My NPR appreciation of the late, great Freddie Hubbard — with Freddie talking about himself, and music examples. And for prime mid-period Hubbard hear his out-of-print 1978 album Super Blue, especially the tracks “Take It To The Ozone” and “Theme For Kareem” (the original unfortunately not available from Amazon as an MP3 — this version […]
Sonny Rollins in Chicago
Sonny Rollins at 78 is still a saxophone collosus, as he demonstrated leading his touring sextet Thursday night to open the Chicago Jazz Festival. His bent posture, shock of white hair and strong features give him the air of an Old Testament prophet, and his stamina may not be all it was when he was […]
Odd noise music alert, Brooklyn
A concert sponsored by The Onion — so expect to be amused, Wednesday July 30, starting at 6:30 pm, free in a tent by the Brooklyn waterfront:Â John Zorn’s “Cobra” — an intricate musical game performed best by quick-witted improvisers with a handle of tactics governing the Avalon Hill board wargames of the ’60s — […]
Wynton’s Abyssinian Mass by guest blogger
It’s jazz-beyond-jazz, alright, when Wynton Marsalis composes a work for gospel choir and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, in honor of the 200th anniversary of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. But I must admit that I am neither drawn to hear such work nor qualified to comment on it. Having experienced Marsalis’ previous large-scale religiously […]