There is so much Monk that has inspired me that I could have easily had a Top 10 for his Blue Note, Prestige, Riverside, and Columbia studio recordings, one for his live performances, one for his sideman work – you get the idea. Ultimately, as with the Mingus list, I chose ten tracks that I love and that covered enough ground that most of what I love about Monk is in there somewhere. So here they are, in chronological order.
Continue ReadingI am, for the third time, teaching a course on the music of Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus for Wesleyan University’s Graduate Liberal Studies program, and as in the previous iterations, it gives me the impetus to listen to a LOT of their music, often falling back in love with things I already dug but…
Continue ReadingSome real talk about “cancel culture” for those who care to read
Continue ReadingThe jazz world was devastated earlier this week by the passing of Ralph Peterson Jr., a drummer, composer, bandleader, educator, entrepreneur, and all-around volcano of a musician and human, at the age of 58. It feels (and indeed is) soon to be digging in to his vast discography, but I wanted to be able to share some memories with those who might find that nourishing and to point some folks on the margins of the jazz world in the direction of some starting points from which to go down the Sir Ralph rabbit hole that I and many others have been in this week.
Continue ReadingAs much as my life revolves around original music (whether my own or that which the artists I love have composed) I also have an interest in cover performances that transform a song. While that’s so common in the jazz world that the term “cover” isn’t even really used there, I have a particular soft spot for Black artists finding the innate soul in a song not initially presented in that way. A lot of attention has been paid to great Black blues and R&B songs that only achieved mainstream success once covered by White artists, but for this Black History Month I wanted to go in the other direction.
Continue ReadingThe news of Chick Corea’s passing is difficult to process, since he was not only a true giant of music but so alive, so vibrant. The reverence for his artistry, mastery, and versatility is near-universal. He simultaneously modeled unbridled joy and presence, intimidating chops, and unassuming humility and would be a beloved figure for that even if he didn’t have a truly incredible discography and 23 Grammys (not a typo – putting him in the top 10 all-time, regardless of genre/context). His distinctive style as a pianist, his compositional body of work, and his vision as a multifaceted bandleader (SO many remarkable and intricately-conceived ensembles) are all things that alone would make him superlative, a giant among mortals, but of course he accomplished all these things. I would call him inimitable except that few musicians in modern jazz are as literally imitated as Chick.
Continue Reading“The time is always right to do what is right.”
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”
These quotes from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King have two things in common. One, they are inspiring examples of his important work and his skills as an orator. Two, they are so universal that they have been used by right-wing politicians to bolster actions and philosophies completely antithetical to Dr. King’s beliefs and work.
Before this important holiday gets washed away in the attempted gaslighting of portraying Dr. King as somehow the vanilla yogurt of the civil rights movement, let’s stop for a moment to consider reality.
Continue ReadingWhen news spread yesterday of Howard Johnson’s passing, I reflected on how he was in many ways the consummate musician. If all he had ever done was evolve jazz tuba to an unprecedented level, his place in the history books would be secure. But there was so much more – brilliance on the baritone saxophone, skillful work on multiple other brass and wind instruments, visionary bandleading, capacity to thrive as a soloist or as a supportive ensemble member across a vast range of styles. And the couple times I had the pleasure to hang out with him a little confirmed why I’ve literally never heard a single person suggest he was anything but a joy to be around, which is a major part of the gig too.
Continue ReadingThere need be no more words uttered on the challenges of 2020, but MAN was there a lot of great music that came out. I agonized over all that I left out (I kept a running list this year and there were literally over a hundred things on the list of records I really dug) and here’s what I came up with.
Continue ReadingYesterday, a couple hours before I heard about the passing of jazz giant Stanley Cowell, Kate was doing ordering some supplies for Wesleyan’s Art Department and I saw the piece of paper full of hyper-specific color names – indigo blue, poppy red, royal blue, and so on. As I think about Prof. Cowell’s legacy as a pianist, composer, and conceptualist, it is like that. He may not have invented “blue” or “green,” but you can be sure that there is a shade that is uniquely and identifiably his and so much jazz of the last 50-plus years has been enriched by that indirectly and directly.
Continue Reading