There’s no decaf on Too Much Coffee Man, Bob Dorough’s second album for Blue Note. But there is plenty of bouquet, flavor, and remarkable stylistic diversity. Dorough is 76, idiosyncratic, goofy, and creative. He worked with Miles Davis decades ago; he’s also worked with Blossom Dearie, Art Farmer, and…
He’s never deserted either blues or jazz, but Lou Rawls hasn’t always found a receptive audience for these styles at notoriously conservative major labels. That wasn’t the case on this 1989 album, on which Rawls performed straightahead jazz and pre-rock pop or blues, and was backed by an all-star…
High ambition and a mix of middle-of-the-road funk with straight-ahead and other stylistic ventures has always been the popular saxman’s trademark as an artist and performer. On For the Love, it seems like Everette Harp enjoys the challenge of letting go of pretension, focusing on the love of song,…
As one of the key voices of Schoolhouse Rock, Bob Dorough acquired many fans, but no one ever knew his name. Even after the series ended, he was reluctant to pursue a full-fledged recording career, which made 1997’s Right on My Way Home — an album he recorded when…
It is difficult not to love Lena Horne. Recorded when she was 77, this live CD finds the ageless singer sounding as if she were 57 at the most (and the photo of her on the cover makes her look 47). Horne talks the lyrics a little more than…
Released weeks before her 81st birthday, Lena Horne’s third album for Blue Note Records (following 1994’s We’ll Be Together Again and 1995’s An Evening With Lena Horne) was a typically classy effort that found the remarkably well-preserved singer fronting jazz-pop arrangements of standards performed by the likes of George…
It’s difficult to believe that after 26 years of playing in name jazz ensembles — most notably Dizzy Gillespie’s from 1980-1990 — that Codes is Ignacio Berroa’s debut album as a leader. Berroa is one of the most in-demand session and concert drummers in jazz, having played with everyone…
Richard Elliot chose to go with the production expertise of Steve Dubin on his Chill Factor, but the silky, simmering soul influence of Paul Brown — who produced the veteran saxman’s previous hit, Jumpin’ Off — has stuck. Where Elliot once routinely went for the jugular and blistering approach…
