Geraldine Wyckoff
Geraldine’s Contributions
December 2003 Books
Race Music: Black Cultures From Bebop to Hip-Hop
Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr.
The most striking element of Race Music is the dichotomy between its academic and down-home components. Author Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr., who is an assistant professor of music at the University of Pennsylvania, approaches his investigation into the historical...
October 2003 Features
Nicholas Payton: Electric Soul
Nicholas Payton’s home in Uptown New Orleans has that just-moved-in look. Boxes, yet unpacked, lay scattered around the entranceway of the converted shotgun double, now single-family residence. The airy living room remains sparsely furnished with the walls...
September 2003 Features
Joey DeFrancesco: Philadelphia Flyer
We're in the dim light of the historic Napoleon House in the heart of the French Quarter, and B3 organist Joey DeFrancesco, oozing his Italian neighborhood upbringing in Philadelphia, has New Orleans on the brain. It's the day after his trio performed the...
May 2003 Features
Los Hombres Calientes: Big Bad Voodoo Daddies
Hanging out with Bill Summers and Irvin Mayfield is a bit like being around a longtime happily married couple. As we talk in the living room of Mayfield's newly acquired Uptown New Orleans home on a warm February day, the leaders of the fast-rising group...
12/01/02 Concerts
Basin Street Records Fifth Anniversary Party
“If Kermit would just get rid of that big ass hat,” quipped trumpeter Irvin Mayfield during an impromptu photo shoot preceding Basin Street Records’ anniversary soiree. Crammed into Tipitina’s small upstairs dressing room, the label’s artists yucked it up...
December 2001 Books
Jazz in New Orleans: The Postwar Years Through 1970
Charles Suhor
Considering the lack of information to the contrary, it’s not surprising that there remains the impression that in New Orleans jazz practically jumped from traditional styles directly to the emergence of Wynton Marsalis. Granted, modern jazz’s early stirrings...
November 2001 Albums
Baby Plays Around
Curtis Stigers
If the name Curtis Stigers rings a bell but somehow not in the jazz arena, there's a reason. The vocalist is most widely recognized for his 1991 pop chart-climber, "I Wonder Why," and hits like "I Never Saw a Miracle." Baby Plays Around represents the singer...
October 2001 Features
Pete Fountain: The Duke of Dixieland
Pete Fountain appears a contented man as he sits in his homey office adjacent to his club in New Orleans’ Hilton Hotel. “Welcome to the inner sanctum,” greets Fountain as he walks through a hall lined with photographs representing a lifetime in music. A...
June 2001 Albums
Paraiso
Caribbean Jazz Project
A tropical breeze prevails over vibist/marimbist Dave Samuel's airy opener "One Step Ahead," forecasting the fair weather ahead for Paraiso. As on the Caribbean Jazz Project's last outing, New Horizons, a rollicking rhythm section joins co-leaders Samuels...
June 2001 Albums
A Love Story
Keystone Quartet
A Love Story, which was originally produced for Japanese release, teams saxophonist Eric Alexander, bassist George Mraz, pianist Cyrus Chestnut and drummer Lewis Nash as The Keystone Quartet. With these fine players onboard, it's expected that musicality...
March 2001 Overdue Ovation
Kidd Jordan
Sitting at my kitchen counter, saxophonist Kidd Jordan suddenly points to the humming refrigerator and loudly declares, “I can start to play a tune on that!” What I consider an annoying buzz is music to Jordan. “There isn’t anything that’s noise to me,”...
December 2000 Albums
Scatter Some Stones
Andrew Rathbun
Tenor and soprano saxophonist Andrew Rathbun makes his recording debut on this disc full of original compositions, introducing himself as a talented and contemplative musician and composer. The quiet tone of the title cut sets the mood of the disc, with...
December 2000 Albums
Love Happened to Me
Phillip Manuel
Phillip Manuel teams up with a top-flight New Orleans crew for the vocalist's MAXJAZZ debut. While the material ranges from interpretations of pop numbers like Stevie Wonder's "I Wish" and Sting's "Fragile" to the standards of "'Round Midnight" and "These...
December 2000 Albums
A Song for George Lewis
Dr. Michael White
Dr. Michael White celebrates the 100th anniversary of the birth of the legendary New Orleans jazz clarinetist George Lewis on this CD. Fellow Crescent City clarinetist White rejoices in his mentor's spirit by choosing material that represents different periods...
October 2000 Albums
Waterloo Ice House
Rob Blakeslee Quartet
Northwest trumpeter and fluegelhornist Ron Blakeslee explores the musical frontier on his first album on the Louie label. He does so with a team of fellow adventurers including tenor saxophonist Rich Halley, bassist Clyde Reed and drummer Dave Storrs. The...
September 2000 Albums
Blues in Our Heart
David Ostwald's Gully Low Jazz Band
Blues in Our Heart jets into a flying start with a heart-pounding version of Ellington's "Jubilee Stomp." It's drummer Herlin Riley who sets the pace and then proceeds to slam into his solo like a man possessed. The Gully Low Jazz Band, the much-adored brainchild...
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