Prizes of Jazz at Lincoln Center tix for this weekend and dvds of Wynton Marsalis with Willie Nelson for the best blues lyrics or prose poem will be determined at 12:01 tonight (11/11/09). Several stunning (!?!) efforts have been received — via the comments box below — but I’m not publishing any of them until […]
Blues lyrics: write to win
For tickets to Jazz at Lincoln Center this weekend or a dvd of Wynton Marsalis and Willie Nelson performing live, try writing a blues. How hard can it be? “Minutes seem like hours, hours seem like days, Seems my baby would stop her lowdown ways” — Muddy Waters, “Country Blues” Â “Woke up this morning, looked […]
Jazz at Lincoln Center ducats, Wynton-Willie dvd giveaways!
Readers of this blog can win 2 tix for JALC’s November 14 shows by Maceo Parker or the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra playing Mary Lou Williams, or autographed Wynton-Willie Nelson Play Ray Charles dvds. But in keeping with the inherent value of these prizes, I’m making the contest creative, not easy.
US remains jazz central
Jazz is global, but its most ambitious players still flock to the US to soak in its roots and prove they’re part of the scene. Tonight a Parisian septet called Fractale wraps up an eight-gig tour of the States at the Drom in the East Village, after stops in New Orleans, Cleveland and Chicago. From […]
Henry Threadgill, seer beyond ‘jazz’
In my City Arts column: a new album and Roulette concert with commissioned work from a worldly-wise 65 yr-old NYC/East Village-based composer-bandleader who keeps looking at music — Varese’s and Wagner’s, Scott Joplin’s and Ornette Coleman’s — to find something new. I call Henry Threadgill a prophet in the wilderness, urgently trying to shake us […]
JazzTimes’ robust recovery
The November issue of JazzTimes magazine is the first created (not just published) under the imprimatur of Madavor Media, LLC imprint, and the periodical looks very much the same as before its hiatus last spring. Editors Lee Mergener and Evan Haga remain, columnists Nat Hentoff and Nate Chinen are present, most if not all recent […]
Sweet Rhythm quietly ends run as Village jazz stage
The 7th Ave. home in the ’80s and early ’90s of Gil Evans’ last orchestra, David Murray’s octets, Abdullah Ibrahim’s bands, Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy and other avant-gutsy acts closed last night (Oct. 24) without notice or fanfare. Sweet Rhythm nee Sweet Basil was one of the coolest spots to listen, drink and hang out […]
Soupy Sales, 1926-2009, friend to jazz
The silliest pie-in-the-face TV comic of the ’50s had trumpeter Clifford Brown with drummer Max Roach on his kiddie show. Soupy Sales loved jazz — how cool is that? photo courtesy of Craig Marin, www.Flexitoon.com — more pix there
Salsa dura and NYC jazz hot
My new City Arts column cites Chris Washburne‘s SYOTOS band, Arturo O’Farrill and Bobby Sanabria as avatars of Latin American music’s essential excitement, so well depicted by the 4-part PBS documentary “Latin Music USA” (viewable online). But let’s not forget Eddie Palmieri is still in his prime (and coming to the Blue Note jazz club […]
Jazz Foundation knows how to party
To raise money for musicians’ health and welfare, how ’bout a jazz party? In three lofts with river views, a thousand attendees of every age, shape, style enjoyed food ‘n’ drink ‘n’ performances including Jimmy Heath playing “Gingerbread Boy,” Arturo O’Farrill‘s teen sons mastering Latin jazz, baritone saxist Hamiet Bluiett with Kahil El’Zabar on mbira. […]
#jazzlives Twitter campaign update, week 7
Raising hands by tweeting that you’ve heard live jazz — write WHO, WHERE and #jazzlives — continues as a phenomenon, almost two months after the campaign began to test if there is an active young audience for the music. Results roll in from far and wide, though solicitations for them have slowed. Musicians are encouraged […]
Miles Ornette Cecil goes Kindle
Huzzah! My book Miles Ornette Cecil — Jazz Beyond Jazz is now an e-book from Amazon for Kindle-reading and maybe other e-book formats, too (I’m checking see below). It’s cheaper than the hardbound version and a long sample including epigrams, Greg Tate’s preface and the start of my first chapter is free. Go through that […]
Future of music journalism: It’s about the audience (?)
The dozen “music journalism” professionals at yesterday’s Condition Critical panel of the Future of Music Coalition’s three-day long “policy summit” became somewhat divided (at least from my perspective) over the course of a well-attended hour & three-quarters session. At one end of a spectrum of opinion were the old guard — me, Greg Kot of […]