Rant’n’Roll – Blast Furnace Blues Festival: March 23, 24 and 25 Mike Greenblatt February 28, 2018 Columns, Rant 'N' Roll Bethlehem, Penn.— It’s time again to get down with the annual Blast Furnace Blues Festival coming to the MusikFest Café at Steel Stacks March 23, 24 and 25. With...
Rant’n’Roll – The Genius of Charles Lloyd: Americana Jazz! A New Genre! Mike Greenblatt February 21, 2018 Columns, Rant 'N' Roll Easton, Penn.— He came out of Memphis to back blues legend Howling Wolf and jazz legend Ornette Coleman before coming to stardom in the bands of Chico Hamilton and Cannonball Adderley. By the...
Rant’n’Roll: One-On-One With Jose James Mike Greenblatt February 14, 2018 Columns, Rant 'N' Roll As part of his two-year world tour celebrating the music of legendary soul singer Bill Withers, New York City singer/songwriter/actor Jose James is making one of his first stops at The South Orange Perfo...
Rant’n’Roll Mike Greenblatt February 7, 2018 Columns, Rant 'N' Roll The First Great Blues CD of 2018 Singer/songwriter/harmonicat Curtis Salgado, and guitarist/composer/producer Alan Hager, both from Oregon, do not need a band. Rough Cut (Alligator Records) has six orig...
Rant’n’Roll Mike Greenblatt January 31, 2018 Columns, Rant 'N' Roll Dancing at the Hall Jerry Granelli’s Dance Hall on Justin Time Records is a keeper. The 76-year-old drummer -- a veteran of the touring bands of The Platters (“The Great Pretender” rambles o...
Rant’n’Roll Mike Greenblatt January 24, 2018 Columns, Rant 'N' Roll Zee Blues It’s all in his voice: that bubbling, gurgling phlegm-fest. Howling Wolf ain’t got nothin’ on this guy. Self-released, self-produced, What You See Is What You Get is a 10-...
Rant’n’Roll Mike Greenblatt January 17, 2018 Columns, Rant 'N' Roll What Time Is It? For 71 years the One O’Clock Lab Band from the University of North Texas has been raging, filling the air with well-muscled brassy charts by hungry students who are so damn ...
Rant’n’Roll: One Last Look at My 2017 Mike Greenblatt January 10, 2018 Columns, Rant 'N' Roll Top 20 Jazz CDs DeJohnette, Grenadier, Medeski & Scofield, Hudson Charles Lloyd, Passin’ Thru Bill Frisell/Thomas Morgan, Small Town Thelonious Monk, Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1960 Vijay Iyer Sextet, Far Fr...
Rant’n’Roll Mike Greenblatt January 3, 2018 Columns, Rant 'N' Roll Texas Blues After eight years of filling the coveted lead guitar chair for John Mayall & His Bluebreakers and Black Oak Arkansas, Rocky Athas went solo in 2014. His past is profoundly on display in t...
Rant’n’Roll Mike Greenblatt December 27, 2017 Columns, Rant 'N' Roll Outspoken Italian Pianist/Composer Simona Premazzi is Outspoken on her self-released quartet CD with tenor/soprano saxophonist Dayna Stephens, bassist Joe Martin and drummer Nasheet Waits. When she tackl...
