A Twelve Day Urban Musical Journey (with bonuses)
I’m pretty sure I’ve never had tickets to six concerts in a twelve day period (outside of festivals) in my life until recently. With the way tickets are sold these days, of course, you buy them...
Knoxville Jazz Orchestra
Nxt Gen Concert Series Turns the Spotlight on the City’s Younger Jazz Talent
How does a musically talented young girl growing up in a small Italian town and a young man growing up in a small Appalachian city, find themselves on stage a few years later to perform a...
A Night in the City or Why I Didn’t Do My Assignment
You are free to look at this article in either of two ways. It could be a perfect example of an urban night. It could also be an excuse for not writing the column I had...
Announcing All Seasons (or at least quite a few of them)
Various performing arts series were truncated or eliminated in 2020. As we entered 2021 the virus was at its peak and predicting when people might be able to gather was perilous when planning a living room...
The State of the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra
I reached out to Vance Thompson, Executive Director at the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra. I wanted to know the impact of the pandemic on the orchestra and its current status. It’s been a hard road for many,...
Big Ears 2017, Part One
I spoke to someone who didn’t attend Big Ears and felt it was simply too much to imagine and to which she might see an entry point. While I made some suggestions for next year, I...
Saturday Sounds: Knoxville Jazz Orchestra with Regina Carter
I recently attended the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra‘s concert with Regina Carter. The shows in the Square Room are part of a premium package offered as an addition to the Jazz Orchestra’s regular concert series in the...
Five Plus Six Jazz Ensemble
Knoxville is a jazz-rich city. It shouldn’t logically have a jazz scene at all. As an Appalachian city our heritage runs in other directions from old time to bluegrass, from a bit of blues to country,...
First Friday Rambling
A couple of program notes before we get to the meat of the topic, today. I’d like to offer up a semi-random “thank you” to you guys. The site hit 25,000 page-views last month which...
Outdoor Free Jazz Comes to an End for the Season
The Jazz on the Square series has to be one of the best things about downtown Knoxville every summer. Most Tuesday and Thursday nights Vance Thompson, Greg Tardy, Kenneth Brown, Keith Brown and Clint Mullican have...