Saxophonist George Coleman turns 90 today, and what a gift that he still graces our presence! If his only claim to fame were his couple years of creative, soulful, and muscular contributions to the burgeoning 1960s Miles Davis Quintet, that would be enough to go down in the history books, but of course his hundreds…
Continue ReadingSafe 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…
Continue ReadingI 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…
Continue ReadingToday (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…
Continue ReadingThe 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…
Continue ReadingSafe 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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