Line Out (Free subscription) | yesterday
The most interesting thing in the NYT review about the Broadway musical Feli! ? Not this... True, this kinetic portrait of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, a Nigerian revolutionary of song, has taken on some starry producers — including Shawn Carter (Jay-Z) and Will and Jada Pinkett Smith — and shed 15 or 20 minutes since it was staged Off Broadway last year. ...or this: For there has never been anything...
4488: A Ridge Blog (Free subscription) | 24/11/2009
I’ll be out for the rest of the week, so in honor of the coming holiday, I’d like to offer a spontaneous list entitled “Things I’m Thankful For …” The twin loves of my life: my astonishingly wonderful missus Amy, and my magical, beautific daughter Clara Bay Our parents Our collective friends and relations The 1991 Monte Bello The music [...]
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 23/11/2009
Ike Sturm JazzMass Self Produced 2009 Ask any jazz fans if he or she knows "When The Saints Go Marching In" or {{John Coltrane's = 5851}} anthem "A Love Supreme" and you will most probably get an affirmative nod. Those versed in the music's history might even know {{Duke Ellington's = 6521}} "Come Sunday" or his Grammy Award-winning piece "In The Beginning, God."...
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 23/11/2009
From one angle, the career of the saxophonist Steve Grossman might seem to have unfolded in reverse. He came onto the radar in 1969, playing state-of-the-art jazz-rock with Miles Davis; he was all of 18. From that sideman perch, among the most visible in jazz, he went on to play rugged, horizon-scanning postbop in the style of John Coltrane, notably with Coltranes former drummer Elvin Jones. Then came...
Women's Wear Daily (Free subscription) | 23/11/2009
The music legend talks Woodstock, tasty treats and the power of the King of Pop.
breath of life (Free subscription) | 23/11/2009
A week to give thanks. We open with newly re-mastered material from Nigeria's Fela Kuti. Then comes N'Dambi with one of the best Soul albums of 2009. And we close with majestic interpretations of "Wise One" by John Coltrane, Dwight Tribble, Archie Shepp, Conrad Herwig & Brian Lynch, Bobby Hutcherson, and Ravi Coltrane. Give mucho [...]
breath of life (Free subscription) | 23/11/2009
What majestic music this is from Trane and what majestic music Trane inspires others to create when they perform Trane’s compositions.
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 20/11/2009
Two discs feature the artists' greatest love songs, just in time for Christmas,New Year's Eve, and Valentine's Day! LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Concord Music Group's For Lovers series will continue on December 22, 2009 with CDs from both Ray Charles and Isaac Hayes, featuring each artist's greatest love songs. Previously, Concord has issued For Lovers albums by Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Tony Bennett,...
Your Pharmacist May Hate You (Free subscription) | 20/11/2009
"Handing out a 30 days supply of Norco every 20 days time after time is a good way for me to lose my license. I'm sorry, I can't fill it sir" That's the most effective line in my arsenal most days. Lets the drug seeker know it's not personal. It doesn't work all the time though, and it wasn't working this time. Dude wanted his Norco . Ho-hum. Just another day in the happy pill room for me....
rogerbourland.com (Free subscription) | 19/11/2009
This week in Music History, Culture, and Creativity, our students must compose, record, convert to mp3 and upload their compositions to the class website. Their compositions are to feature a drone (a sustained bass note throughout a section or an entire piece of music), or pedal (as in when an organ holds down a PEDAL, [...]
Click World News (Free subscription) | 18/11/2009
"Bhaiya," a Hindi word meaning "big brother," has remarkable nuance, depending on how it is spoken and to whom. Dave Prager catalogs some of these inflections in a recent article on his life-in-India blog, "Our Delhi Struggle." Jenny tasted the power of bhaiya while watching friends negotiate with autos, seeing housewives beat down stubborn vegetable wallas, observing...
Jazz & Blues Music Reviews (Free subscription) | 17/11/2009
Tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler performed his greatest music in a state of spiritual ecstasy. Like fellow seekers John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, he looked to use music as a Buddhist might use meditation or a Baptist might speak in tongues: to make contact with something greater than himself. Recorded in Copenhagen on September 14th, 1964, this may be the finest group Ayler ever led. Featuring the...
Damn Fine Day (Free subscription) | 16/11/2009
We at Rhino realize that jazz is not the genre of choice for many DFD regular’s, but the aim of Damn Fine Day is to expose you to music we think is great, even if that means leaving your comfort zone. This track from Coltrane’s classic 1959 Atlantic Records debut Giant Steps, produced by the [...]
The Independent (Free subscription) | 15/11/2009
Miles Davis: The Complete Columbia Album Collection, a deluxe CD/DVD box set, contains every album released by the jazz master on Columbia Records. This limited edition retrospective of 70 CDs and one DVD will be released on November 24.
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 14/11/2009
Dick Katz, The Line Forms Here (Reservoir). The news of Katz's death at 85 last week sent me to the shelf for this 1996 recording. It covers the range of his talents as pianist, composer and arranger. He plays alone in a moving performance of Duke Ellington's "Lotus Blossom," in a trio supported by bassist Steve LaSpina and drummer Ben Riley, and blends the tenor saxophone of the veteran...
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