THE 55 BAR, NYC — “I call my music ‘urban folk and jazz’. And when people ask ‘What’s that?’, I say if Sting married Roberta Flack and had an affair with Rickie Lee Jones, I’d write the music,” jazz singer extraordinaire KJ Denhert told me. “That’s the music that I write. “I first picked up a…
Tag: John Wilpers
Chuck Brown Band’s rockin’ Go Go sound
If you’ve never heard Go Go Music (and I am NOT talking about 70’s disco), you’re in for a treat. Relentless, driving, fun, lively, and irresistibly participatory, it gets audiences on their feet from the first song. And, as its name suggests, a Go Go band doesn’t stop until a full set is over.
Playing jazz through apartheid
THE CRYPT, CAPE TOWN — Jazz musicians say you must suffer to truly play jazz. Few can say they’ve suffered like any older, non-white jazz musician in South Africa. “We were not allowed to play because of the color of our skin,” Spencer Mbadu told me. “During apartheid days, it was difficult for black musicians,…
GLOBAL RHYTHMS 