The composer’s masterpiece is a cry of despair and a dance of freedom (or maybe vice versa).

Legendarily tense and extraordinarily beautiful, this rare Mingus trio album repays close listening.

A turbulent, magnetic stroll through the border town streets in one of the great bassist’s early long-form suites.

We begin our survey of the great bassist and composer in midstream, with a spectacular performance from the last days of one of his best bands.

I can’t believe that in all the time I’ve been blogging about music and cocktails, I’ve never written about Charles Mingus’ eggnog recipe. Pointed to it, a few times, but never discussed it. That might be because it’s A Lot. Two shots of liquor per serving, plus whatever 151-proof rum makes it through the preparation of the eggs. One begins to understand why Mingus was prone to firing shotguns inside his apartment.

Gather your eggnog and sit by a warm fire. This latter-day classic has all the warmth of its namesake and an impeccable lineup of Christmas presents for the listener.

Two years ago today, I was writing about the Virginia Women’s Chorus Candlelight Christmas album. Three years ago today, I unleashed one of my most recent Christmas playlists, “Tinsel covered Christmas blues.” You can check out my Christmas playlists (three hours worth!) on SoundCloud today if you want to have some music to wrap presents by: …

A childhood favorite Christmas record, filled with songs familiar and strange and featuring the voice of an old friend.

A contemporary Christmas jazz classic from a young vocalist with an old soul.

A cool Yule is in the brilliant and sure hands of this master guitarist.

One more organ record—maybe the best known of them all—brings us into this year’s holiday season.

A tight set of organ trio funk with some sunny spots of soul.

This incarnation of the DLO3 gives us a different drummer and a funkier edge.

Sometimes the best way to build an audience is just to show people what you do.

David Byrne—Talking Head, art pop auteur, Broadway star, prolific collaborator—arguably has more side quests in his career than anyone else. I’ve been collecting some of these for years, starting with a good friend hipping me to The Catherine Wheel and Forestry, and picking up a copy of the LP of Music from the Knee Plays many years ago. This playlist has a bunch of odds and ends, obscure and not.

An hour of bliss at the intersection of spiritual jazz and jazz-funk, circa 1969-1972.

A revival of the jazz organ combo draws on masters from that tradition, as well as soul and funk, and brings us a party.

Dr. Edwin S. Williams passed away last week at the age of 81. In addition to being the first Black member of the Virginia Glee Club, where he was denied service by a truck stop manager while on tour in an event leading to the desegregation of similar businesses between Charlottesville and Washington on Route 29, he was only the second Black student to graduate from the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Virginia.

If one Hammond organist is good, two are somethin’ else.

Root down, and get it, with this milestone live recording by the master and a young band with connections to the Jackson 5, Motown and Quincy Jones.

Note of no interest to most, but yesterday I migrated this site from its host of twelve years to a new one. About twelve years ago, Erin Clerico at Weblogger (who helped me move my site from Manila to Wordpress) let me know he was getting out of the hosting business. I found Pagely and moved the site there around May 2013…

The debut recording from Foster puts funk, soul, R&B and jazz into a blender and comes out with a “brew” that’s a genuine classic.

In which we create a cocktail to accompany Beethoven’s massive Missa Solemnis.

A potential glimpse of a moment in the history of choral music at the University.

Randolph-Macon College newspaper from April 1915 Today I learned that the Virginia Glee Club has a far longer history with the “Winter Song” than I originally thought. Modern performance of the song, with its "ice gnomes marching from their Norways," dates to the John Liepold years in the early 1990s. But today I found a newspaper article that dates the first performance to 1915!!!