Clik here to view.
Fred Hersch, At Home at the Vanguard
photo by Martin Zemin I try not to miss pianist Fred Hersch when he performs at the Village Vanguard. Hersch shapes the sound of his piano with care and fine calibration, which is doubly rewarded by...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Remembering Nora York, Lightning Rod for Beauty and Truth
photo by Stepanie Berger/ courtesy WNYC I was saddened to read Daniel E. Slotnick’s New York Times obituary about singer Nora York, and to learn that she’d died at 60 of pancreatic cancer. York’s was a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Panama Jazz Festival Gets Written Into National Law
Pianist Danilo Pérez created a jazz festival in his native Panama in 2004. Photo by Jean-Marc Aspe via Flickr In 1989, the U.S. Congress passed Resolution 57, declaring: “Jazz is hereby designated as a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Now Playing: New & Forthcoming Music
Photo/ Flikr Andrew Cyrille The Declaration of Musical Independence (ECM, Sept 23) Andrew Cyrille & Bill McHenry Proximity (Sunnyside, Sept. 30) Soon to be a Wall Street Journal review, considered...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Andrew Cyrille Declares His Independence (Once Again, and Twice…)
PHOTO: JESSE CHUN/ECM RECORDS I could have picked nearly any moment in the past decade or so to celebrate the power and beauty of drummer Andrew Cyrille’s music and his presence on the New York scene....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Workshops, and Worlds Worth Believing In (Steve Coleman and Henry Threadgill...
Steve Coleman (left) and Henry Threadgill top my list and loom large on today’s jazz landscape. (photos: left-courtesy Pi Recordings; right—Nhumi Threadgill) The best gigs I’ve attended lately seemed...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Happy Columbus Day From Nicholas Payton
In honor of Columbus Day—a holiday I can neither grasp nor endorse save for the joy of suspended alternate-side parking in my neighborhood—here’s a celebration from Nicholas Payton—”The Egyptian Second...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Join Me For Conversation and Live Music With David Virelles & Román Díaz on...
David Virelles, in conversation with Román Díaz and Larry Blumenfeld at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem Oct. 18 During my first of four sessions of “NYC: The Afro-Cuban Beat” at the National Jazz...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Now Playing: Pick Hits, Essential Volumes and More
Pick Hit: Kris Davis Duopoly (Pyroclastic Records): Davis has for quite some time been one of the most distinctive of pianists on the New York scene to make a big noise without, well, making that much...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Slavery’s Sad Song Swung—The American Slave Coast: A History of the...
Buy a ticket here. Read on, and find out why you just did. A New York Times Magazine piece by Rachel L. Swarns in April of this year bore the headline: “272 Slaves Were Sold to Save Georgetown. What...
View Article
