C. Michael Bailey

The French classical label Naive has made a successful foray into jazz with recordings like m: Mina Agossi’s Red Eyes (2012); and m: Tania Maria’s Tempo (2012). A Different Porgy and Another Bess is the first thematic big-band offering from the label. Drawing from the m: George Gershwin/DuBose Heyward opera, Porgy and Bess (1935), A Different Porgy highlights eleven vocal pieces from the book. The music performed by the Brussels Jazz Orchestra, under the direction Frank Vaganee, features David Linx in the role of Porgy and m: Maria Joao as Bess. The arrangements are bright and progressive, courtesy of a wide swath of people in and outside the band…

The pedal steel guitar is so closely associated with American country and western music that its image can scarcely escape that infinite gravity of categorization. Even when it has wobbled its way into jazz, the instrument has always operated beneath the label of “Western Swing” or “Alternative Country.” Several notable players have distinguished themselves in the hinge of Western Swing, including Bob Wills’ steel guitarist Leon McAuliffe, Hank Williams’ steel guitarist Don Helms, and Buddy Emmons. Many of the country and western musicians of the 1930s and ’40s were closet jazzers, a fact that led to the swing hybrid…

“Jazz Singer/Songwriters Part I: Louise Van Aarsen and Rebecka Larsdotter”" featured two new artists standing in the middle of the adult contemporary jazz vocals map. Both discs have elements of mainstream acoustic and mainstream contemporary electric jazz and feature original compositions by the singers themselves. Where Maria Neckam and Tanya Malakyrska differ is in their concerted aim to smash genre definition, making all music one…

All chicken or feathers, feast or famine, flood or drought; regarding jazz vocal releases, there is always a healthy steady stream of new music being produced. The vast majority is good while, as it should be, the truly exceptional are of a rarer variety. The release of m: Kate McGarry’s exceptional Girl Talk (Palmetto, 2012) might have been just a singular event of excellence, except that m: Sara Gazarek decided to join McGarry at Palmetto records, releasing the equally fine Blossum and Bee, signaling a trend of excellence in jazz vocals released over a compressed event horizon…

The History of Jazz (Second Edition) Ted Gioia Hardcover; 452 pages ISBN: 0195399706 Oxford University Press 2011

For the past 25 years, author and teacher Ted Gioia has provided the most succinct and contemporary histories of America’s native musics: blues and jazz. He has done this through his exceptional facility for taking all the previous literature, separating the wheat from the chaff, correcting the errors and myths, and burnishing a brand new shine on the music whole. His four histories: West Coast Jazz: Modern Jazz in California 1945-1960 (Oxford University Press, 1992), The History of Jazz (Oxford University Press, 1997), Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music (W.W. Norton and Co., 2009) and The Birth (And the Death) of the Cool (Speck Press, 2009) remain the appropriate starting places for a written introduction to blues and jazz…