I find that good leading starts with good following, just as good teaching starts with good learning.  Wanting to learn requires motivation. I find I’m most motivated when the subject captures my fantasy. (Conversely, another good motivation is when it’s a matter of grave consequence. In blues music that’s called the hellhound on your trail.) […]

The New York Times calls Allan Harris “an extremely relaxed and tasteful crooner in the Nat ‘King’ Cole tradition,” and that lineage is strong for him: he performed a concert tribute, “Unforgettable: The Songs of Nat ‘King’ Cole” at the Kennedy Center, and released a live recording, Long Live the King. He has the admiration […]

It’s fair to say that Winnipeg has developed a fondness for Andy Farber, and we’re preparing to welcome him back again this fall for the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra’s season opener, “Music from the Stage and Screen.” Farber is one of the premier big band leaders and arrangers in New York, and he’s in high demand […]

Here in Winnipeg, when someone says Papa Mambo, people know the music right away—it’s fun, it’s lively, it’s danceable, and it’s our very own. The big sounds of Latin jazz, salsa, and cha cha cha always get people moving, no matter where they are. Chilean-born Rodrigo “Papa Mambo” Muñoz put his salsa band together in […]

Julian Bradford is one of the busiest bass players in the city, and he plays comfortably in many styles. He tells me he grew up listening to lots of classical, and starting messing with his parents’ stereo and a couple of tape decks when he was in his teens. He’s never been one to settle, […]

The Jazz on Wheels band has had a great summer. We’ve played in school yards and city parks—and even on a barge—to crowds that range from toddlers to elders. The kids have danced and added spice (from lion roars to tambourines), and even those whose dancing days are behind them have grooved along in their […]

“Precocious” is the first word that comes to mind when I think of Aaron Parks. At 15, he was attending the University of Washington, doing a triple major in computer science, math, and music. He did not plan to pursue music professionally, but soon after university, he was performing and recording with many of the […]

A perceptive jazz fan once commented that when Ella Fitzgerald sang about her man leaving, you thought he’d gone to the corner store to pick up a loaf of bread and a carton of milk. When Billie Holiday sang that her man had left, you knew he’d packed a suitcase, caught an airplane, and was […]

Abbey Lincoln is one of those singers who makes an impression on you. It’s not just her throaty voice or her elegant musicianship, but a certain quality—like every song is an intensely personal revelation, an invitation to meet her where she lives. Like Nina Simone and Billie Holiday before her, you hear that disarming combination […]

This summer, I watched the wonderfully quirky documentary, Babies. The premise is simple. Director Thomas Balmès tracks the first year or so in the lives of four babies in four parts of the world. Two of them live in cities—San Francisco and Tokyo. One lives in the steppes of Mongolia, one in a mud hut […]