Search results for "Alan Kurtz"

Alan Kurtz's Twelve Lovers posted in The Jazz.com Blog January 01, 08

I generally don't inquire into our writers' private lives. Jazz critics are a bohemian lot, and when (in Fats Waller...

Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn: Tonk (Rating: 94/100) posted in Music February 14, 09

The word "tonk" is a slang contraction of honky-tonk, an 1890s term for a cheap, often tawdry nightclub or danceh...

The Manhattan Transfer: Soul Food to Go (Rating: 99/100) posted in Music November 06, 07

"We got cool and hot," they sing, "just for you—the pleasures of the soul." For Tim, Janis, Cheryl & Alan, soul food ...

Milt Jackson: In a Sentimental Mood (Rating: 94/100) posted in Music November 08, 07

"All music is folk music," observed Louis Armstrong. "I ain't never heard a horse sing a song." Without contradicting...

Stan Getz: I'm Late, I'm Late (Rating: 98/100) posted in Music October 30, 07

In 1961, Focus session hadn't acquired today's weasel connotations, but instead described the recording of Eddie Saut...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: TWELVE ESSENTIAL 'THIRD STREAM' PERFORMANCES

A few years after longtime Metropolitan Opera French hornist Gunther Schuller assisted in Miles Davis's Birth of the ...

Shelly Manne: I Could Have Danced All Night (Rating: 96/100) posted in Music November 01, 07

Five months after My Fair Lady's Broadway premiere, André Previn was tapped to turn the Edwardian-era musical into mo...

Kenny G: Songbird (Rating: 60/100) posted in Music November 05, 07

Seldom has a jazz track ignited such firestorms. Songbirding, as it's now known, gained notoriety during the 1989 ove...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: TWELVE TURKEYS FOR THANKSGIVING

Jazz.com visitors will notice that most of our reviews are favorable. That's because (a) we love jazz and (b) in bu...

Gerry Mulligan: You Took Advantage of Me (Rating: 94/100) posted in Music November 08, 07

In 1960, when Gerry Mulligan and his former longtime sideman Bob Brookmeyer assembled a 13-piece band, economics rend...

Django Reinhardt: Nuages (Rating: 96/100) posted in Music November 09, 07

One of Debussy's Nocturnes (1899) is subtitled "Nuages" (French for clouds), but this composition is unrelated. The t...

John Lewis: Sketch (Rating: 90/100) posted in Music November 23, 07

MJQ + string quartet = one felicitous match. Whereas many jazz groups would simply overwhelm such a setting—can ...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: TWELVE ESSENTIAL 'THIRD STREAM' PERFORMANCES

A few years after longtime Metropolitan Opera French hornist Gunther Schuller assisted in Miles Davis's Birth of the ...

Lorez Alexandria: Show Me (Rating: 90/100) posted in Music November 24, 07

Who knew? Turns out the Cockney Cinderella who morphs into a duchess for a musical set in Mayfair actually hailed fro...

Mindi Abair: Bloom (Rating: 91/100) posted in Music March 31, 08

In previously reviewing Mindi Abair's "As Good As It Gets" (2002) and "Make a Wish" (2004), we lamely struggled with ...

THE DOZENS posted in Miscellaneous Pages December 01, 07

In African-American tradition, "the dozens" is an informal exchange filled with ribaldry, taunting and clever put dow...

A History of Cool Jazz in 100 Tracks (Part 2) posted in Features and Interviews May 16, 09

Edited by Ted Gioia We continue with our history of cool jazz in 100 tracks. Below we present the final fifty r...

A History of Cool Jazz in 100 Tracks posted in Features and Interviews May 14, 09

Edited by Ted Gioia                 ...

Knife Fight Breaks Out Over Sun Ra Review posted in The Jazz.com Blog January 17, 08

Well maybe not a real knife fight. This is the Internet, after all, and the bloodshed is only virtual. But if th...

A 1959 Jazz Playlist posted in The Jazz.com Blog July 09, 09

As regular site visitors know, we occasionally feature a batch of track reviews in this column—highlighting a few of ...

A History of New Orleans Music in 100 Tracks (Part One) posted in Features and Interviews August 26, 09

Edited by Ted Gioia New Orleans does not rank in the top 50 cities in the US, when measured by population. It...

Smooth Jazz Obits Are Premature posted in The Jazz.com Blog June 11, 08

Editor's Note: Alan Kurtz, jazz.com's resident curmudgeon, is our fledgling site’s most widely read and fiercel...

Buddy Bolden on the Holodeck posted in The Jazz.com Blog July 02, 08

Recent articles on jazz.com have raised troubling questions about new technologies that, not content to merely im...

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