The Syncopated Times

01/07/2024

Our July issue is online. Arthur Vint is on the cover, A deep dive into Porter Brown, complete with lost home recordings, is worth a gander. Three festivals are reviewed and more previewed. Ramona Baker takes us down to Five Points and the Bowery, profiles in jazz takes us to Europe with African Americans who spent their careers there, we interview the author of a new book on Early Jazz, and say goodbye to Palm Court.

Vol.9, No.7 July 2024

24/06/2024

"Why do I need a print subscription to The Syncopated Times?"

As shown in the article below (published in the June 28, 2024 issue of The Week), much of the information scraped by AI bots from our website and others goes through a hallucinatory blender and comes out as an Information Smoothie. Facts that pop up online are changed or made up entirely. Information in The Syncopated Times is edited and fact-checked by our long-time editor Andy Senior before going to press or being posted on our website. Our writing is entirely created by humans you can write to and harangue if they get something wrong. In a world of faceless, black-box, unaccountable journalism, we're practically Colonial Williamsburg. When you deal with us, you're dealing with human beings--so please be kind.

01/06/2024

Our June issue returns to the roots. Craig Klein is on the cover and a number of the album reviews focus on current New Orleans groups you should be following.

Vol.9, No.6 June 2024

21/05/2024

It would seem that Daily Kos has us on their radar. How about that!

The late, great� stride pianist and organist Fats Waller’s birthday is May 21. Often overlooked is his prodigious record as a songwriter during the heyday of Tin Pan Alley​​ — a period in ...

03/05/2024

Take Exit 28 (Fultonville/Fonda) on the NYS Thruway; head South on RT 30A.

03/05/2024

Today's email tells you to get yourself over to Bandcamp and support a band today.

01/05/2024

The 100th issue of The Syncopated Times is now online! Give it a read, and give it a share.

Vol.9, No.5 May 2024

08/04/2024

In honor of today's "event" (from our vantage point of cloudy near-totality):

In honor of the mild disappointment we experienced on April 8, 2024, I'm posting this recording by Irving Kaufman (as "Charles Dickson") of George Fairman's ...

01/04/2024

Our April issue is now online. If you have a story idea or someone you would like to profile for The Syncopated Tiimes please reach out. There are more worthy subjects, especially working musicians, than we can cover on our own. We do not assign stories, we rely on contributors. Consider becoming one.

Vol.9, No.4 April 2024

03/03/2024

Our friend Dan Levinson could use your help about now. He's laid up with a compound fracture and is sidelined from plying his craft as a musician--a craft on which his livelihood depends. Please consider contributing to his fundraiser.

Dear Present and Future Friends, Two weeks ago, Dan fractured his right leg in… Amalia Ryan needs your support for Help Dan Levinson get back on both feet

01/03/2024

Our March issue is now online:

