Return to Vinyls

May 26, 2026 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of jazz musician and trumpeter Miles Davis. Return To Vinyls Podcast presents a special episode honoring Miles Davis and his music on this 100 year milestone. The episode highlights some of the best compilation releases of Miles’ musical output. Miles Davis explored a number of different directions during his tremendous career. The collections...

Musical families are not uncommon in all genera of music. But few have been as all encompassing as Rufus, Marvell, Vaneese and Carla Thomas were in soul music and the Stax record label. Rufus Thomas and his son and daughters didn’t just record for Stax and create some of the best known hits the label released— Rufus along with Carla were the catalyst that transformed a struggling studio into a glo...

Generally in the arts and entertainment world you get one chance. If you are lucky you will have some success and maybe even a big hit. If you are very lucky you will have sustained success and a string of hits. Well maybe for a few years anyway.  But in most cases that mixture of familiarity and uniqueness that combine to create something new and that special something the work brings to the worl...

Drums were probably the first musical instrument created by humans. Drum beats are natural —be it heartbeats or the sounds of nature. The oldest drum ever found goes back over 7,500 years. In modern music, drums always played a role to set the beat, keep the rhythm and energize the music. But the role of percussionists started changing around the time of WWII. Drummers like Buddy Rich and Gene Kru...

There are great musicians and singers that transcend musical genera and boundaries. But how about someone who started with a very silly novelty rock and roll song, but ended up a night club act and a Las Vegas star that rivaled Frank Sinatra doing jazz standards while still appealing to young teens and adult audiences at the same time.    Big band swing and rock and roll were not just worlds apart...

Return to Vinyls podcast is about music: jazz, soul and the blues. From the classics era to today's artists who draw inspiration from the classics. It is also about the creative process and how artists deal with the obstacles that can get in the way of doing what they do best. Give us a listen.

It is not unusual for a song to come out and basically be ignored, but then it is plucked from obscurity and used in a movie or TV show. And all of the sudden it is everywhere. Downloads or streaming make that a pretty easy task. But what about back in the days when vinyl was the only choice? What if Clint Eastwood, known for his great fondness for jazz, took one of those now forgotten songs two y...

In 1971 the African country of Ghana hosted a musical celebration called the “Soul to Soul Festival.” It is often referred to as the “Woodstock of Africa.” Although the festival was to honor the tenth anniversary of an independent Ghana, the Festival not only introduced American soul, R&B and modern jazz to the African continent, but the concert had a profound effect on the American musicians...

Miles Davis was a true jazz lovers — jazz musician. Well, if the criteria is that he was never very popular with mainstream music buyers. Unlike other jazz greats like Louis Armstrong, Stan Getz, Dave Brubeck and Cannonball Adderley, Miles Davis never had a hit record in spite of releasing 57 singles. He had just a few albums that charted in the top 100. So no, Miles Davis never crossed over into...

Think you are not a fan of jazz, think Miles Davis has nothing to offer you? Davis, during his 45 plus year career, released at least 60 studio albums and 39 live albums, as well as 46 compilation albums, 27 box sets, and 4 soundtrack albums. He reinvented himself almost as often as he changed his socks (well at least every few years anyway). Starting in the 1940s there was a move away from big ba...

Memphis based Stax recording star soul singer Johnnie Taylor is probably best remembered today for his R&B hits. But very few crossed over to top 40 radio. So unless you are an in-depth fan of Stax records hits from the 1960s or perhaps a follower of vintage disco you probably do not know much of his catalog of soul and blues and his dance disco hit. It is odd sometimes that artists are rememb...

If you know anything about the American singer Nina Simone it is probably her deep rich voice singing jazz, blues, soul and popular songs. She often wrote and sang songs for, and about, the civil rights movement. But she also took old standards and popular songs of the day and managed to turn those into civil right anthems as well. But she never studied voice and she never really sang publicly unt...

