It was a rollicking night of blues and rock ‘n’ roll with the Paul James Band at Toronto’s Premier Blues Club, the Silver Dollar Room, Saturday November 15th, 2008. The Dollar is a great venue for blues, and recently celebrated its 50th Anniversary in the biz. Paul’s band includes 30-year James Band keyboard player Gary Gray. Bassist Rick Ramsey is a familiar face, who’s been part of Paul’s band for a few years

There is an amazing trio you will know about sooner or later anyway so I want to be the one to tell you about it - that way you can all see how hip I am. The Eddy Sambuaga Trio are based in the San Francisco Bay Area and I caught one of their first bi-weekly shows at Palo Alto's Rose and Crown Pub - a good place to take a break from the Palo-Alto-osity of the general Palo Alto vicinity - it is a laid back little place where you can grab a Guiness and try to plot how, exactly, to escape from Palo

Last week I had the opportunity to hear the Eleonor England Trio play a pretty dead show at the Elbo Room in San Francisco's Mission Neighborhood. Man. I wasn't sure if it was jazz or a standup routine. One minute they were playing beautifully orchestrated standards with soaring vocals and the next minute the vocalist was improvising lyrics about the surrounding Mission Neighborhood and people were rolling around clutching their sides with laughter. One of the many highlights was when the band s

The 13th annual Rehoboth Jazz Festival: raise your hat and regain your soul! This year's theme, "Hat’s off to Jazz", was exemplified by a variety of artists and genres from Blues to Bebop, from Big Band to Contemporary Jazz. From October 17th to the 2lst the Rehoboth-Dewey Beach area was alive with the sound of Jazz. Over the festival’s four days, as well as the 11 main ticketed events, it featured live musical brunches, lunches and dinners at many area clubs and restaurants. The headliners

Singer-songwriter Meryl Romer made her debut as a solo artist with her album So Sure released by Lady Pearl Music in April 2009. Since its release, Romer has been playing shows throughout her home state of Colorado and returning periodically to her birth place of New York City steadily building a broad fan base that has fallen under her spell, and what a nice spell it is to be under. Romer’s music brims with nostalgic jazz motifs resembling the classic creases of Ella Fitzgerald and th