Live Jazz, With A Classical Touch

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I saw an excellent jazz concert the other night here in my amazing community of The Berkshires in Western Massachusetts. It was the Ted Rosenthal Trio with Special Guests. The trio being Ted Rosenthal on piano, Noriko Ueda on bass, and Quincy Davis on drums. The special guests being Anat Cohen on clarinet and Sara Caswell on violin. The theme of the concert was “Classics Reimagined.” It featured a number of pieces by classical composers such as Chopin, Dvorak, Beethoven, Satie, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, and others reimagined, arranged, and performed as jazz pieces. I know very little about classical music, but I know a lot about jazz and, to me, each of the pieces sounded as if it could have come out of a standard jazz songbook. They closed the set with a Tchaikovsky piece that echoed Diz and Bird right out of the bebop era. There were also beautiful ballads, such as a duet by Rosenthal and Cohen on a Chopin piece called Waltz in E-Flat. Anyway, the trio travels all over the world, so if you ever get a chance to see them, I recommend them highly. Also, if you’re interested in hearing the music, it is available on CD and perhaps other formats under the title Ted Rosenthal Trio, Classics Reimagined: improp2. I walked out of the concert with a copy of the CD. Actually a couple of CDs, as well as a video clip I was graciously allowed to record and subsequently post on YouTube. If you want to listen, here it is: Ted Rosenthal Trio With Guests, Linde Center, Tanglewood, Nov. 28, 2025, Classics Reimagined.

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Catching Up: Bill Evans, Tina Brooks, Hank Mobley, Et Al

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Life has been busy. Artificial Intelligence tells me the adage “man plans, God laughs” is a Yiddish proverb: “Der mentsh trakht, un got lakht.” Who knew? While I may not believe in the actual wording, I do understand the sentiment. Fortunately, my health has been good, so that hasn’t been an issue. All of which is to say that most of the time that I’ve had to devote  to my passion for jazz and jazz collecting has been put into my radio show and podcast. As I said, I love doing the radio show, so that’s not a problem. But I do sometimes feel guilty about not writing more frequently here at JazzCollector.com, especially when I go through the emails I’ve saved and realize that I’ve been saving some of them for more than half a year. In any case, I will try to catch up now, even if some of the conversations with readers are too dated to do anything about. Read more

Favorite Blue Notes, One More Once

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I figure if I keep writing about Blue Notes and putting Blue Notes in the headline, I’ll start scoring well on Google and all of a sudden the many people who have abandoned Jazz Collector in the past year or so will come charging back. Or not. In any case, to follow up on yesterday’s post and some of the comments, I’ve narrowed down my list of Top Ten Blue Notes and I believe I can settle soon on a Top Ten.  Seven of them are known because they were on the list I began compiling in February 2010 (More Blue Note Favorites, Courtesy of Downbeat). Hard to believe that was nearly 16 years ago. My tastes haven’t changed in all those years. Read more

Favorite Blue Notes, One More Time

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So, speaking of my radio show/podcast, I’ve been thinking for a while about doing a show titled “My 10 Favorite Blue Notes.” Three things have stopped me so far: 1. It’s not so easy to identify my 10 favorite Blue Notes; 2. Even if I did identify them, would I want to take them out of the house, bring them in the car, and place the vinyl on the turntables/needles in the radio station’s studio; and, 3. I recall a Downbeat issue from several years ago in which a variety of musicians were asked to name their 10 favorite Blue Notes. I wanted to consult with that issue before doing the show. It would give me more interesting fodder to discuss. My Downbeat collection is sitting up in my attic and combing through them all to find a single issue would be a bit of a hassle.  Of course, it might not be necessary to comb through all of them, now that there is this thing called the internet and this other thing called artificial intelligence. So this morning I got up early and did a search: Downbeat 10 Favorite Blue Notes. What came back was fascinating. Read more

Duets, Anyone?

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It’s been a while since I’ve done a “regular” post. But as you can see, I’ve been very busy doing my two-hour radio show and podcast every week. Listenership at Jazz Collector is way up, but readership is way down. I love doing the radio show and it is really helping me extract more pleasure from and appreciation for my collection. I have no intention of slowing down there. But I would like to do more writing on Jazz Collector now that we are heading into the winter doldrums here in the lovely Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts. One way to do that is to combine my passion for doing the radio show with a renewed commitment to do more writing. So, let’s see how it goes, starting now. Read more

Podcast: Who’s That Lady, Part One

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This week’s theme: Songs that have the name of a woman in the title. Eclectic, but fun. And some great music. Featured artists include Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Max Roach, Clifford Brown, Wynton Kelly, Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, Connie Kay, Percy Heath, Eddie Jefferson, Oscar Peterson, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Stitt, Miles Davis, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones, Jimmy Rushing, and many more.

Podcast: Jazz USA, Part Two

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This week’s theme: More jazz tracks that reference U.S. cities and states. Featured artists include Tal Farlow, Gerry Wiggins, Ray Brown, Chico Hamilton, Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond, Joe Morello, Eugene Wright, Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins, Cannonball Adderley, Milt Jackson, Wynton Kelly, Percy Heath, Art Blakey, Richie Cole, Bobby Enriquez, Shelly Manne, Bruce Forman, Bob Magnusson, Dave McKenna, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Sonny Stitt, Ray Brown, Jo Jones, Dexter Gordon, Bud Powell, Pierre Michelot, Kenny Clarke, and more.

 

Podcast: Jazz USA, Part One

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This week’s theme: Jazz tracks that reference U.S. cities and states. Featured artists include Al Cohn, Barry Harris, John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, Elvin Jones, Oscar Peterson, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Rouse, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Ray Brown, Buddy Rich, Rosemary Clooney, John Oddo, Richie Cole, Bruce Forman, Scott Hamilton, Warren Vache, Nancy LaMott, Freddie Redd and many more.

Podcast: Hal Perlman Centennial, Part Two

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This week’s theme: Part two of a two-part celebration of my father’s 100th birthday. Featured artists include Horace Silver, Joe Henderson, Carmel Jones, Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Clifford Brown, Clark Terry, Donald Byrd, Hank Mobley, Kenny Burrell, Herbie Hancock, Oscar Brown Jr., Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond, Randy Weston, Cecil Payne, Lockjaw Davis, Johnny Griffin, Junior Mance, and many more.

Podcast: Hal Perlman Jazz Centennial, Part One

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This week’s theme: Part one of a two-part celebration of my father’s 100th birthday. Also a reminder to read Song For My Father from the Jazz Collector archives. Featured artists include Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Sarah Vaughan, Tal Farlow, Buddy DeFranco, Lee Morgan, Benny Golson, Red Garland, Bobby Timmons, Cannonball Adderley, Nat Adderley, Wes Montgomery, Wynton Kelly, Modern Jazz Quartet, Jimmy Smith, Richie Cole, Kenny Burrell, and many, many more.

 

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