Music & More

Photo courtesy of the artist Previously unreleased in the USA, Brubeck Editions has released  Dave Brubeck Trio: Live From Vienna 1967.  Beyond the excellent sound quality, this concert was a true rarity in that this lineup of personnel usually performed in a quartet. For this show at the Konzerthaus, saxophonist Paul Desmond missed the group's flight from Hamburg to Vienna. In light of the situation, Brubeck decided to go on with the show as a three piece with Joe Morello on drums and Eugene Wright on bass. The recording that night was all set, and it was fortuitous that this show was captured, as this may be the only recording of these musicians performing together as a trio. As much as I love Desmond's composition "Take 5" along with his sax work, the trio makes good use of his space for their solos, improvisations, and such. The music is spectacular as well. The following excerpt from the press release details the performance, track by track. The trio sizzles with...

Photo: North Dakota State University Archives (October 22, 1977) Back in the 1970s, I was aware of Melissa Manchester, quite liked her music, and I would dip into her albums from time to time when I was on the radio.  If I had known that her live shows sounded like this, I would have made more of a point not to miss her.  On October 30, 1977, her show at  Great Southern Music Hall in  Gainesville, Florida was recorded for a live album, which never was released until now. Arista Records, her label at the time, inexplicably decided to leave the tapes on the shelf rather than release them. Just released now to celebrate the 45th anniversary of this recording, the folks at Real Gone  Music and Second Disc Records have released this excellent album on two CDs.  Earlier that year, Manchester had toured opening for Leo Sayer. That fall, she undertook a headlining tour from whence this show originated. Manchester had a superb band with her and they excelled at ever...

  Gems From the Record Room You might think of Nora Ephron as an author, but she wrote film screenplays so well that when she had the opportunity to direct her own work, the result was a string of romantic comedies such as Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail . These movies were as successful at the box office as they were beloved by film audiences everywhere. In addition to (co-)writing and directing, Ephron was known to help with the song selection for the soundtracks. One of my favorite reissue labels, Real Gone Music, now offers the two LPs in special colored vinyl editions. These two soundtrack albums are perfect examples of Ephron's sensibility.  Sleepless In Seattle There are many ways to summarize the plot of this movie, but I will share a bit of the Real Gone press release for the soundtrack album. Indeed, the film re-introduced a whole new generation to the unique charms of Jimmy Durante with his renditions of “As Time Goes By” and “Make Someone Happy” over the ...

  Photos: Courtesy of the artist They say that the best music towns are Nashville, Austin and New Orleans. I wouldn't argue the point except to add Los Angelos, Chicago and New York City to the list. A case could be made for NYC as the best music town of all. I've never had the pleasure of visiting The Big Easy, but I've been to all the others and I'm here to say that New York's volume of venues, of all stripes and sizes, has a lot going for it.  Back in the mid 1990s, I fell for a little group known as Once Blue and saw them play live a couple of times. Once Blue was composed of Jesse Harris and Rebecca Martin. You may know Harris from his work with Norah Jones and his Grammy winning composition "Don't Know Why." Once Blue only released one wonderful album before breaking up, but at the time I would have gone anywhere to see singer Rebecca Martin.  I think it was 1997 when I trekked up to NYC to see her at The Living Room's original Lower East Sid...

All Photos Courtesy of Oz Noy/ Ugonna Okegwo/Ray Marchica  Trio If only I had known then what I know now... In the first decade of this millennium, I was privileged to see a lot of live music in NYC. I'm still kicking myself for not seeing fabled guitarist Oz Noy when I had the chance. I knew by reputation that he was an incredible guitar player. What I didn't know, unfortunately, was the type of music he played or that he was the tasteful player that he is.  I didn't know that Noy was an accomplished player in his native Israel and that he played on Israel's most popular television show for two years before moving to NYC in the mid-nineties. I also didn't know that he plays at The Bitter End every Monday when he is in town and that his rhythm section often consisted of Will Lee on bass and Anton Fig on drums; both members of the David Letterman Show band. I was already familiar with Lee from his many endeavors, not the least of which were frequent gigs with guitari...