Easy does it

By the autumn of 1940, Benny Goodman had undergone his first back surgery and was already on the mend. He had put his orchestra on hold for ...

Back in 2013, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the saga of trumpeter Roy Eldridge's earthly possessions came to light. All may hav...

Today it's the 100th anniversary of Charlie Christian's birthday. For a special 2h30m programme we've done (in Spanish) in El C...

Ah, rhythm! Possibly the most primitive element of music. It's there even if you don't want to: just listen to your heartbeat and...

Benny Goodman at Carnegie Hall 1938 is an iconic record. It has been in print since 1950, and it offers a great snapshot of Swing at hi...

So, February 7, 1940. The war is going on in Europe, but Pearl Harbor is almost two years away. At the same time, in Manhattan, Metronome m...

(L to R: Gene Krupa, Babe Russin, Allan Reuss, George Koenig,  Red Ballard, BG, Vernon Bown, and Art Rollini Carnegie Hall, January 16,...

Auld, Goodman, Williams, Christian (Photographer unknown) Things that just happen: the previous blog was about Charlie Christian an...

(This is a translation of my review for Cuadernos de Jazz ) Charlie Christian: The Genius of the Electric Guitar (4-CD set, Sony/Legac...

Tomorrow at 20:00 Fairfield Halls in Croydon will host Benny Goodman's 1938 Carnegie Hall concert. Live. A group of musicians, led by Ri...

In 1962, in the middle of the Cold War, with Kennedy in Washington and Khrushchev in Moscow, and just weeks away from the missile crisis in...