The Psycho Jazz Contingency

Pearlz Upstairz located in the Vista entertainment area of Columbia, South Carolina is a Jazz music venue a little less than two months old situated above the restaurant at 936 Gervais Street and on Saturday February 16^th the new club played host to The Psycho Jazz Contingency led by trumpet player Mark Rapp. Rapp who also plays the flugelhorn and the didgeridoo returned to his native South Carolina in recent years, after living and performing in New York City, New Orleans and Geneva, Switzerland.

Rapp has performed to sold out houses at Blue Note in New York City, Yoshi’s in San Francisco, Blues Alley in Washington D.C., Jazzland in Vienna, Austria and Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola at the Lincoln Center, as well he has played the JVC Newport Jazz Festival.  On this night Pearlz Upstairz was near capacity, but unfortunately the band was in continual competition with a crowd that was noisy and seemed largely uniformed about Jazz, which is a shame, because at times it overshadowed some solid performances by keyboardist Nick Brewar and Mark Rapp. Brewar is a keyboardist to keep an eye on in the future, as he plays passionately, he makes the music jump and his feet never stop moving while he plays, sending up reminders of Blues icon Marcia Ball. Rounding out the quartet were electric bass player Dustin Retzlaff and drummer Brendon Bull.

As has been the case throughout much of his career Rapp’s band is very eclectic, at times edgy, other times  Read More

Charleston Blues Festival

The 2^nd Annual Charleston Blues Festival was a resounding success with a sold out house (approximately 2,000) at the North Charleston Coliseum & Performing Arts Center on Friday February 15^th. To call this a Blues festival is selling it a bit short, as the night featured traditional Blues and also included excellent R&B and Soul music, by The Klass Band, Theodis Ealey, TK Soul, Latimore, Mel Waiters and Millie Jackson.  Co-host Edward “Big Mac” Jones had the audience laughing all night long as he talked and entertained between sets.

Although all of the performers were good it was Millie Jackson, dressed in a full length black sequin jacket with fringed epaulets, black leather pants, black heels and wearing a black choker about her neck with a pendant at the front, who demonstrated that she still has the ability to send an electric current through the audience when she takes to the stage.  The sixty-eight year old Ms. Jackson, who cut her first record in 1970 still, has powerful vocals and she can still turn a phrase emotively, evidenced by her singing of “It Hurts So Good,” a song that went to # 3 on the American R&B charts 1973.  Listening to her sing “If You’re Not Back In Love By Monday,” one wonders why the song fell just short of the top forty. Written and originally recorded by Merle Haggard, Millie Jackson presents beautifully the picture of a couple who have reached the crossroads in their  Read More

Eilen Jewell Concert Review

About two-thirds of the way through singer-songwriter Eilen Jewell’s outstanding performance at Hugh’s Room in Toronto, arguably the city’s best midsize music venue, she covered an old Rock ‘N’ Roll song by Arthur Alexander, “Girl That Radiates That Charm,” and the song serves as an apt description of the Boise, Idaho  native’s on stage presence. On a night that featured numerous instances of spellbinding electric guitar solos by Jerry Miller, the man in the black cowboy hat, solid drumming by Jason Beek and some old time rhythm work on the upright bass courtesy of Johnny Sciascia, it was clearly Ms. Jewell who was the star of this show, with her quirky humor, incredible vocals and her ability to clearly charm her audience.

Dressed in a long sleeveless black dress, Eilen Jewell for most of the night accompanied herself with an acoustic guitar and occasionally played harmonica, while still strumming her six-string. During her almost two hour concert, she played songs from her albums, Boundary County (2006),Letters From Sinners & Strangers (2007), Sea Of Tears (2009),  Butcher Holler: A Tribute To Loretta Lynn (2010), the new album Queen of the Minor Key, and her 2008 side project, The Sacred Shakers, a Gospel album.

Eilen Jewell opened the evening with the slow, meandering “Only One,” a somewhat brokenhearted lament and then she introduced the more up-tempo  Read More

Jenni Alpert In Concert

Jenni Alpert was in concert on Saturday October 13^th and she put on a good show and it is too bad that Studio City Sound Live does not have at least a small audience so the artist can have the benefit of that instant feedback, but then this is the new age of concerts that seems to be dawning virtually. Ms. Alpert demonstrated ease in front of a camera, good vocals and a solid knack for songwriting. Accompanying herself for the most part, while seated at a grand piano and for a few songs on acoustic guitar she served up a low key performance, but one that should easily have held her virtual audience’s attention. The fact that she was talking to a camera in between her songs, also seemed to come naturally to Jenni Alpert, as she did so just as if she were talking to the person in the front row a few feet from a stage.

Dressed in a sleeveless black top and blue jeans, while seated at the piano, Jenni Alpert opened with the up-tempo “Listen To Your Heart,” from her brand new album Take It All, which sends up reminders of Sara Bareilles. The song possesses a staccato beat, and is about everyone telling you how to live your life, from your boss, to your wife and your brother and friends, but nobody wants to listen to what you want for your life. The theme of the song is summed up by the lyrics, “Your friends tell you what Read More

Brenda Earle Stokes

Brenda Earle Stokes was magnificent at The Old Mill on June 15^th, as the New York City based singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger and producer put on what may be her best performance ever in the city of Toronto, Canada. Backed by a trio of musicians that included guitarist Ted Quinlan who more than once caused the audience to break into spontaneous applause, drummer Anthony Michelli and upright bassist Mike Downes, Ms. Earle Stokes treated us to an evening that consisted for the most part of original songs and songs for which she wrote the lyrics and set them to another artist’s music, such as saxophonist David Sanborn’s “Lotus Blossom,” from his 1984 album Straight To The Heart, a tune that was written by Jazz pianist Don Grolnick. 

Her marriage in recent years to Gerard Stokes and the birth of their son a little more than four months ago have seemingly injected freshness and vitality to Brenda Earle Stokes’ music and it was evident from the opening song “Nobody Else But Me,” and her splendid scatting on “Bean and the Boys.” Who knew she could scat? This writer has known her for close to eight years and had no idea that she does or that she does it so well and effortlessly.

Aspiring lyricists would do well to attend one of Brenda Earle Stokes’ concerts, because it is a lesson in songwriting, as her word pictures leave the listener watching the scenes unfold in  Read More