkled with the best of New Orleans contemporary and traditional, on a bed…

Red Baraat, The Mint
October 4, 2012
Since I last caught up with Red Baraat in February, the self described “Brooklyn dhol’n’brass” by way of a second line, has been to the White House, played Bonnaroo and High Sierra, performed at the TED conference,…

Bombino, The Mint
September 18, 2012
Tuareg guitarist Omara “Bombino” Moctar was born in a nomadic encampment in Niger in 1980. Some 26 years later he was playing alongside Keith Richards and Charlie Watts in California. The here to the there and now is…

Terence Blanchard Quintet, Catalina Bar & Grill
August 17, 2012
There are few musicians I can point to more visually evocative than Terence Blanchard (and I’m not just talking about his 20+ year filmography). Blanchard paints fully expressed textures with sound, creating jazz that is…

Buddy Guy and Jonny Lang, City National Grove of Anaheim
August 10, 2012
Into the blues or not, it was impossible not to look forward to the crossroads on the road summit of Buddy Guy and Jonny Lang - two giant slingers for the ages. Myself, I’ll get me some 8/12-bars all night long from just…

Rock ‘n Roll Will Never Die Exhibit
Jim Brock Photography is pleased to have images of the Beach Boys featured at the Canadian National Exposition's "Rock 'n Roll Will Never Die" exhibit in Toronto. CanEx kicks off August 17th and draws an estimated 1.3 million visitors during…

Robert Walter Residency, with the 20th Congress, The Mint
June 13, 2012
There is no sound quite as satisfying as a Hammond B-3 organ through a Leslie speaker. In the right hands, the B-3 can be pure blues drenched, Sunday church joy, straight up bop, prog rock majesty, soul master and classic rock…

Matt Chamberlain Residency with Bill Frisell, The Mint
May 30, 2012
A guitar’s frequent absence from a jazz arrangement is both a uniqueness of the idiom and distinguishes it from the string driven sound of rock and blues. As an early ‘70s kid I was wide eyed about rock and all about guitars.…