Caribbean music is big — and free — in the city’s parks this summer; my City Arts column details some of the best shows. There’s also music from Africa, Turkey, Syria, Brazil — almost everywhere, as well as the good ol’ USA. I’m off to teach my NYU class about “World Music,” a nebulous concept, so can’t report all the dates and places here/now, but check out calendars for Summerstage, River-to-River Festival, Celebrate Brooklyn, the BAM Rhythm & Blues Festival at Brooklyn’s Metrotech Center, and any of the other presenters mentioned in the piece. Global sounds are, by definition, everywhere.
Central Brooklyn Jazz Festival goes to roots, future, justice
My column in City Arts highlights the 40-event Central Brooklyn Jazz Festival, taking place throughout April “from Flatbush up Fulton Avenue through the neighborhoods of Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Ocean Hill to Bushwick . . . the area that gave birth to Max Roach and Randy Weston some 80 years ago.” It’s booked with lesser-known yet highly active African-American jazz musicians; on Saturday I talk about “Where is Jazz Going?” at Medgar Evers College (2 to 6 pm) in distinguished company.
The blues in NYC
My column http://tinyurl.com/NYCblues in City Arts – New York’s Review of Culture, focuses on America’s deep, dark musical strain as it is today in a blues-challenged city. It doesn’t mention that Wynton Marsalis is the world’s greatest blues trumpeter, as he proved last night playing “bread and butter” from the Count Basie songbook with the Jazz at Lincoln Center orchestra, a show repeated tonight (2/12) and Saturday.
Wynton le Chevalier Marsalis
A survey in my latest City Arts column of the music of trumpeter-composer Wynton Marsalis, in the jazz spotlight for 25 years. Founder and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, educator, activist, humanitarian, winner of a Pulitzer and multiple Grammies, Wynton stands tallest in my book when he just plays jazz.
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 Dec. 9 – 13).
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City Arts, my jazz-in-the-City column
Welcome to City Arts, which bucks a trend by evolving from being a monthly section in NYPress and other Manhattan neighborhood free papers to becoming New York’s Review of Culture, a new twice-monthly stand-alone print edition and website. Beside my column, there are season previews of classical music, mustn’t miss museums exhibits (Kandinsky! Blake! Monet! O’Keefe!), books, dance, theater, and lesser known film series. Welcome to the fray, brave young journal, and may you thrive.
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Manhattan jazz residencies (my new City Arts column)
- The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra at the Village Vanguard on Monday night since 1967Â
- Â The Mingus Big Band, Orchestra and Dynasty ensemble in regular rotation on Mondays at the Jazz Standard
- Guitarist Les Paul, at age 94 a genuine hipster, the Ben Franklin of American popular music, Monday nights at Iridium forever.
These are a few of our favorite things. Read about it in my new monthly column in City Arts NYC: New York’s Review of Culture, published by the folks who also bring you New York Press.