Louis Armstrong

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Sweet inspiration

Mixed Magic’s When Mahalia Sings
For more than three decades, until her death in 1972, Mahalia Jackson’s powerful contralto voice raised the spirits of even nonbelievers through her inspiring gospel singing. In an original production, Mixed Magic Theatre is reminding us about her legacy in the premiere of When Mahalia Sings .
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | April 08, 2010

Midnight ramblers

Rock legend Peter Wolf serves dinner and verse to the Phoenix ’s poet .
In rock ’n’ roll, it was possible to live in Harvard Square, be a musician — a local musician — and be able to pay your rent and find restaurants where you could eat and buy food and survive, and feel that there was a sense of . . . future, with hope and opportunity.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | April 08, 2010

Easy does it

Treme tours New Orleans
Writer/producer Eric Overmyer was quoted in a New York Times Magazine article last month, but it’s worth repeating: “ Treme is not the The Wire .” He went on: “Those who are expecting The Wire or wanting The Wire may be frustrated.”
By JON GARELICK | April 08, 2010

Joyride

The Worcester Art Museum shows us ‘Who Shot Rock & Roll’
It is May 1966, in the Prelude Club in Harlem, an Atlantic Records release party.
By GREG COOK | March 24, 2010

Making it sing

Dee Dee does Billie, plus John Stein & Ron Gill
If you come to Dee Dee Bridgewater’s new Billie Holiday tribute disc — or to her two Holiday shows at the Paramount Theatre this weekend — expecting a reverent impersonation, you could be in for a shock. Bridgewater has transformed the music and persona of the jazz icon.
By JON GARELICK | March 25, 2010

The Regal Beagle

A quirky neighborhood that puts all the pieces together
The Regal Beagle is making a quick success doing what almost all the new restaurants want to do: small plates; comfort food with a gourmet twist; a mixture of high and low; a bit of locovore, green, and slow fare; some salty fast food; interesting drinks; and scrambled nostalgia.
By ROBERT NADEAU | January 13, 2010

Getting the story

Gary Giddins and Scott DeVeaux sing jazz's many strains
Full-length written histories of jazz can be a slog. Especially since "the story of jazz" (as critic Marshall Stearns titled his 1956 tome) only gets longer and more complicated. Personally, on these prose-narrative trips along the New Orleans–New York axis of musical development, I usually bog down somewhere outside Chicago.
By JON GARELICK | December 01, 2009

Stars aligned

Cult heroes and superstars dot the region's fall concert calendar
The days are growing shorter, the magazines are (well, barely) getting larger and meatier, and the first batch of cider doughnuts is on the way real soon: all sure signs of autumn, as is the bountiful crop of prestigious concerts coming our way this season.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | September 16, 2009

Love is nothing

Balls, Pucks, and Monster Trucks
Here’s what I know about tennis: if you’ve got love, you’ve got nothing. From love to 15 to 30 to whatever comes between 30 and the sets and the matches, with those advantage points and tiebreakers thrown in, tennis scoring is less intuitive to me than the Cyrillic alphabet is after eight beers, so who cares? But, things change.
By RICK WORMWOOD | September 09, 2009

The music man

George Wein, the father of American music festivals, reflects on bringing world-class folk and jazz (and more) to Newport
Forty years after a half-million hippies descended on a sprawling dairy farm in upstate New York, Woodstock has become shorthand for an entire epoch.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | August 05, 2009

Hot summer nights

Before the solstice hits, four albums drop
If the coming week is indicative of anything, it's that this is going to be one busy summer. Discs have been flooding into the office and there's no end in sight. In an effort to keep up, here's a collection of four reviews for albums being released before summer even officially starts.
By SAM PFEIFLE | June 10, 2009

Tours of duty

John Clifford and Billy Bang's Vietnam; plus Icons Among Us and bye-bye Jazz Brunch
Clifford and Bang will celebrate Memorial Day weekend together at Highland Kitchen in Somerville this Sunday in a program called "Basic Training: An Evening of Art, Music, and Poetry."
By JON GARELICK | May 18, 2009

Griot act

Malian performer Rokia Traoré breaks through with Tchamantché
Some albums are extraordinary because they capture their time. Others are great because they transcend it.
By TED DROZDOWSKI | February 12, 2009

Crossword: ''Court case''

Time to mix and match
Time to mix and match
By MATT JONES | November 19, 2008

Back to the future

Duke Robillard unveils Sunny and Her Joy Boys
Since leaving Roomful of Blues, the vintage guitar hero Duke Robillard has moved forward by reaching back into the annals of American blues, swing, jazz, and R&B and by doing so, he’s told a pretty incredible story.
By BOB GULLA | October 22, 2008

State of the art

Newport's Jazz ID check
You could find just about any kind of jazz you wanted on the three stages at the JVC Jazz Festival in Newport last weekend.
By JON GARELICK | August 14, 2008

Hot summer nights

The pulsating spirit of Sound Session ’08
The annual Sound Session festival is a weeklong sonic soiree that is expected to draw upwards of 65,000 partygoers from July 6 through 12.
By CHRIS CONTI | June 26, 2008

Walking the line

Duke Robillard comes out Swingin’
Duke Robillard comes out Swingin’.
By BOB GULLA | May 28, 2008

Crescent City health report

The New Orleans Jazz + Heritage Festival buoys a wounded community
“Is much better! The tourists is coming back !” That was our cab driver from Louis Armstrong Airport into New Orleans — a transplanted Haitian from Jefferson Parish.
By JON GARELICK | May 06, 2008