CHENNAI, INDIA — Nothing can possibly prepare a Westerner for the sights, sounds, smells, and citizens of the slums of Chennai. It is all a completely overwhelming, fascinating, intense, absorbing, totally out-of-our-background experience in every possible way. First of all, the people of Chennai are among the most welcoming in the world. They start with…
Month: March 2016
Stan Rubin’s Tigertown 5 w/Barry Bryson rock Dixieland
ZINC BAR, NYC — The New York City music scene really can be a small place. When I walked into the Zinc Bar, the band leader and I looked at each other as if we knew each other. And we did! Barry Bryson, the electrifying trumpet player and Louis Armstrong “channeler” extraordinaire, had welcomed me to…
Robert Powers, a blues legend, shows why at Terra Blues
TERRA BLUES, NYC — Playing the blues has to come from the soul. There is no room for artifice or ego or flamboyance. It’s story-telling, sorrow, humor, hard-times and good times. It can be imitated, but fakers just don’t resonate. Robert Powers is the real thing, and it’s clear his many Grammy nominations have been well-earned….
In Berlin, they LISTEN to the music, & it’s really good
A-TRANE BAR, BERLIN — In most cities, you’d be hard-pressed to name a jazz club where they actually LISTEN to the musicians instead of talking over them and clapping only reflexively when they notice the music has stopped. Not at The A-Trane (yes, they spell it that way) Jazz Club in Berlin. On two separate…
Some of the best jazz in the world is in Johannesburg
THE ORBIT, JOHANNESBURG — Having just left New York City’s rich jazz scene, I was snootily prepared for some good but not great jazz at The Orbit in downtown Johannesburg. Wrong! Just watch the opening of the video at the top of this post, and you’ll see what I mean. Two jazz bands delivered modern jazz…
Felix Slim: New Orleans sound, but new to NYC from Spain
ROCKWOOD HALL, NYC: How can you not like a guy who opens by proudly saying this is his first solo gig in New York City, and thanking all four people at the Rockwood Music Hall’s Stage One for coming to his 7:30 PM show! Then Felix Slim wowed the “crowd” (which swelled to a dozen or so after an hour)…
GLOBAL RHYTHMS 