As a teenager in the fall of 1991, I started visiting the Hartt School of Music (and eventually the Artists’ Collective) to play sessions with my new friend Jimmy Greene, and there were two young Jackie McLean disciples about whom folks there spoke with particular reverence: saxophonist Abraham Burton and drummer Eric McPherson (a.k.a. “E-Mac”)….
Continue ReadingToday marks the 100th birth anniversary of the important yet underappreciated trumpeter Kenny Dorham, a major figure in bridging the gap from bebop to hard bop to more modern sounds as well as incorporating Afro-Cuban and Brazilian sounds into straight-ahead jazz. His compositions are a crucial part of the jazz canon (if I had a…
Continue ReadingLike much of the jazz community, I’m at a loss upon hearing of the sudden passing of Russell Malone. A beacon of joy on and off the bandstand, he was also one of the baddest guitarists of any generation, able to play with remarkable sensitivity and support yet equally able to rip it up on…
Continue ReadingAs I approach the release (this Friday!) of my Live at the Side Door trio album, I find myself thinking about some of my favorite live albums. It’s an interesting framework, as to me a standout live album has two components: great music (of course) and at least something about it that is unique to…
Continue ReadingToday would have been Ahmad Jamal’s 94th birthday, and by coincidence I was talking with students about him – his conceptual and pianistic brilliance, yes, and also the way he defied multiple sorts of career trajectory that would typically get someone identified as “historically significant” in the annals of jazz. He didn’t follow the “sideman…
Continue ReadingI love eclectic musicians, and Swamp Dogg (the persona adopted by singer/songwriter/producer Jerry Williams, Jr. in the early ) is extreme even by my standards. This is a man who can pull off some of the most incisive social commentary I’ve heard (e.g. “I’ve Never Been to Africa”) and also songs that are just silly…
Continue ReadingIt’s EDS Awareness Month and, appropriately enough for a milestone that occurs once per year, I have been contemplating the seasonal nature of life and the ways that a life with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome reflects that. This was further underscored when I stumbled upon this picture from 10 years ago this spring, taken at the beginning…
Continue ReadingIf my conscious awareness of David Sanborn had never gone beyond knowing that he hosted and often played on the extraordinary TV show Night Music (his playing with guests ranging from Miles Davis to Al Green was extraordinary), then I’d still revere him and be saddened to hear of his passing. Of course, that’s just…
Continue ReadingI’m thrilled that a this Saturday (5/4/24) I’ll get to perform with Mike McGinnis at Resonant Motion’s Jazz Up Close series, our second time playing together (the first coming in 2006, I think) and the first chance I’ll get to play his own evocative music. I’ve been a fan of his work as a composer…
Continue ReadingMost years I take some time in the spring semester at Wesleyan and work with my ensemble students on how to learn/inhabit a ballad deeply enough that it can be interpreted rubato. Rubato, for the non-musicians, is “free time,” which in practice could mean anything from the complete absence of a steady pulse to the…
Continue Reading