Even if you are not a country western fan you probably know who Waylon Jennings is and very well might know his song "Bob Wills Is Still The King." So who was Bob Willis you may wonder? He played violin and lead the group Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. He was known as the king of Western Swing which birthed the Western side of Country Western. And that Western Swing music is rooted in...

So what is gospel music? Google’s AI says that gospel music is a style of Christian music that originated in African American communities. It’s characterized by rhythmic, spiritual melodies and harmonies. Gospel music often includes call-and-response, group singing, and refrains. Oxford dictionary adds that gospel music is about the teachings of Jesus, According to the Smithsonian, the great Mahal...

I think when most people hit the jackpot, they go out and buy their lottery dream-home and live happily ever after. Well we know from studies that winning the lottery or striking it rich does not always end up well down the road. But you get the point. You win and you are free to do absolutely nothing. Why work when you don’t have it. However, for many if not most artists, no matter how successful...

There are some musicians and artists who regularly reinvent themselves. The Beatles did it right up to their final album. Bob Dylan has done it so many times that in  I’m Not There  the 2007 film inspired by his life and music, six different actors played his various periods. The reality is that most artists are lucky to get one hit during their career. So what about those that sustain themselves...

In the 1960s and 70s thanks to the explosion in new FM radio stations and the popularity of records, political songs that might have been too controversial for Top 40 radio became part of the soundtrack for a generation. But sometimes what are seen as political songs, and even so called protest songs, really weren’t meant to be political to begin with. Some songs that were meant to be political we...

The song  Green Onions  by Booker T and the MGs is without doubt one of the major rock and soul instrumentals to come out of the 1960s. According to a review on AllMusic. Com it is “one of the most popular instrumental rock and soul songs ever.” The song is based on a classic twelve-bar blues progression fused with jazz and features Booker T. Jones on Hammond organ, Al Jackson Jr. on drums, Steve...

She’s been called the godmother of rock and roll. Rolling Stone Magazine named her the 6th greatest guitarist of all time in 2023. If you saw the Elvis movie. Yep, she was in there. The British singer Yola played her singing Strange Things Are Happening Every Day at a club. Elvis was a fan, as the movie depicted. Keith Richards of the band the Rolling Stones has talked about how her European conce...

Humans have been transfixed by the night sky, well, since the beginning of human existence. There’s ancient rock art and cave art that depicts celestial events and structures that align with the solstices or equinoxes. The stars in the sky tell stories from the American Indian and Australian Aborigine oral traditions, to the ancient myths from Greek, Roman and Arab cultures. They at times overlap...

Do you ever wonder why a particular song becomes a hit? Or a best selling book, blockbuster movie, or why a newly emerged visual artist will have work on display or one person shows at major museums all around the world at the same time? As you might guess people have studied that phenomenon.  If you are going to study creative success, music is a good place to begin and we will look at a recent s...

As WWII was drawing to a close in the mid 1940s America’s musical taste was changing and along with it musical venues were going through an upheaval. Dance halls and ballrooms saw audiences abandon once crowded dance floors for a listening experience. But by the 1950s music and venues were changing again. Music in general, and jazz in particular was seen as more sophisticated thanks in part to mag...

The Late Brazilian jazz pianist and band leader Sergio Mendes, who passed away this month, was best known for fronting the Bossa Nova group Brazil 66 who had there first big hit with the Brazilian song Mais Que Nada sung in Portuguese it more or less translates as "Much of Nothing." It was great to see and hear all the tributes to Sergio Mendes and his music. But I was flummoxed that the...

You need to look no further than the album cover from a new release from British jazz musician Matthew Halsall to know that art and nature both play a critical part in his work. His LP  An Ever Changing View  has to be one of the most beautiful vinyl packages ever produced. The two record set doesn't stop there, it also contains some really interesting music as well.  Along with art his other...

Do we need yet one more album of someone playing their favorite Beatles hits? When it is Brad Mehldau yes we do. One of the world's top jazz pianists — rated among the top five  on National Public Radio and winner of the Downbeat Magazine Reader's Poll eight times, has delved into a few Beatles songs in the past. But this time he jumps in with both feet and the results will surprise and im...