Archives

Some of my favorite recordings from Miles' acoustic years: Bag's Groove, My Funny Valentine, Generique, Milestones, Solea, Teo, Masqualero, etc.

A look back at the five-decade career of the original Jazz Messenger – with his own band and bringing the heat in some legendary sessions with other artists.

Hoping to make a career playing (or teaching) jazz? Take a few tips from interstellar traveler and consummate showman Sun Ra.

From W.C. Handy to The Black Keys: A quick look at how American roots music evolved in the 20th Century. Footnotes available upon request.

Time for this hopeless Blue Note fanatic to pay tribute to the jazz label’s 75 years in business. I was inspired by a recent article on NPR.org by a couple of top-notch music writers – Tom Moon [...]

I’ve been at this RCR thing for nearly five years now, and we just published our 250th post. Imagine if I would’ve put all that effort into a solid money-making venture, like cooking meth, [...]

I thought this theme worked pretty well in our blues post. But I couldn’t resist expanding the definition so I could cover some of my favorite jazz summits. Think of these collaborations as [...]

Let me start by pointing out that what I don’t know about Sun Ra could fill a book. A 476-page book, to be precise – written by John F. Szwed, who happens to know a lot about Sun Ra. I’ll also [...]

Check it – RCR is now optimized for iPad and iPhone use. We’re also the only site I’m aware of that’s optimized for rotary phones. Just dial Garfield 1-2323 and I’ll have [...]

Several things happened since I first posted this piece almost two years ago: 1) Based on my google stats, it’s still drawing a lot of readers; 2) A new bio about long-time Thelonious Monk [...]

I’m a bit of a “completist,” but only with a few select artists. For example, I don’t need all 1,000 songs that Lightnin’ Hopkins recorded throughout his career. Just give me a little bit of this [...]

“This is the story of a love affair between a man and a woman whose backgrounds and experiences, whose cultures and class were so different, that the chances of them even meeting were extremely [...]

I grew up listening to a lot of jazz. Not the edgy stuff. My dad mostly liked straight-ahead piano players like Oscar Peterson, Erroll Garner and Earl “Fatha” Hines. He also had those “can’t [...]