December 2008 Archives

Rudresh Mahanthappa -- an extraordinary American jazzman of South Asian descent -- has a critical fave with Kinsmen, his album featuring his own alto sax coupled with that of Indian Carnatic master musician Kadri Golpanath, supported by Karachi-born but L.A.-bred former surfer/electric guitarist Rez Abassi, violin, bass, traps, mridingam from East and West. They all talk and play in my NPR production on last night's "All Things Considered."

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Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard died last night around 2 a.m. in Sherman Oaks Hospital (Los Angeles) of complications following a heart attack he had suffered on the night before Thanksgiving (November 26), not November 30 as previously reported. He was 70 years old.

You can't buy 'em music, 'cause you don't know what they're missing - so try other music and beyond formats (books, videos, music toys) as stocking stuffers for the out-leaning -- 

"Do You Hear What I Hear?" --  the most odious quasi-pop song ever committed -- was ringing in my semi-conscious loud enough to jolt me out of sleep one night last week (I summoned to mind "Night In Tunisia," trying to recall ever kink in Charlie Parker's famous alto break, to dispell it). "Little Drummer Boy," "Silent Night," Gene Autry's original version of "Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer" and James Taylor singing "Go Tell It On The Mountain" -- does it really have an extended chorus for recorder ensemble? -- assault me at the grocery store (the butcher behind the deli counter fights it with a salsa radio station on high volume). "Jingle Bell Rock" is the best of the bunch -- at least Bobby Helms swings and the guitar twangs. Must we suffer this cloying drivel every winter holiday?

On the second of four nights at Freddie Hubbard's record date with the New Jazz Composers Octet in December 2007, the star trumpeter didn't commit a note. He improvised poses, faces and witticisms, but no lines on his horn. He didn't even venture into the isolation booth Tony Bennett's sound engineer had prepared for him...