Kirk Whalum Concert @ Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley
October 26, 2023
One of many Seattle-Based Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley favorites, Kirk Whalum, launched his annual appearance honoring numerous soul/R&B and jazz icons, saluting he music that fueled his birthplace, and showering gospel nuggets.
Marvin Gaye’s Greatest Hits Live In ˜76 is finally available on CD and vinyl
The superlatives and accolades are too numerous for one of Motown Records’ driving forces. As he transcended R&B and Soul music for over two decades, Marvin Gaye’s songwriting abilities embraced empowering love songs like “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” while addressing urgent social matters on “What’s Going On.”
“Party Train” Meets “Love Train” at Historical Charlie Wilson & O’Jays Double Bill
A Concert Reflection by A. Scott Galloway
August 3, 2018
The world-famous Hollywood Bowl was the venue for a bittersweet time capsule of Black Music History on Friday, August 3, as former GAP Band lead singer Charlie Wilson headlined a triumphant generations-leaping show – his first time with an orchestra – with the mighty O’Jays trio celebrating its 59th anniversary as the opening act and what may be their final time performing in Los Angeles as they are said to be retiring at the end of 2018.
Playboy Jazz Festival Celebrates 40th Anniversary at The Hollywood Bowl
by A. Scott Galloway
Under clear blue skies, 80-degree temps with a sweet breeze blowin’ on both days, the “Playboy Jazz Festival” celebrated its 40th anniversary with days split almost squarely between World Music leaning on Saturday and Jazz on Sunday.
Saturday June 9 began with the traditional Los Angeles County High School For The Arts Jazz of promising young students followed by Columbian party band Monsieur Perine’. Things got really interesting when blind 17 year-old organ prodigy Matthew Whitaker and his trio wowed the crowd with the passionate and eclectic set list of his original “Play it Back,” the `60s pop hit “More Today Than Yesterday” by Spiral Staircase made famous on the jazz side by Charles Earland, the Brazilian gem “Mais Que Nada,” John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme,” and the finale of a dual medley of Earth Wind and Fire’s “In the Stone/September” with Stevie Wonder’s “As/I Wish” – what a prodigious talent and people-pleaser.
Matthew Whitaker
A Place for Joey: Celebrating the Passion of 13 Y.O. Jazz Pianist Joey Alexander
by A. Scott Galloway
There’s a very tricky tightrope that young jazz musicians come upon when thrust into the public eye. It is a hurdle that has tripped up many a prodigy over the eras. That is when a teenage or pre-teen wonder arrives at 18 or 21 and no longer has youth as a hype mechanism. Usually what happens is a player who develops or happens upon a lot of chops and ability early on winds up sounding like everybody else when they reach adulthood. What they failed to develop was individualism, adventure and heart. It’s like a young runway model that gets by on youthful freshness yet never develops a style of their own as an adult. In those cases, you just pray their parents saved her money.
Joey Alexander, at 10, Lincoln Center Gala
Inaugural L.A. Soul Music Festival Provides Top Talent In A Casual Outdoor Atmosphere
Concert Reflections and Photographs by A. Scott Galloway
Southern California inaugurated another 3-Day outdoor summer music weekend event with “The L.A. Soul Music Festival” last week – a program targeting grown folks that love their soul music on the smooth, sexy and contemporary side. It took place on an under-utilized area of Griffith Park near the Gene Autry Western Museum, conveniently just off the 5 Freeway with plenty of blessedly free parking. Reasonably priced and punctually executed, each day of the festival from Friday to Sunday delivered 5 name acts between 6pm and 11pm with a DJ and emcee between each act keeping things lively and flowing.
Crowd
Kandace Springs
Hotel Café’ (Hollywood)
Concert Reflections and Photographs by A. Scott Galloway
With no verbal introduction but instead a cool driving bass/drums groove that lures her to the stage like a lovely moth to a flame, singer/songwriter/keyboardist Kandace Springs stepped into the light a tall, confident and dazzling drink of something sparkling. Flashing a smile and striking a playful diva pose, she immediately sat down to her keyboard, politely introduces herself and where she’s from (Nashville, Tennessee), then commenced to getting’ busy, speaking of pending revolutions and the masses being far from ready.
“Why it gotta be like that, why it gotta be / Why it gotta be like that / Some dreams will live and some will die…”
38th Playboy Jazz Festival
Hollywood Bowl
Sunday June 12, 2016
Festival Reflections by A. Scott Galloway
Day 2 of the 38th “Playboy Jazz Festival” at the Hollywood Bowl was by far the more star-studded and highly anticipated of the weekend. Not only that, the cross section of artists provided a near-perfect representation of all the music that appropriately falls under the cornucopia of the art form – from New Orleans roots, Blues and Big Band to Latin, Funk-Rock, Contemporary and Ancient-Future takes.
George Lopez (Photo: Matthew Imaging)
Ronnie Foster Trio
Baked Potato
Saturday May 14, 2016
Concert Reflections and Photographs by A. Scott Galloway
I first got turned onto Ronnie Foster when he was part of George Benson’s incomparable mid-`70s Breezin’ band trading electric keyboard and acoustic piano chairs with the late, great Jorge Dalto. From that association I appreciated Ronnie not only as a player but also a composer (“Lady,” “The Wind and I”). Even though I eventually heard his earlier Blue Note solo LPs on which he was featured on organ and his post-Benson work primarily on Fender Rhodes, I’ve always thought of Ronnie as a sideman who came up thanks to a high profile situation.
Kenny Lattimore LIVE in Concert
Jazz Alley in Seattle, Washington, March 2, 2016
Jazz Alley is a long-time Seattle, WA establishment, who have prided themselves in welcoming a diversified and expanding family of vocalists and musicians from jazz, world music and the contemporary urban market. Many of those artists have made the rounds back to the Alley on several occasions include Kenny Lattimore, who burst onto the scene in the nineties with other smooth soul-sters…