On the 80th anniversary of Jimi Hendrix's birth (11/27/42), memory and legacy of America's unsurpassed guitar-artist (written 2011): I'm bouncing around in the back seat of a pal's car with a couple other high school wannabes, cruising through our leafy-green, cushy but staid Chicago suburb, when the most amazing music comes roaring out of the dashboard radio. We're not going fast – have no urgent destination -- but the music shakes us up. We've never heard anything like it before. Few have. It's early summer 1967. A crude, siren-like, … [Read more...]
Jazz-beyond-rock: Tony Williams addressing today’s emergency
Spectrum Road -- electric guitarist Vernon Reid, bassist Jack Bruce, keyboardist John Medeski and drummer Cindy Blackman -- playing high energy, high volume music at the Blue Note (NYC) this weekend inspired by the jazz-rock amalgam the late, great Tony Williams created 40 years ago, seems utterly cutting edge. Or is it just my old ears, getting deaf to quieter subtleties? … [Read more...]
Prince plays the blues – Chocolate Drops, Wynton, Clapton, too
The blues is big-time pop again -- processed to a triumphant apotheosis by Prince at Madison Square Garden as I detail in my new City Arts column -- (but did it ever go away? Here's the Artist with James Brown and Michael Jackson in 1983) -- reinvigorated in acoustic revivalist and hybrid form by the Carolina Chocolate Drops, who kick off a three-month US tour at Lincoln Center's American Songbook Series on Wednesday, Feb 2 -- … [Read more...]