Most people I know right now are fed up, weary, and looking for whatever motivation they can find to maintain the energy and determination needed to keep marching on, whether literally or figuratively. A friend asked recently about art that expresses the energy and spirit of defiance against an unjust status quo, and of course my brain got to buzzing.
Continue ReadingI’ll just say it: my mother was a toilet paper hoarder. It’s more interesting and instructive than that, though, and I as I’ve reflected on it, I think it applies to other facets of life and coping with uncertainty and adversity, particularly at times of disruption and upheaval. For this year’s Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Awareness Month essay, I’d like to examine that (though, sorry to disappoint you, there will be nothing particularly scatological here).
Continue ReadingIronically, I began this list a few days ago as part of a determination to recognize some of my favorite living musicians while they’re still around. Obviously not fast enough in this case, as yesterday was time to say goodbye to maestro Cobb after 91 profoundly productive years. If all he’d ever done was play with Miles Davis for a few years, his place in the history books would be secure, but his pocket was more versatile than that, while at the same time being so swinging that it helped define a musical generation (when I was in my early 20s, I recall observing that there were young drummers on the scene in NY who sounded more like Jimmy Cobb than Jimmy Cobb did). Without any further ado, here is a sampling of some of my favorite Jimmy Cobb moments among many (and with apologies for all I omitted), presented in chronological order.
Continue ReadingI present you a tale of affirming and reconnecting with my sense of purpose amidst the anxiety and disorientation of all that’s going on. If you’re needing something like that (or at least a ray of hope that it could happen) then I invite you to read on. I considered keeping this to myself but figured there’s likely someone here who needs to hear it.
Continue ReadingEvery day is a good day to listen to and celebrate Mickey Tucker’s music, but it’s his 79th birthday today, so it’s a particularly good day for it. In early 1996 I was formally introduced to Mickey Tucker’s music. I don’t always remember precise timings of such things (and had heard several of the recordings…
Continue ReadingSo it looks like Bandcamp (already the most musician-friendly online sales platform out there) is once again waiving its fees for 24 hours on Friday 5/1, so artists get 100% of the proceeds – and if you want to buy $100 of folks’ music (and/or a combination of that and online lessons, etc.) and make…
Continue ReadingI missed his eightieth birthday by a day, but nonetheless, here is my humble tribute to maestro Hancock. For someone as widely beloved as he is, I feel like it’s hard to grasp the breadth of his significance because he’s been so versatile and so prolific. There are many things I appreciate about him, but the one thing I’ll focus on right now is his ability to inhabit worlds that might on the surface seem oppositional. The most obvious examples of this are genre-based (synth pop and bebop, hard funk and ethereal movie soundtracks, etc.), but it strikes me on a more molecular level. That is, even when he’s grooving (whether swing or funk or whatever else), there’s a flexibility to his harmonic and rhythmic choices that makes the music breathe; even when he’s playing things that are by definition looser, there’s a rhythmic intention and a melodic directness that make the music earthy. His unique (even while widely imitated) ability to straddle these lines is to my ear fundamental to why his personality shines through no matter the context.
Continue ReadingYesterday we lost Hal Wilner to Covid-19. Among his significant accomplishments was a TV show that aired for two seasons on Sunday nights on NBC between 1988-90. Hosted by David Sanborn (initially alongside Jools Holland), the show never became “popular” per se, but it presented high quality and eclectic music on network TV for two…
Continue ReadingI threw together this list upon a) hearing of the announcement that Bandcamp (already the most musician-friendly online sales platform) would be waiving its fees for 24 hours on Friday 3/20 (so artists get 100% of the proceeds), and b) getting a request from a friend, independent of this announcement, looking to support some independent musicians in this time.
Continue ReadingWhile I knew it was coming, it is surreal to now inhabit a world without McCoy Tyner. If the ONLY thing he had ever done was play in the classic Coltrane quartet, people would be quite rightly eulogizing him left and right. But at the same time, he was playing on some other superlatively important albums, including some of his own, and (with apologies to fans of Paul McCartney, Diana Ross, etc.) I can’t think of a single artist whose work AFTER leaving an acknowledged “supergroup” can match McCoy’s output in terms of sheer amount, consistent quality, and scope of influence. That’s just one way in which he was a singular figure in music.
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