I've been trying to put into words what makes me feel alienated and confused, even annoyed, when confronting the new daily reality of Facebook, Twitter, and the like. Haven't quite written that extended essay yet but the subject line of this email I just received strikes me as both funny and not (and no diss to Wolff, who is a fine musician and good guy). It reads as … [Read more...] about what’s wrong with this picture?
not saved
"Can Jazz Be Saved?" worries the headline to Terry Teachout's piece in Sunday's Wall Street Journal. Terry cites some new statistics from an NEA survey to bolster what has now become a long-standing trope: The jazz audience is "withering away." I'm not so sure the research and the conclusion are solid. Sure, jazz was but will never be"popular music," at the center of American … [Read more...] about not saved
if you missed that wall st journal/lincoln center talk…
...the one I hosted with trumpeter Terence Blanchard, singer Tammy Lynn and Ira Padnos, founder of Ponderosa Stomp, you can see it all on video here. … [Read more...] about if you missed that wall st journal/lincoln center talk…
governors and trumpeters (back in nola)
Back in New Orleans. The humidity is so thick just now that you could cut right through it -- not just with a sharp knife but with the kind of blunt object La. Gov. Bobby Jindal must have taken the state's budget in attempt to prove himself to doubting Republicans. Whether his Draconian cuts, especially to social services and the arts, will restore Jindal's standing as a … [Read more...] about governors and trumpeters (back in nola)
wardell takes manhattan
Blinded by diabetes, lacking the musical archives he lost in the flood of 2005, and sitting in an office chair with his back turned to the crowd, arranger and bandleader Wardell Quezergue nonetheless commanded the newly renovated Alice Tully Hall through the sheer force and elegance of his arrangements to a catalog of R&B hits and his stern but subtle command of a tight … [Read more...] about wardell takes manhattan