Rant ‘n’ Roll: Clifford Lamb, Gurf Morlix, Miho Hazama, Colin Linden & Luther Dickinson, and Andy B. Mike Greenblatt February 27, 2019 Albums, Columns, Rant 'N' Roll, Reviews Mash-Up City Blues & Hues (Weber Works Entertainment Group) by San Francisco pianist-composer Clifford Lamb mashes up old and new to ingratiating effect. The brainchild of producer Jeffrey Weber, its eig...
Rant ‘n’ Roll Mike Greenblatt February 20, 2019 Albums, Columns, Rant 'N' Roll, Reviews Solo Piano Billy Joel once wrote “And the piano it sounds like a carnival....” Nowhere is that more applicable than on James Fernando’s solo piano debut, his self-released The Lonely Sailor, where he deconst...
Rant ‘n’ Roll: The Jazz Page Mike Greenblatt February 13, 2019 Columns, Rant 'N' Roll Good Vibes Vibraphonist Behn Gillece resides in a Parallel Universe on his fourth Posi-Tone album. The 11 originals feature his good vibes alongside a tenor sax/trumpet frontline, complete with piano/bass/dr...
Rant ‘n’ Roll Mike Greenblatt February 6, 2019 Rant 'N' Roll Pete Seeger, American Hero During and after World War II, the Soviet Union were our friends. So much so that American communist groups started sprouting up in the United States. Sure, the USSR used So...
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: 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...
