Destination Guadeloupe Festival

Far downtown weekend adventures

November 20, 2009 by Howard Mandel

Far out improv, high concept contemporary composition, new jazz scholarship and "cut loose" music from Guadeloupe flood Lowest Manhattan (all the way to Staten Island) this weekend. The folks who bring us the Vision Festival stage 28 hours of multidisciplinary improvisation starting tonight (Friday) at 6 p.m. at Clemente Soso Velez Cultural Center; Mode Records throws itself a benefit marathon concert featuring Philip Glass, John Zorn and Robert Ashley, among many others on Saturday at Abrons Art Center; jazz scholars convene for The Louis … [Read more...]

I'm a Chicago-born and New York-based writer, editor, author, arts reporter/producer for radio including NPR, and nascent videographer -- for more than 30 years, a freelance arts journalist working on newspapers, magazines and websites, appearing on tv and radio, teaching at New York University and elsewhere. I'm president of the Jazz Journalists Association; my books are Future Jazz (Oxford U Press, 1999) and Miles Ornette Cecil - Jazz Beyond Jazz (Routledge, 2008). I was general editor of the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz and Blues (Flame Tree 2005/Billboard Books 2006) Read More…

Howard Mandel on Hypnotic Brass on tour, clan-dad Cohran in Chicago
thanks for the correction, Lauren!
Posted Jul 27, 2014
Lauren Deutsch on Hypnotic Brass on tour, clan-dad Cohran in Chicago
It was indeed a great night--one filled with moments of past and present; reunions kindling memories and welcoming new...
Posted Jul 27, 2014
Richard Kamins on Charlie Haden, anchoring free play
Excellent, heartfelt, tribute to a person who truly played every note with heart and soul.
Posted Jul 13, 2014
Reuben Jackson on Charlie Haden, anchoring free play
Beautifully said. Thank you.
Posted Jul 12, 2014
Bob Gluck on Charlie Haden, anchoring free play
Beautifully said, Howard. Charlie was one remarkable musician whose imprint strongly helped shape some of my favorite music of the...
Posted Jul 12, 2014

William Parker, my DownBeat feature from 1998

Howard Mandel c 1998/published by DownBeat, July 1998, under headline Beneath the Underdog (the editor's reference to Charles Mingus's autobiography): There's an anchor for New York's downtown free jazz and improv "wild bunch": his name is William … [Read More...]

Matthew Shipp, my feature for The Wire, 1998

This is a complete version of the feature on pianist Matthew Shipp I wrote for The Wire, published in February, 1998 Is this the face of New York's jazz avant now? Pianist Matt Shipp's mug can be wide open, inquisitive, or guardedly blank, his … [Read More...]

Rashied Ali (1935 – 2009), multi-directional drummer, speaks

A 1990 interview with drummer Rashied Ali, about his relationship with John Coltrane. In 1990 I interviewed drummer Rashied Ali for The World According to John Coltrane, a documentary produced and directed by Toby Byron. It was the first but not … [Read More...]

On The Corner program notes, Merkin Hall concert 5/25/09

Miles Davis intended On The Corner to be a personal statement, an esthetic breakthrough and a social provocation upon its release in fall of 1972. He could hardly have been more successful: the album was all that, though it has taken decades for its … [Read More...]

Joe Zawinul at 65, The Wire

Interview with Joe Zawinul, The Wire, 1996 JOE ZAWINUL AT 65 - © Howard Mandel 1996 Joe Zawinul has a loft in the Village, on the fifth floor of a modest elevator building that also houses the controversial human rights-monitoring law practice … [Read More...]