Mike Greenblatt

2 weeks ago | theaquarian.com | Mike Greenblatt

Impact by The Steve Holt Jazz Impact Quintet (Inner Music) has the Montreal pianist leading some of the top Canadian players – with a trumpet-flugelhorn-tenor sax front-line – on his first album since 2002. As a student of the legendary Kenny Barron, Holt’s pianists are imbued with a deep and abiding respect for the past while inundating his grooves with progressive flourishes of the future.

3 weeks ago | thejerseysound.com | Mike Greenblatt

The Gene Simmons Band featuring Tommy James“Mony Mony” Newly married in April, jamming with Gene Simmons in May: what a life! Check out Essex County Legend Tommy James rocking out with the Kiss star’s solo band at the Wellmont Theater in Montclair May 6. Eric Roberson“Where You Gonna Go” Born in Rahway (Union County) 52 years ago, singer-songwriter-drummer-producer Eric Roberson epitomizes sweet soul music.

1 month ago | yahoo.com | Mike Greenblatt

The blues and gospel have always been different sides of the same coin. Such blues legends as Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton, Son House, Bukka White and Skip James all did a deep dive within gospel. Enter Kid Ramos, the California guitarist-producer, whose Strange Things Happening (Nola Blue Records), is a soulful combo of both. It’s his first album in five years and one that shouts out his faith from the highest mountain.

1 month ago | goldminemag.com | Mike Greenblatt

The blues and gospel have always been different sides of the same coin. Such blues legends asBlind Willie Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton, Son House, Bukka White and Skip James all did a deep dive within gospel. Enter Kid Ramos, the California guitarist-producer, whose Strange Things Happening (Nola Blue Records), is a soulful combo of both. It's his first album in five years and one that shouts out his faith from the highest mountain.

1 month ago | theaquarian.com | Mike Greenblatt

Memphis Slim, U.S.A. is the ironically named 1961 album by American ex-patriot Memphis Slim [1915-1988] recently re-released and re-mastered by Candid Records. As a proud Black man, he gave up on the U.S. in 1962 to settle in France where the color of his skin wasn’t so important. He never came home, living out the rest of his days in Paris.