Happy holidays from Jazz History Online! Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hannukah, Kwansaa (or a combination), we hope that this season brings you peace and happiness. Our annual review of holiday CDs, “Music for a Cool Yule” is available until January 1, when it will be replaced by our year-end feature, “2014: The Summation”.
This month’s Book Review features a long-awaited biography of the Boswell Sisters. If you don’t know the music of the New Orleans sisters, Connie, Martha and Vet, I hope that you will click on the links within my discussion of their unique music. I’ll guarantee you that you’ve never heard a vocal trio like this before (and they made their last recordings just under 80 years ago!). Our Retro Review features another great vocal group, Manhattan Transfer, and their seminal 1979 recording, “Extensions”.
Within our Instrumental CD Reviews, you’ll find discussions of three recent duo albums, featuring Charlie Haden & Jim Hall, Kenny Barron & Dave Holland, and Scott Robinson & Jack Mouse. On the Vocal side are three albums featuring an abundance of original compositions with Gabriel Espinosa & Hendrik Meurkins, Lauren Hooker, and Judi Silvano. And new in the DVD Review section is Fred Hersch’s remarkable jazz/theatre hybrid, “My Coma Dreams”.
Jazz History Online’s Facebook page continues to gain members. If you are not yet one of our 1250 fans, please go to www.facebook.com/JazzHistoryOnline and like us! If you’d like a monthly e-mail update of new articles (no, we won’t sell your addresses to anyone else), or would like to communicate with me, please write to [email protected]
Best,
Thomas Cunniffe