Looking forward to Newport

There is pretty much something for every jazz fan at the 2015 Newport Jazz Festival this July 31-August 2, no matter your stylistic or demographic preferences. A lot of crowd favorites are back - like Maria Schneider's Orchestra, pianists Hiromi  and Michel Camilo, and singer-pianist Jamie Cullum. 

What a wonderful change of pace

The jazz concert season is pretty much gone in Florida from May until the snowbirds start returning in the fall. While there are regular club and restaurant gigs to fill in the gap, it was a treat to have an actual concert to attend.

Najar, Lamb, Feinman, Suggs, Ellison

The Venice Art Center and the South County Jazz Club teamed up to present a Louis Armstrong tribute concert on Thursday, June 25, featuring a quintet led by fine young trumpeter James Suggs. He's an engaging player with family roots in Newport RI, but who grew up in Ohio. He moved to St. Petersburg area in 2014 after having spent the prior eight years living and working in Argentina.

CDs of Note - Short Takes

Taking a look at new CDs by Tony Adamo, Dave Bass, Maria Schneider, Chris Washburne and Kenny Werner….

JJA's 2015 winners

Congratulations to the many winners announced and awarded yesterday at the Jazz Journalists Association's 2015 JJA Jazz Awards event at the Blue Note jazz club in New York City. Here's a rundown of the winners, including the Lifetime Achievement in Jazz Journalism Award to Chicago-based Neil Tesser. 

Full disclosure: two of the jazz journalism outlets to which I am a long-time contributor won repeat honors. JazzTimes was named Jazz Publication of the Year. Allaboutjazz.com was named Jazz Website of the year. Kudos to both and all of the other category winners and nominees.