There are good arguments for building venues just for jazz. But speaking of arts communities in general: Most are moveable feasts, fluid, transient, at best inviting to newcomers to the table. It's demonstrable that when jazz players and listeners alight at all-purpose spaces such as Chicago's Alhambra Palace, where Hot House produced the trio of saxophonist David Murray, bassist Harrison Bankhead and percussionist Kahil El'Zabar on Monday, Dec. 12, or The Promontory in Hyde Park, where flutist Nicole Mitchell, cellist Tomeka Reid and … [Read more...]
Last week in New York beyond jazz
The season for creative music opened with several roars: Ornette Coleman triumphed at Jazz at Lincoln Center -- Postive Catastrophe at the New Languages Festival was an absolute delight -- Los Angeles trumpeter Bobby Bradford lead an ace quintet at the Festival of New Trumpets at the Jazz Standard -- and those are only the gigs I could make, I missed so many more.Ornette Quartet, photo by Nick Himmel, courtesy Jazz at Lincoln Center … [Read more...]