Features

Matthew de Lacey Davidson: “Success Is to Be Measured”, by Jeff Barnhart

The Spirit of Hot Jazz in St. Louis: T.J. Muller’s All Stars, by Larry Melton

Drummers’ Summit: Let’s Talk About Morey Feld, by Hal Smith & Kevin Dorn

Whisper Darkly: A Secretive Jazz-Age Theater Project, by Dave Doyle

97 Years of Jazz: Happy Birthday Dick Hyman!, by Ted des Plantes

Bobby Burns Berman: “Hollywood’s Entertainer of the Stars”, by Adam G. Burlock

"The Harlem Strut”: A “Groundbreaking” Stride Solo, by Scott Brown

Columns

Jazz Birthday of the Month: Jimmy McPartland, by illustration by Joe Busam

Static from my Attic, by Andy Senior

Final Chorus, by compiled by Joe Bebco

Jazz Travels: Louis and Bria in NYC, by Bill Hoffman

My Inspirations: My “Dear John” Letter, by Jeff Barnhart

Ragtime Vignettes: Heartland, by Brandon Byrne

Quarter Notes: Cold Winds Outside, Hot Jazz Inside!, by Shelly Gallichio

Helf and Hager Set Up Shop on Tin Pan Alley, by R.S. Baker

Rudiments of Ragtime: Installment 14: James P. Johnson, by Larry Melton

Festival Roundup, compiled by Joe Bebco

Profiles in Jazz: Benny Goodman’s Female Singers 1939-49, by Scott Yanow

Blowing off the Dust: David Reffkin, by Larry Melton

Readers’ Correspondence

Is It Real or Is It Memorex: The Lost Hook Tapes, by Randi Cee

Ain’t Cha Got Music: El Dorado Jazz Band, Pt.2, by Jeff Barnhart & Hal Smith

It Was a Gas! Weird and Wacky Sidelights of the NGJB, by Phil Crumley

News

The Music Never Stops: A Report from Israel, by Frank Farbenbloom

New Eddie Durham Doc on PBS, Streaming Free Online

Reviews

Dick Hyman’s Century of Jazz Piano: An Appreciation, by Ted des Plantes

Nights at the Turntable, CD reviews by Scott Yanow

Off the Beaten Tracks, CD reviews by Joe Bebco

Vol.9, No.3 March 2024

29/02/2024

Born in 1904, today would have been Jimmy Dorsey's 30th Birthday.

21/02/2024

For those awkward moments when a real live guitar is not available:

01/02/2024

Our February issue is online. Please find an article you enjoy and share it with a friend. I'm still a firm believer that the biggest fans of the Syncopated Times have yet to discover it.

The February 2024 issue of The Syncopated Times

18/01/2024

Music Journalism isn't totally collapsing. The Syncopated Times is still here, and we're not going anywhere for the foreseeable future.

This is a bigger problem that you can fix with a Pitchfork

08/01/2024

The Toledo Blade has picked up Lew Shaw's Jazz Jottings column for January (in which he celebrates Ray Heitger's 56 years of leading the Cakewalkin' Jass Band) and mentioned our publication in its January 7, 2024, edition.

Toledo’s venerable Cakewalkin’ Jass Band is prominently featured in America’s only known national publication that covers Dixieland music on a regular ...

01/01/2024

Our January 2024 issue is online. Marking 8 full years of The Syncopated Times, which launched in February 2016. Enjoy it, share it, support it with your subscription, and consider helping us continue producing articles about jazz and ragtime performers with your donation to our GoFundMe.

Vol.9, No.1 January 2024

27/12/2023

Just $50 to go!

Hello All, Am now free from Sept 18th 2023 2nd Attempt to evict from my Flipper… Babette Annapurna Ory needs your support for Help Babette not become homeless

24/12/2023

Babette Ory, Kid Ory's daughter, stands to be evicted the day after Christmas by a flipper who bought the house she has been renting. Please help if you possibly can.

Hello All, Am now free from Sept 18th 2023 2nd Attempt to evict from my Flipper… Babette Annapurna Ory needs your support for Help Babette not become homeless

23/12/2023

As a media mogul of sorts, I found much in this article that resonated with me. Apparently, what I started eight years ago is not only foolhardy but impossible.

How to throw off the corporate shackles and launch an independent news outlet.

22/12/2023

On the tape deck tonight.... Merry Christmas!

Leon Redbone: Christmas Island

Jim Cullum Jazz Band: Tis the Season to be Jammin'

01/12/2023

Our December issue is live. Royce Martin is on the cover, Samara Joy reviewed and 50 years of The Sting bringing new ears to ragtime celebrated. Also Basie, Ory and Welles, Digby Fairweather, the Flugelhorn, Bill Erickson, Grace Johnston, and much more!!!

Vol.8, No.12 December 2023

28/11/2023

Giving Tuesday🎶New Christmas Albums🎄 -

Jeff Barnhart: Faithful readers, due to a very busy travel and performance schedule, Hal Smith indicated he’d need to relinquish his usual seat at our jazz forensics lab and looks forward to returning next month. I’m using this opportunity to invite my old friend pianist Bill “Perfessor Bill.....

17/11/2023

In today's email our webmaster ponders the AI future -

While the jazz piano originally developed independently of the earliest jazz groups (I have yet to see a piano utilized in a marching brass band)...

11/11/2023

In our latest email: Jazz and the World Wars🎺 Mezz & Muggsy -

November 11, 2018 was the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice, which ended World War I and marked a turning point after which...

10/11/2023

Congratulations to Archeophone Records on their Grammy Nomination for Best Historical Album.

Well deserved.

While fishing for excuses for being beyond my deadline, I told the publisher this was the most important jazz release we have ever covered. For historical

01/11/2023

Our November issue is online. It has an accidental theme connecting piano, screen, and stage.

Vol.8, No.11 November 2023