Joe Beck with glasses and a goatie beard leaning on his guitar for a publicity picture for his then label DMP whose label and name is included.

Happy Born Day: Joe Beck

Joe Beck was born July 29th, 1945 in Philadelphia PA and died in July 2008, only in his 60’s from cancer, as so many of his peers did. His 1975 KUDU album isn’t a jazz offering for the purists, but it’s among my favorites from that period. If you are […]

Poster advertising the 2022 NEA Jazz Master concert

NEA Jazz Masters 2022

Congratulations to this year’s musicians recognized as 2022 NEA Jazz Masters—Stanley Clarke, Donald Harrison, Jr., Billy Hart, and Cassandra Wilson. There will be a concert tonight live in San Francisco that will also be live streamed and available via many radio stations. For details of the coverage online and on radio, the concert […]

Cover of album showing Hank Crawford leaning on a post near the Hudson River

On This Day: Cajun Sunrise

OK, well perhaps not on this day, but certainly in March 1978, 44-years ago, Hank Crawford and David Matthews were in Electric Lady Studios on W 8th Street in New York City, laying down the final tracks for the last Kudu album, Hank Crawford’s “Cajun Sunrise”. In this post I’ll […]

CD Cover of the 2003 CTI Masters Vol 2 album, people standing with a raised hand.

On This Day: Stay The Course

I have almost the entire CTI/KUDU catalog on a USB hard drive in the car. It’s almost time to replace those old lossy versions with the original CD copies I’ve bought, or the re-engineered, re-ripped versions I’ve worked on over the last 5-years. Many of them date from the “CTI […]

Album Cover and Vinyl records for Kudu 02 Mama Wailer

Dr Smith Has Left The House

Success takes the right people, with the right skills, at the right time and the right place. You can’t copy or replicate success. And so it was that in 1965, having left Jack McDuff’s Quartet, George Benson set out on his own. Benson hired Buffalo NY native, Lonnie Smith to […]

picture of Leonard Doc Gibbs with percussion instruments

Farewell, But Not Goodbye, Doc Gibbs

The last few weeks have bought sad news of the passing of more people from the jazz world. Of course all the major websites and even traditional news outlets covered the death of legendary jazz elder, George Wein. Many also covered the loss of George Mraz, double bass, and occasional […]