The All-Star Cruise is setting sail once again on Monday, January 21, 2008 from Port San Diego, California on the ship Carnival Elation, hosted by the Haven Entertainment. On board the cruise is platinum award winning pianist/composer/producer Alan Hewitt, which features three days of pre-cruise shows held at the Town And Country Resort in San Diego on Friday, January...

Bobby Sanabria is a bandleader, a composer, an incredible drummer and most of all an individual who believes in giving back to the community and the jazz art form that he truly feels grateful to be a part of. He was inspired as a young man growing up in the Bronx of New York City when he watched the...

One day, his uncle played “It Ain’t Necessarily So” performed by Miles Davis and arranged by Gil Evans. When it was over,...

Jazz saxophonist j.dee is one man you do not want to refer to as funky. He will also object if you say his music is smooth. So what is it with this cat from LA anyway? The sax man who is better known for his production and songwriting skills will tell you that his music is tippin’ on the...

He recently released his second jazz CD...

Indeed his album Simply Stated has a smooth jazz...

Violist and violinist Tanya Kalmanovitch is a rarity in the world of music, as she has the ability to combine the abilities to create sophisticated compositions with strong elements of classical music, with her fondness for improvisation that reflects her love of jazz music. Earlier the gifted composer/musician united with pianist/harmonium player Myra Meldford and released Heart Mountain, a...

Coinciding with the release of her twelfth album, He Never Mentioned Love, a tribute to  the late, great Shirley Horn. We spoke with Claire on her return to the UK about The Algonquin, her musical friends...

Speaking to me on the phone from the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, where...

Bari, Italy’s renown saxophonist Rocco Ventrella says that he wants to move to Los Angeles, California after having fallen in love with its ambience while recording his latest album Give Me The Groove in Hollywood.  The smooth jazz maker, and aficionado, found America to be very welcoming towards his music, and in return, American jazz has stimulated his creative...

To say that jazz bassist/composer Rob Fried thinks outside the box, and that his music is complex, would be enormous understatements. To say that his songs on the current album Wind Song leave you feeling relaxed and immersed in their many moods would be a truer statement. Unlike so many sophisticated writers whose music is wonderful but sometimes leave...

"After more than a decade of practicing, gigging, school, work, travel - everything and anything – in essence, living life - all the while, never giving up on my dream – I find myself in preparations to showcase for numerous record labels, PR Firms, celebrities and more."

At 33, South Carolina born trumpeter,...

Smooth jazz guitarist Nils is one of those nice guys in the music industry that is enjoying one of those ‘lived happily ever after’ lives after experiencing near disaster earlier in his music career. His first attempt at releasing a CD occurred in 1998 with the Blue Planet CD, but the label that had signed him declared bankruptcy, without...

It’s a warm, summer, Friday afternoon, the first Friday after the Fourth of July holiday, and I am a bit nervous as I enter into the condo complex in Dobb’s Ferry where I am about to conduct an interview with the jazz pianist Steve Kuhn. It’s my first interview and I am wondering how the hell I ever I...

Imagine This, Tom Braxton’s latest solo release on Pacific Coast Jazz Records, places him not only as the dominant composer and navigator for the music, but also at the helm for the album’s musical direction.   Previously, the smooth jazz saxman was well-known for his collaborations with his dear-friend and former NBA star Wayman Tisdale, who guided him along the...

Richard Dreyfuss received an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Glenn Holland, a musician/composer turned high school music teacher, in the wonderful film Mr. Holland’s Opus. Holland is forced into retirement when the school board cuts funding for his department. Near the end of the movie, there is a warm scene that always prompts tears from yours truly, as his...

“Salvador Dali...

Drummer Jerry Granelli was an active member of the psychedelic music that was being fostered in the San Francisco Bay area during the ‘60s.  He considers himself a "pre-hippie," coming into fashion before the members of The Grateful Dead and The Mamas and The Papas.  And though it seems like a world away from his current album The Sonic Temple with his present...

From Burghausen Jazz Festival in Germany to a New Year’s Bash in Morocco for King Hassan, and back in the United States at many of the finest settings, composer, pianist, all-around nice guy, Lafayette Harris, Jr., has enjoyed it all, including a coaching position for youngsters in Japan. Harris was also the music director and conductor for “Cab Calloway’s...

From the Moser Starlights stage at age five, to her off Broadway performance of “Curley McDimple,” the stage...

Classical jazz pianist Enrico Pieranunzi has played on 61 albums. His recording history includes solo albums, as well as collaborations with other recording artists like André Ceccarelli, Paul Motian, and Chet Baker. His reaction to this historic achievement is sheer astonishment. “It’s simply wonderful,” he elates, “sort of a dream for me. When I was a child or in my...

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