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MOST RECENT BLOG POSTS
R&R from A to Z How does a tired opera librettist relax? By listening to Al and Zoot....
Coming up for air I wrote two chapters of my Louis Armstrong biography last week....
Oscar Peterson, further considered Readers take issue -- I hear music . . ....
Oscar Peterson: Consolidator, conservator The piano colossus exemplified jazz's essences -- without probing their implications or extentions...
Glance back: Jazz beyond jazz in 2007 Notable events and turning points not only about new and unusual music...
And the band played on I find it all but impossible to believe that nearly two decades have gone by since I met Maria Schneider....
What it's all about I don't think there can be such a thing as a definitive biography of a great man....
Ecstasy I've been dreaming about my Louis Armstrong biography, which I restarted on Wednesday after a six-week hiatus....
stomping something sacred in new orleans Police have cracked down on funeral processions, a time-honored cultural tradition in the historic black neighborhood of Tremé. But musicians...
Mateusz Kolakowski He uses his classical technique to soar through wild improvisations without orbiting away from his jazz values......
Web-based jazz orchestra support: the Maria Schneider phenomenon Independent composer's "fan-funded, overbudget" ArtistShare album Sky Blue is better than half-paid for, after three weeks of web-only release....
$2k advance for a booklength jazz history? Surely you jest! Do subsidized profs taking too-low advances spoil small independent and university publishers for freelancers ? A pointed (but polite) exchange...
Jazz portrait photographer goes cubist "Jazz in New York: A Community of Visions" tops 400 portraits -- Lourde Delgado's new approach boasts a dozen facets....
Blasts from the past Here are my 12 favorite big-band recordings, as of this minute, subject to change....
new orleans: obama speaks, jazz doesn't At the Essence Festival in New Orleans, Barack Obama gets the Superdome main stage but jazz gets shut out....
born on the fourth of july? A celebration of Louis Armstrong, iconic American, explosive musician, and disarming presence....
bush embraces jazz; tony snow plays soft-rock hit The president directs Congress to focus on New Orleans (for picnic food and garden entertainment, that is) -- and offers...
it's june. it's new york. it's jazz. (with a touch of new orleans.)...
jonathan demme's new orleans home movies Not of his home, but his down-home footage of Ninth Ward residents in New Orleans......
New Orleans second-lines parade into federal court With JazzFest on its way (coverage begins Friday), the ACLU steps in to save a seminal tradition......
Charlie Parker's Plastic Sax As part of the pre-bidding activity, alto saxophonist Peter King played the horn, with the auction tag dangling from it....
to be continued: brass-band tradition Personal and professional loss can't dim the joy of cultural transmission among New Orleans brass-band musicians......
Jazz Education Conundrum Do the kids go home from these programs, revert to rock, hip-hop and rap, and never pursue higher interests?...
Whitney Balliett, R.I.P. Balliett drew verbal pictures whose evocative power was infallible and inimitable....
Cameo appearances Ever notice the piano player in "It's a Wonderful Life"?...