Category: Reflections

By Hank O’Neal Eddie Condon’s autobiography, We Called It Music, was published in 1947 and was easily the best autobiographical book by a jazz musician up to that time. This is why the book has remained in print for nearly seventy years. In 1947, Eddie Condon was more that just a prominent jazz musician, he was a New York City

By Jan Souther When I was very young, Mom used to take me for what she called “nature walks” around the neighborhood.  She saw nature everywhere.  Instead of passing a pile of leaves around a telephone pole, for instance, we would stop and brush them aside to examine the small plants just starting to grow in the dirt.  Anything big

by Nicholas Niles Key to the very beginning of Chiaroscuro was Marian McPartland.  As we all know, Marian is a major figure in jazz. Not only has her playing over the years been an important addition to the annals of jazz, but her wonderful NPR program “Piano Jazz” is a major contribution to the world of jazz as well as

by Nicholas Niles As I look back on my love of jazz, I remember many really terrific jazz experiences. Now that I am a bit older, when I connect many of these seemingly unrelated experiences it is amazing how many connect in turn to Chiaroscuro. Here is one of my first ones. I hope you find it interesting. In 1968, I

By Jan Souther  “Joe Smith on trombone!  Joe Smith!” You’re partway through an evening of fine jazz and the bandleader says, “The waiters don’t want no trombone playing in here; nope, the waiters don’t want no trombone playing in here.  But we don’t care and let them stare; we’ll play our trombones now.  Here’s Joe Smith.” Joe takes a solo

By Andrew Sordoni For more than 50 years jazz music has intrigued and nourished my whole self without ever demanding more than  attention. At various times my focus fluctuated from meager to intense but at no time was jazz away from my need to listen, to know and to feel. As a producer, enabler and manager of events and a respected

By Tom Carten Just as WVIA-FM now has three channels for your news and information needs, so did Spike Jones with his City Slickers; the Band that Plays for Fun; and the little known Other Orchestra.  As with many movies which are critically acclaimed but box-office disasters, Spike’s attempt to dabble in fine pop music with a little jazz touch