JAZZREVIEW: I’ve listened to your album Happening, and I like it very much. You have a very good band, and a nice sound with the Saxophone and strings. However, on the song that you sing with Julie Hardy, Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic I can’t tell you two apart. BRENDA EARLE: That’s interesting isn’t it? JAZZREVIEW: Yes it is. It’s just that I thought I would be able to tell you apart, having listened to her album so often and I can’t. BRENDA EARLE …

Labyrinth is the third album by jazz pianist Kerry Politzer. Of her music Kerry Politzer says "improvisation over a melody and changes, it definitely is that." To me it is some strikingly good straight ahead jazz with Brazilian and classical influences. On her third CD "Labyrinth" Kerry plays piano and has composed all ten of the works. She is accompanied by a first rate group of musicians: Andrew Rathbun, soprano and tenor sax; Chris Higgins, bass; George Colligan, drums. …

This This past summer I had the great experience of speaking with Luther Hughes, who plays a hot acoustic bass and has put together the remarkable Cannonball-Coltrane Project. I saw this exciting band at Founder’s Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts center and bought their self-titled album. The Project’s members on Luther Hughes and the Cannonball-Coltrane Project are Luther on Bass; Glenn Cashman on Tenor sax; Bruce Babad on alto sax; Ed Czach on piano; Paul K …

Ann Braithwaite of Braithwaite and Katz Communications sent me an email asking if I would like to receive a copy of Gregg August's first album as leader entitled Late August. I replied, "Yes send it to me." It arrived and I put it into the CD player and then had to stop everything I was doing and just listen. Late August is contemporary jazz in the straight-ahead style with a Latin flavor. After listening to the CD a few times, I called Ann and asked if I could int …

Donning a blue wig and performing a whacky improvisation of a very senior citizen awaiting her boyfriend’s arrival, the absolutely comedic woman on the youtube video is obviously blessed with talent. Miss MacKenzie’s performance was repeated, in part, last Valentine’s Day as she delighted the patrons of New York City’s Cornelius Street Café. This time, she had an accomplice in a jazz artist by the name of Dave Devoe. Miss MacKenzie’s is the alter ego of the very talented and equally beautif …