Count Basie

The Chitlin' Circuit: Road to Rock & Roll Ran Straight Through Houston

Above: Walter Barnes and the Royal Creolians, the first kings of the Chitlin' Circuit Most music critics, writers, historians, and aficianados in Houston don't think this city has ever gotten enough credit for its contributions to blues, soul, and, the Holy Grail, the birth of rock and roll. Well, ... More >>

Grady Gaines, the Upsetter

Houston sax lion has always been in the "hottest band around."

A "Classic Cool" Start To BestFest Weekend

classiccool.com​Kicking off with a swanky media preview party this evening, the area surrounding the "superblock" at Main and McGowen should be a beehive of activity the next 48 hours. Tonight Lonesome Onry and Mean will be partying in the Mercedes Benz VIP area and getting a first look at t ... More >>

Last Night: Tony Bennett At Jones Hall

No photogaphy was permitted at Thursday's show.​Tony Bennett Jones Hall April 26, 2011 Tuesday night was the 60th anniversary of Tony Bennett recording what would become first No. 1 single, a little tune called "Because of You." After hearing the 85-year-old singer perform with his quartet a ... More >>

Eldorado Ballroom To Receive Texas Historical Marker

Project Row Houses/ houstondeco.orgThe Eldorado Ballroom in the 1940s​A year ago, Third Ward had no music-related official Texas historical markers. Soon, it will have two. Last month, the Texas Historical Commission approved a marker application filed by Project Row Houses for the Eldorado B ... More >>

The Quotable Keith Richards: "I'm Happy To Be Anywhere"

​As anyone with half a brain and persistent hacking cough knows, today is a very special day. Today Little, Brown and Company publishes Life, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards' autobiography as told to/pieced together by British journalist James Fox. Life has already received a fair amo ... More >>

Answers To Rocks Off's Musical Nickname Quiz

​Rocks Off hopes you enjoyed our musical nickname quiz earlier today. We have had a few nicknames ourselves over the years - our dad called us "Boog" after former Baltimore Orioles first baseman Boog Powell, and we were known for years around the Austin Chronicle offices as "Weezer," which we ... More >>

Musical Theology With John Coltrane, Robert Johnson

​Naxos continues to release episodes from the Masters of American Music documentary series from the '90s, and here are two from the latest releases (the two others profiling Sarah Vaughan and Count Basie). Not a straight biographical doc or even a chronological one about his album releases, The Wo ... More >>

Great Moments With Mr. Rockefeller: Ray Price, Bobby "Blue" Bland and the Kansas City All-Stars

[Ed. Note: To help spread the word about next Friday's benefit for the Houston International Festival's education programs at Rockefeller Hall, featuring Texas Johnny Brown and Marcia Ball, Rocks Off asked iFest director of performing arts and former Houston Chronicle music critic Rick Mitchell to r ... More >>

Get Funky at Aurora Picture Show's "Soul Nite" at the Eldorado Ballroom

​ The Eldorado Ballroom, the boxy Deco warehouse on the corner of Elgin and Dowling, will once again be filled with the sounds of soul thanks to Aurora PIcture Show and film curator Peter Lucas, who are presenting Soul Nite Saturday at 7 p.m. The ballroom, the epicenter of Houston's black musical ... More >>

Straight, No Chaser

The most underground music in Houston right now isn't rap or indie rock...it's jazz.

The Nickel: A Musical History of the Fifth Ward, Part 3

[Note: Part 1 of The Nickel is here, and Part 2 is here.] Almost as forgotten as Hersal Thomas, Goree Carter was a Fifth Ward guitarist who was credited by late New York Times pop critic Robert Palmer with being the creator of the very first rock and roll record. This was his obscure 1949 singl ... More >>

Aftermath: B.B. King at House of Blues

Photos by Mark C. Austin   B.B. King deserves a break. If the genial Buddha of the blues, now 83, would rather spend the bulk of his two-hour set bantering with the sold-out crowd about Viagra (groan) and the wayward ways of womankind instead of, you know, singing and playing, he's earne ... More >>

Houston's Jazz History

Americans Recording Mexican Songs

The Bueno, the Bad and the Muy Ugly

David Beebe's Matagorda Island Discs

(In which locals sound off on the ten records they would take to Matagorda Island, the nearest major unpopulated sandbar to Houston.)

The Return of the Kashmere Stage band

Houston's Very Best Songs Ever

...otherwise known as the H-Town 20

Don't Fear the Reaper

The annual return of the Greil Marcus Rock Death Meter

Chico Hamilton

Juniflip, Believe, 6th Ave. Romp, Heritage

Gutbucket Blues, Chopped and Screwed

The North Mississippi Allstars and Houston DJ Jimmy D team up on a revolutionary EP

Free to Jam

Get the blues at the Eldorado Ballroom's Juneteenth Bash

New Angels in Rock Heaven

Scoring the grim reaper's 2004 harvest

Wham, Bam, Thank You MAMH

The proposed Museum of American Music History could be the solution to our "image problem"

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Our picks of the week

Crash and Burn

Landlords and bounced checks abort the Fabulous Satellite Lounge's ten-year mission to rock the Heights

Best Actor

Wayne DeHart

Illinois Jacquet

Jumpin' at Apollo (Delmark)

An August Occasion

Wilson takes a Jitney to the Alley

Puccini Goes Uptown

La Bohème takes the A train to Harlem in Ebony Opera's new production

End of the Road

Thirty years later, Harry Belafonte finds closure in a once-lost project

Trials and Tribu-lations

Austin-based salsa orchestra marries ghetto funk with barrio spice

Best Jukebox

Warren's Inn

For Swingers Only

Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra

Boogie Nights

The Groove Collective

The "It" Guy

It's hard not to dig local saxophonist David Caceres

Remembering Doug Sahm

The Texas Tornado is gone, but not forgotten

Soul Brother No. 1

Top 10 reasons why Ray Charles is a genius

A Jazz Odyssey

Even without his commander, Marshall Allen orchestrates interplanetary space travel just fine, thank you

Jazz for the Masses

Rotation

The Master Interpreter

Jazz Piano Times Two

Rotation

Blues Without Blinders

Blues, soul, rock, country? Who cares? To Little Milton, it's just music.

Jazz Notes

Press Picks

Good Vibes

Elder statesman of getting down: Fusion vibist Harry Sheppard

Piano Man

Houston's Dave Catney releases the classy Reality Road

The Horn of Africa

Trumpeter Hugh Masekela hears the beat of the music in the world