Jazz Beyond Jazz

Donald "Duck" Dunn, bassist for Booker T. and the MGs, most all the grits 'n' greens soul voices who emerged from Memphis' Stax Records in the 1960s, and dozens of major blues-rock-pop stars during his subsequent career as an LA-based studio musician, died in his sleep at age 70 in the early morning of May 13 while on tour in Japan with his guitarist partner and childhood friend Steve Cropper. He'd performed two shows the night before at the Blue Note Tokyo. Dunn was among the handful of electric bassists who motivated dancers to rock 'n' … [Read more...]

My latest column in CityArts-New York highlights the search for a new location of the Jazz Gallery, a splendid venue that has been responsible for launching some of the most exciting musicians and freshest projects to emerge in jazz and improvised music over the past 17 years. Commissions, residencies, workshops, rehearsal space and performances not dependent on their audiences eating and drinking. Jason Moran, Steve Coleman, Miguel Zenon, Dafnis Prieto, Henry Threadgill's Zooid, the Myra Melford Quintet, Gretchen Parlato, Lionel … [Read more...]

Read my short-hand review, please, in CityArts-New York of the sunset concert of International Jazz Day in the General Assembly of the UN in New York City. The music of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, Howlin' Wolf , Leonard Bernstein and many more was manifest by all-stars of all ages (Esperanza Spalding, 28, to Candido Camero, 91), many ethnic backgrounds and aesthetic leanings (Chaka Khan, say, to Zakir Hussain). This first International Jazz Day -- April 30 2012 -- was a … [Read more...]

A sunrise concert  in New Orleans' Congo Square, from which jazz arose, in celebration of UNESCO's International Jazz Day (spearheaded by Herbie Hancock), is being streamed as I write (Dr. Michael White took the last solo, over the Dirty Dozen Brass Band) at Jazzday.com and at the Thelonious Monk Institute website. Those platforms will also feature tonight's 7:30 pm EDT concert from UN headquarters in New York City -- which I'll attend in person, and report on in a blog posting tomorrow. This evening's concert  features all-stars: … [Read more...]

Creative Capital and the Warhol Foundation have an idea I adore: Offer grants "directly to individual writers . . .  in recognition of both the financially precarious situation of arts writers and their indispensable contribution to a vital artistic culture." From the Request for Proposals: The program, which issues awards for articles, blogs, books, new and alternative media, and short-form writing, aims to support the broad spectrum of writing on contemporary visual art, from general-audience criticism to academic … [Read more...]

My new City Arts column is reviews of newly released recordings by Henry Cole and the Afro-Beat Collective, Steve Lehman Trio, Less Magnetic, Esperanza Spalding, Michael Bates and Wayne Escoffrey. You may have to pick up a hard-copy of the paper for that. But the issue also features my interview with Limor Tomer, the Metropolitan Museum's recently appointed Curator of Performance. Like the interviews published in the New York Times magazine, the City Arts Interview is severely edited for space considerations: It's a compression. … [Read more...]

My Brooklyn neighborhood, called Kensington, is full of musicians, because residences are large and still semi-affordable. So I hear the guitarist across the street get excited while practicing, run into NEA Jazz Master pianist Kenny Barron when walking to the bakery and go to Sycamore, a flower shop-bar with basement recital room where  on Sunday nights the Brooklyn Jazz Underground stages intimate, advanced concerts, one of my favorites being the Schoenbeck Eisenstadt Family, featuring drummer Harris E. and his wife bassoonist Sara S., with … [Read more...]

Locked Down is The Black Keys guitarist-songwriter Dan Auerbach's collaboration with Mac "Dr. John" Rebennack -- the two premiere it April 5 - 7 at Brooklyn Academy of Music, second program of three the good Dr. presents there over three consecutive weekends. I bet it'll be a better-produced show than his "Tribute to Louis Armstrong," the all-star hodgepodge I've reported on in my new City Arts column. Which was fun, but. . . On first listen: Locked Down is bluesy, hooky and kinda rad, more wry and martial than funky and celebratory. A … [Read more...]