It's my lovely wife Nancy's birthday today, and as always, I celebrate by posting a version of the classic "Nancy (With the Laughing Face"). For previous postings on this song, including a detailed history of its creation by comedian Phil Silvers and songnwriter Jimmy Van Heusen for Frank Sinatra's daughter Nancy, click here and here.This year its Russ Peterson's version of the song. Click here to...

Tomorrow is Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday, and the great anti-apartheid leader should be appropriately honored. For this humble blogger, it would be by playing some jazz by one of South Africa's finest artists, Hugh Masakela.Born in 1939 in Bitbank, South Africa, Masakela began playing trumpet at the age of 14. Along with other up and coming musicians (most notably Abdullah Ibraham), he left his r...

If you've played with Charles "The Mighty Burner" Earland, you're all right with me. And so, Frank Catalano, a talented tenor sax player coming to New York for some club dates this week, is defintiely all right. In fact, he's pretty darn good, playing with technical prowess and great fire.Even more amazing is the fact that as he was begining his career at age 16, he lost his right, middle finger an...

On the surface, are there more unlikely candidates for an album of duets than Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis? They seem to be cut from different cloth, different generations, different styles of music. And yet, there is a deep connection between the two men, primarily their love for standards and their blues-tinged deliveries. So, when Lincoln Center Jazz put the two of them together for an even...

For the second consecutive year, the Hoop City Jazz Festival will be held July 5 and 6, 2008 in Springfield, Massachusetts. For a great time in a great city at a great price - free! - come on down. In his press statement, artistic director John Osborne stated:Musically, we have shifted our paradigm. Instead of following others, we are now working diligently to distinguish the Hoop City Jazz & Art F...