When Andy Milne began thinking about material for his latest solo album, Dreams and False Alarms, he mined the folk music of his childhood in search of songs with a meaningful, strong melodic anatomy. The Brooklyn-based jazz pianist delved into introspective renderings of tunes by Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Joni…

There’s something endearing about speaking with Maria Taylor on the phone. After she’s told you in her slight Southern drawl about how she was doing laundry and cleaning her room before heading to Alabama to practice for her next tour, you feel like maybe you’ve met her in a coffee…

“What do you call a dog with no ears?” the guy sitting next to me asks while tapping my elbow with the back of his hand. I wait a few moments, then shrug. “Nothing,” he says. “Because he sure as hell ain’t coming.” I don’t know this guy, and the…

In the liner notes of Scotland Barr and the Slow Drags’ Legionnaire’s Disease, there’s a quote attributed to Charlie Parker: “Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.” Listening to Barr sing about watching his life from…

Pi fight! Bill Ward, proprietor of Slim 7 (1443 Larimer Street), has had so much success with that sliver of a sliver of a downstairs bar that last September, he began putting together another underground project for Larimer Square, this one including a 2,100-square-foot club and a 3,800-square-foot place called…

So I head over to the Iliff Park Saloon (2300 South Chambers Road, Aurora) with the idea of having a nice, quiet happy-hour beer and maybe getting a tattoo at Ill-Mannered Tattoos, the bar’s ink parlor that opened last month. But the next thing I know, it’s fucking mayhem outside…

While guitarist Duke Robillard has been hailed as a world-class blues player, the guy is equally adept in jazz, swing and rockabilly. The Roomful of Blues founder’s diverse playing style has attracted the attention of Tom Waits, who took him on the road for a short tour of the Midwest…

I was once in Mandeville, Louisiana, just across the lake from New Orleans, for a reunion of sorts at my grandmother’s house. I’m pretty sure I’m the only one in the family who doesn’t like seafood; it’s a long story, but I’m sure it’s got something to do with my…

Frank Schultz is bullish on the Ballpark neighborhood — and no one is more surprised by that than him. In 1997, two years after Coors Field opened, Schultz invested big in the area by opening the Soiled Dove at 1949 Market Street, but by 2005, he realized that with all…

When you pull up the home page of Taylor Eigsti’s website, there’s a photo of the 22-year-old pianist wearing a leather jacket with a hoodie underneath. Hate to say it, but the guy looks like more like a Backstreet Boy than a jazz pianist who’s been nominated for two Grammys…

Sorry, Mr. Smith, but there’s no radio that likes to play the songs of your lover’s sorrow/Just sing us a jingle, and we’ll float you some bread/And all it will cost you is your heart and your head.” In the opening lines of his song “Artists and Repertoire,” Richard Swift…

Over the past week, I’ve spent more time on the 1900 block of Market Street than I have over the past ten years or so — if you don’t include my regular Sunday-night stops at El Chapultepec (1962 Market Street) for live jazz. The ‘Pec, which has been around for…

When McCoy Tyner, longtime pianist with John Coltrane’s quartet, says Terell Stafford is one of the great players of our time, that carries some serious weight. Tyner, who’s been playing professionally for fifty years, knows a good player when he hears one. He thought enough of Stafford’s playing to recruit…

Just as San Francisco’s late-’60s psychedelic scene was winding down, legendary concert promoter Bill Graham helped raise the Bay Area’s collective consciousness by bringing in artists such as Miles Davis, Sam & Dave, Otis Redding and B.B. King. By the time Oakland’s Tower of Power hit the scene in the…

About a decade ago I lived downtown, just down the street from the Red Garter strip club, which today is La Boheme Gentlemen’s Cabaret (1443 Stout Street). Unlike its replacement, the Red Garter was a sketchy joint and all-nude, which meant no alcohol could be served there under Denver ordinances…

Mickey Avalon’s been through some shit, man. His mom had him selling weed for her when he was just a teenager. She fired him a little while later, though, when she discovered he was shooting up smack at the age of sixteen. And things only got stickier and trickier from…

It’s been a hectic two months for the owners of the 15th Street Tavern. In June, Myke and Jeneye Martinez were served papers notifying them that they had to vacate the location. They started scrambling to find a new spot, and on the last day of June, they held their…

Mandolinist David Grisman has spent the past three decades playing what he calls “dawg” music, which is essentially a mix swing, bluegrass, Latin, jazz and gypsy. While the line-up of his band has changed over the years, Grisman’s always had a knack for recruiting skilled players, such as Tony Rice…

For her latest album, Experiment in Truth, jazz singer Rene Marie and her band set up shop in an auditorium at the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Gathered in a circle on the stage, they recorded 23 songs in two days. “If one person hits a wrong note, just…

I arrive at Parallel 17 (1600 East 17th Avenue) late, just missing the happy hour that runs from 10 p.m. until midnight. By day a Vietnamese restaurant, on Wednesday nights this place transforms into a pretty frickin’ hip “club.” Even this late, there are maybe fifty or sixty people —…

There’s a live recording of alto saxophonists Richie Cole and Phil Woods playing Charlie Parker’s “Scrapple From the Apple” at breakneck speed, each thoroughly versed in the ways of the Bird, both propelling each other at Denver’s Paramount Theatre. That was back in 1980. It was one of those shows…