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….
Continue ReadingI 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…
Continue ReadingAlto 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…
Continue ReadingSome artists are so iconic that we refer to them by one name (Ella, Stevie, Joni, Aretha, Clifford) but Quincy Jones only needed one letter. Q was a singular artist in his masterful eclecticism and prolific output. I was maybe in my early 20s when I fully realized that the person arranging some of my…
Continue ReadingWhat a life – I will resist the temptation to fill this with lyrics from Grateful Dead songs or to agonize over the list or the descriptions below and will instead focus on the expediency of shining a light on the singular Phil Lesh, bassist, frequent background vocalist, and occasional songwriter for the Grateful Dead….
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Continue ReadingBill Barron (1927-1989) was an important and brilliant saxophonist (tenor, mostly), composer, scholar, and educator whose work deserves much wider attention. I’m not sure what the universe had in mind in this regard, but I’ve had the privilege of teaching for years now in the Music Department at Wesleyan University, where he taught from the…
Continue ReadingHappy birthday to Terry Gibbs! While many jazz musicians make it to “elder” status, it’s not often we get to celebrate the centennial of a musician who’s still with us, so we are extra fortunate to still have this great vibraphonist, composer, bandleader, and indominable spirit. In a weird sense, his extraordinary longevity and comically-impressive…
Continue ReadingSafe passage to the great saxophonist, composer, and gentleman Benny Golson, who has moved to the next realm after a highly consequential 95 years on this planet. Truly jazz royalty, he would be a proverbial hall-of-famer just on the strength of his powerful tenor saxophone mastery OR his intricate writing and arranging, and the full…
Continue ReadingHappy centennial to Earl “Bud” Powell, born on September 27, 1924. He was one of the greatest musicians of the twentieth century, full stop. That he is not universally recognized as such is the product of a few things, I think. One is society’s limited embrace of jazz music in general (such that most folks…
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