Jay Geils (2005)
Jay Geils made his mark playing blues and his fortune playing rock and roll. But his first love was jazz. Jay—who died on April 11, 2017 at age 71—made that clear when I...
Category: Jazz
Jazz
Al Kooper (1995)
“I was pretty much robbed all my life….” The big bucks versions of “The Cutting Edge 1965-1966,” the latest entry in the Bob Dylan bootleg series (note: not actual bootlegs), includes a 20-track disc...
Mose Allison (1994)
“One of my first public appearances was at a talent contest. I sang and played Fats Waller’s ‘fododo-de-yacka-saki want some seafood mama.’ I could just see the teacher saying, “This boy is going straight...
Nina Simone (1992)
“I don’t think I’m difficult. Not at all.” The prospect of interviewing Nina Simone was thrilling. And slightly terrifying.
My Dinner With Ornette
“I’m interested in bringing instant enlightenment.” I met Ornette Coleman for dinner on a late fall evening in a fashionable restaurant in downtown Boston. He was in town...
Burt Bacharach (and Elvis Costello, Part 2)
“No one has to push me to be complex.” If there has been a musical menage à trois more sublime and more successful than that of composer Burt Bacharach, lyricist Hal...
David Maxwell
“See, I’ve always had this identity crisis, whether or not I was a jazz or blues musician.” For decades Boston blues fans could sleep...
Bob Dylan speaks: the MusiCares speech
“A lot of people don’t know this, but the blues, which is an American music, is not what you think it is. It’s a combination of Arabic violins and Strauss waltzes working it...
Oscar Brown Jr.
“Liberating the slaves is not popular.” It’s a mystery: What killed Oscar Brown Jr.’s career? Rule out drugs, booze, out of control ego or any...
Cornell Dupree
“What I consider ‘me’ is a funky blues player.” From Dupree’s home in Ft. Worth, by phone August, 1995 Hang on and get ready for a super-funky-blues/soul ride thanks to some truly amazing video....