Colin Fleming writes fiction and nonfiction on myriad topics—art, film, music, sports, literature—for a wide range of publications. He also talks regularly on the radio for the likes of NPR and Downtown with Rich Kimball. His most recent book, Buried on the Beaches: Cape Stories for Hooked Hearts and Driftwood Souls (Tailwinds), was published in 2019, with an entry in Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 series on Sam Cooke’s Live at the Harlem Square Club to follow in 2020. Find him on the web at colinfleminglit.com (where you’ll also find his unique online journal, the Many Moments More blog) and on Twitter @colinfleminglit. He lives in Boston and has contributed to JazzTimes since 2006.
Colin Fleming on social media
It is November 26, 1945 in New York City, the Monday morning after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, and producer Teddy Reig has arrived at the apartment … Read More “Charlie Parker, the Birth of Bebop, and America’s Greatest Recording Session”
Were you an ardent fan of hard bop, circa 1960, with an additional yen for progressive mages like John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk, you might … Read More “Maria Golia: Ornette Coleman: The Territory and the Adventure (Reaktion)”
Louis Armstrong awoke one morning wanting to make some music, but when he sat in front of the mirror of his hotel bedroom—because he liked … Read More “The Day Louis Armstrong Lost His Color: A Short Story”
Times are seldom what one wishes them to be when the word “frontline” is commonly used. It suggests that a pernicious edge has encroached upon … Read More “Of “St. James Infirmary” and COVID-19”
We all know the big names of Blue Note Records—Coltrane, Rollins, Monk, Davis, Silver, Blakey, Hancock, Shorter, and so on—as well we should. But what … Read More “JazzTimes 10: Best of the Other Blue Note Artists”
Watching Ella Fitzgerald insist upon making her way from the streets of Harlem—and insist she does—to an outcome that anyone else would have thought beyond … Read More “Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things (Eagle Rock)”
In the late 1950s, a time when jazz drumming was dominated by a powerhouse groove style, Jimmy Cobb was the sticksman to whom you turned … Read More “Mr. Elegant: Jimmy Cobb Reconsidered”
There is a motivic whirr to the blade of a helicopter that makes me think of the rhythmic pulses in the music of John Coltrane. … Read More “Of George Floyd and John Coltrane”
There are times I have watched the artful dissolves in Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane and wished there was a way to hang them on museum … Read More “Francis Wolff: Jazz Images (Elemental)”
If you came of musical age on rock & roll, as I did, and you then turned to jazz, chances are as high as a … Read More “A Voice With 10 Fingers: McCoy Tyner After Trane”
Miles Davis, an exacting man, excised many of Hank Mobley’s solos from the recordings they made at San Francisco’s Black Hawk club in April 1961. … Read More “Hank Mobley: The Complete Hank Mobley Blue Note Sessions 1963-70 (Mosaic)”
If you’re at all like me, a healthy serving of jazz helps you through the holidays. I love Christmas, but assorted right hooks and uppercuts … Read More “A Bessie Smith Christmas”
Jazz certainly loves its autumn leaves, going by its taste in standards. And its plaintive, twilight horns can sound like so many gusts of wind, … Read More “JazzTimes 10: Songs for a Jazzier Halloween”
Any newly discovered vintage Stan Getz live tape has to shoulder some formidable competition—especially if you believe that the finest recordings he ever cut were … Read More “Stan Getz: Getz at the Gate (Verve)”
Boston’s Kenmore Square is the conflux of streets that have long seemed to come together for one central purpose: to sweep passersby in the direction … Read More “When Billie Holiday Came to Boston”
As the Fourth of July comes around each year, I wonder how many people out there in the Republic are upping the quantity of Louis … Read More “The Perfect Fourth of July Jazz Record”
When it comes to symbiosis, jazz and cinema aren’t exactly the clownfish and the sea anemone. Cinema asks us to travel with our eyes, to … Read More “JazzTimes 10: Jazz on Film”
There is an inherent risk with a solo jazz guitar concert that rather than experiencing a tour of a verdant garden, with life flowing in … Read More “Concert Review: Pat Metheny Solo at Rockport Music”
There are certain singers we might consider ’tweeners, occupying some liminal space between jazz and pop. Judy Garland is one of these, though I’ve always … Read More “Doris Day: Her Jazziest Moment”
Certain recording projects are so vast in their conceptual scope that attempting to process their remit can feel like being a test pilot in a … Read More “Anthony Braxton: GTM (Syntax) 2017 (New Braxton House)”
Little wonder that Nat King Cole is revered as one of the towering crooners of the recorded-sound era; he sang as if his lungs were … Read More “Cole at 100: Not That Nat But This One”
Charles Dickens, that prose poet of Christmas, believed that the end of the year—the holiday portion—not only was made for the best celebrations but also … Read More “The Greatest Jazz Christmas Performance of All Time”
There came an aha moment at the NEC Jazz Orchestra’s Dec. 6 concert in Jordan Hall that doubled as a reminder of why it was … Read More “Live Review: “Vanguard: The Music of Ran Blake” in Boston”
There are some albums you really have to strap in for, lest you get whiplash for all of the various genre components that come whizzing … Read More “Marquis Hill: Modern Flows Vol. 2 (Black Unlimited Music Group)”
Certain collections of music are so rich and deep that it feels like a listener could almost swim in them. This six-disc, 108-track set feels … Read More “Various Artists: The Savory Collection 1935-1940 (Mosaic)”
Cuban trumpeter Arturo Sandoval has always loved the bebop métier, tossing his aesthetic headlong in the directions of the masters Parker and Gillespie, but now … Read More “Arturo Sandoval: Ultimate Duets (Universal Latino)”
A funky little wash of strings, a curlicue pattern of zesty tenor sax soul-jazz from neglected would-be legend Monk Higgins, and this postbop LP immediately … Read More “Monk Higgins: Extra Soul Perception (Real Gone/Dusty Groove)”
Is it possible to be a fan of jazz and not be a fan of Blue Note Records? At once a kind of steward station, … Read More “Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes (Eagle Rock) “
To play the music of Johann Sebastian Bach well, a knack for sonic alchemy is required. One must be able to make swirling waves of … Read More “Brad Mehldau: After Bach (Nonesuch)”
Jazz is a music of ensembles working toward a shared common goal through improvisatory avenues, but it is most special when focused on partnerships. Bird … Read More “Miles Davis & John Coltrane: The Final Tour: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6 (Columbia/Legacy)”
