Posts

Reflections and Musings of a Jazz Fest Photographer

The 44th annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is a few weeks past and my rear view reflections only seem to sweeten the experience. This Jazz Fest, my 10th overall, is best summarized by an exchange between two Festers NOLA bound from…

3 Brave Souls, Kirk Douglas Theatre

February 8, 2013 Friday’s “3 Brave Souls” CD release event at the Kirk Douglas Theater in Culver City is just one of many ongoing performances held by the Jazz Bakery as they await construction of their Frank Gehry designed new home…

Billy Cobham’s Spectrum 40 Band, The Mint

January 26, 2013 Mahavishnu Orchestra is in the pantheon of jazz fusion pioneers. Black hole density, volcanic intensity and ridiculous virtuosity. I had never heard anything quite like John McLaughlin’s searing fretwork, Jan Hammer’s…

Dragon Smoke, The Mint

December 12, 2012 Certain celestial alignments skip decades, if not lifetimes, or at a minimum, involve covering great distances at greater expense. Think solar eclipses, Comet Hale-Bopp or if you get around, the aurora. Even then, there…

Voodoo Experience 2012

October 26-28, 2012 As an unabashed Jazzfest vet, I approached my first Voodoo with excitement and a hint of fear. The mix of rap, EDM, and the often indefinable, sprinkled with the best of New Orleans contemporary and traditional, on a bed…

Red Baraat, The Mint

October 4, 2012 Since I last caught up with Red Baraat in February, the self described “Brooklyn dhol’n’brass” by way of a second line, has been to the White House, played Bonnaroo and High Sierra, performed at the TED conference,…

Bombino, The Mint

September 18, 2012 Tuareg guitarist Omara “Bombino” Moctar was born in a nomadic encampment in Niger in 1980. Some 26 years later he was playing alongside Keith Richards and Charlie Watts in California. The here to the there and now is…

Eye on the Music Review posted to Terence Blanchard web site

Eye on the Music and Jim Brock Photography coverage of Terence Blanchard's latest Los Angeles dates was picked up by Joshua Johnson of Burgess Management and posted to Terence's web site. The review and images speak to a stellar set.

Terence Blanchard Quintet, Catalina Bar & Grill

August 17, 2012 There are few musicians I can point to more visually evocative than Terence Blanchard (and I’m not just talking about his 20+ year filmography). Blanchard paints fully expressed textures with sound, creating jazz that is…

Buddy Guy and Jonny Lang, City National Grove of Anaheim

August 10, 2012 Into the blues or not, it was impossible not to look forward to the crossroads on the road summit of Buddy Guy and Jonny Lang - two giant slingers for the ages. Myself, I’ll get me some 8/12-bars all night long from just…