Vince Giordano & "Ragged Jazz"

Check out this interview with Vince Giordano, leader of the Nighthawks 1920's jazz & dance orchestra, promoting the soundtrack to HBO's prohibition drama Boardwalk Empire. The Nighthawks are featured prominently in the series and on the soundtrack. It's a bit on the fluffy side, but there's one interesting bit where Vince explains the term "ragged jazz." He uses it for music that was on the cusp between ragtime and jazz. It's a great label, and now it makes me consider relabeling some of the genres in my iTunes database now....

Everybody Loves: The Nighthawks

Check out this video of Vince Giordano's Nighthawks, tearing it up on "Everybody Loves My Baby." I hope the venue was 21+ because the playing is Hot Hot HOT.



Thanks to Michael Steinman of Jazz Lives for recording & posting it.

Nighthawks write-up in NYTimes

There's a nice write-up of Vince Giordano's Nighthawks on the New York Times website. Interesting details about the band, including the fact that evidently Vince has one of the largest private collections of jazz-age sheet music in the world: 60,000-some pieces!

Looking forward to catching these guys when we're in New York in a couple weeks.