Top 10 Favorite Bennie Maupin Tracks

For whatever combination of reasons, from geography to stylistic restlessness, the breadth and depth of 84 year old woodwind virtuoso Bennie Maupin’s work have long been underappreciated. His playing is at times simple and at times cerebral and complex, at times emotionally uninhibited and at times patient and restrained, at times presented in highly modern…

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Top 10 Favorite Roberta Flack Tracks

Safe passage to Roberta Flack, an exceptional singer, wonderful pianist, and important role model for Black women’s self-empowerment. I’m embarrassed to admit that until I was in college, the entirety of my conscious exposure to her music was the 30 seconds of “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” that was used in an Oil…

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Keep Showing Up and Protect My Heart

I have found two go-to principles to preserve whatever integrity, agency, and semblance of sanity I might possess. Keep showing up and protect my heart. The specifics are malleable and the moment-to-moment strategies are situational but I keep coming back to these things and it keeps helping. Showing up is maybe self-explanatory? If there are…

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Top 10 Favorite John Stubblefield Tracks

Today (Feb 4, 2025) marks the 80th anniversary of John Stubblefield’s birth. Stubbs is one of my favorite saxophonists and in a sense an exemplar of the “lost generation” of folks like Victor Lewis and James Williams who, while beloved within the jazz community, fell in the cracks in the 1980s landscape of straight-ahead jazz’s…

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20 Albums that Moved Me in 2024

The spreadsheets get more and more nuanced and my attempts to pare down without missing stuff remain earnest yet quixotic (4-5 full albums and 5-6 partial ones per week on average, though really more than that with some gaps where my ears are consumed by things related to performing or teaching). I’m so awed by…

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Top 10 Favorite Martial Solal Tracks

Safe passage to pianist Martial Solal, who passed last week at the age of 97. He was a great composer and bandleader, but a truly superlative pianist. I find myself thinking of ways to articulate this. With all due respect to Art Tatum and Earl Hines, he’s one of the all-time greats of solo piano….

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Top 10 Favorite Abdullah Ibrahim Tracks

I was inspired to write about Abdullah Ibrahim (formerly Dollar Brand) for two reasons. One, the 90 year old South African pianist and composer is performing in New Haven tonight and I’m excited and moved that I will get to soak in his inimitable vibes. Two, his role as a voice against the oppression of…

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Top 10 Favorite Lou Donaldson Tracks

Alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson, who has moved on at the ripe age of 98, is perhaps the foremost example of how intertwined bebop and the blues are. Once a major heir to the Charlie Parker throne, he made a striking number of successful records in the funky acoustic “boogaloo” vein. Yet a focused listen reveals…

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