John Edwin Mason: Documentary, Motorsports, Photo History

#FunkyFriday: Kait Dunton & TrioKAIT

When I made this portrait of Kait Dunton 10 years ago, she was a promising young pianist and composer who had just graduated from the University of Virginia. Four years earlier, she had arrived in Charlottesville as a gifted classical pianist, but she thought that her future would be in... Read more →

All Night Jazz Jam at Fellini's for the George Melvin Educational Fund

Last Saturday, the Charlottesville Jazz Society and Fellini's #9 (a great restaurant and my neighborhood pub) hosted an all night jazz jam session to benefit the George Melvin Educational Fund. George, who passed away last year, was a truly beloved figure on Charlottesville's musical scene -- a wonderful teacher and... Read more →

Veronica Swift & Hod O'Brien: Jazz at Fellini's #9

About a month ago, I wandered down the street to Fellini's #9, my neighborhood pub, to hear some terrific jazz served up by the singer Veronica Swift and pianist Hod O'Brien. I heard two long sets of standards and bebop, and I've rarely heard musicians respond as sympathetically to each... Read more →

Saturday Night @ Fellini's: John D'earth, Miles Griffith, & Stephanie Nakasian

It's the twenty-first century, and scientists still aren't very good a predicting when magic will happen. Maybe they should talk to photographers, especially those who moonlight as historians. I knew -- or, at least, I had a strong hunch -- that magic would happen last Saturday night at Fellini's #9,... Read more →

Friday Night with Stephanie Nakasian and Hod O'Brien

Imagine this: You spend part of your evening reading a new book about the legendary lower Manhattan jazz jam session scene of the late '50s and early '60s. Later, you stroll down the street to your neighborhood saloon, and there, sitting at the piano, is one of the people you've... Read more →