Here's some excerpts from my weekend piece on new jazz CDs in The Wall Street Journal, in case you missed it. What did not make it in -- a matter of timing, not taste -- is Herbie Hancock's latest, River: The Joni Letters (Verve): This is truly rewarding listening. Hancock recasts Mitchell's songs as sung by vocalists ranging from Tina Turner to Luciana Souza with invention and … [Read more...] about good listening, vol. one
wish i were there (volume four)
It's high time a first-class jazz symposium was held. I'm back in New Orleans documenting a culture at once in crisis and in bloom, but were I in New York I'd be at Columbia University this weekend, for talk about jazz and its place in the world as well as worldly music from some of the best players in jazz. … [Read more...] about wish i were there (volume four)
trombone shorty, long on talent
If New Orleans musicians were drafted like basketball stars, this guy would be the blue-chip first-rounder. He's one of a celebrated lineage of musicians, the Andrews family, as well as a vanguard of young players in New Orleans who freely mix traditional styles with pop music. I'll be writing more about him, and you'll be hearing more about him, but for now this, from my piece … [Read more...] about trombone shorty, long on talent
why terence b. stood up george w.
Shortly before he dropped into Iraq for less than 24 hours, President Bush did something of a drive-by in New Orleans to commemorate Katrina's second anniversary and his continued indifference to its aftermath. I commemorated that presidential non-event in this piece about trumpeter Terence Blanchard in this week's Village Voice: Sitting in a rented room in the Faubourg-Marigny … [Read more...] about why terence b. stood up george w.
say it ain’t so, joe
Joe Zawinul was one badass mutha. At 70, he could swim a mile, hard. Or outdrink you, glass after glass of that sweet Slivovitz wine he favored. Or kick your ass -- OK, maybe just scare you in to to thinking he would with a single glare. Or he could sit at a piano and play the most tender ballad you'd ever heard. Or, from behind one of his arsenal of electonic keyboards and … [Read more...] about say it ain’t so, joe