David Adler
Penn fallout
I don’t usually cite the New York Post‘s Page Six, but that’s where celebrity flaps are covered, and Sean Penn is nothing if not a celebrity. So it’s good to see someone pointing out James Kirchick’s entirely correct assessment of the recent Penn-Castro-Chávez affair in The Advocate. Says Kirchick: “Gay rights are human rights, as Milk said, and Penn discredits both
Philly again
I’m back in Philly this Thursday, Dec. 18 to moderate a panel on improvisation across boundaries and cultures. Participants are Pauline Oliveros, Jason Moran, Jason Kao Hwang and Kiranavali Vidyasankar. Details here [pdf]. My workload is growing steadily more insane, so blogging is light. But stay tuned for top shows of 2008, year-in-review comments and other stuff.
Moran in Philly
I’ll be at the Philadelphia Art Museum tomorrow (Friday, December 12) to conduct a pre-concert interview with pianist-composer Jason Moran, who’ll be premiering new music inspired by this art exhibit. Interview and Q&A from 5:15-5:45pm, showtime 6pm.
On Pete Robbins
My preview of Pete Robbins’s sILENT Z, at Cornelia Street Cafe Dec. 17, in this week’s Time Out New York.
Efforts deserving support
~ Cuban dissident blogger Yoani Sánchez and her brave comrades have managed, despite open intimidation by the regime, to institute a clandestine bloggers’ “knowledge workshop.” Says Sánchez: “We ended up finding the cracks between the fingers of the censors, between which the fine sand of information and knowledge has managed to slip through.” Sean Penn, writing prominently for The Nation,
On Revive Da Live
My take on the intriguing jazz-multigenre concert initiative Revive Da Live, online at Jazz Times (and forthcoming in the next print edition).
On McCoy Tyner
I’m happy to announce my debut as a preview and feature writer for Time Out New York. First up: McCoy Tyner, starting Tuesday, Dec. 9 at the Blue Note.
A pair of pairs
Jim McAuley, The Ultimate Frog (Drip Audio, 2008) Chris Gestrin, After the City Has Gone: Quiet (Songlines, 2007) These two double-disc releases share a lot in terms of mood, timbre, game plan. They’re worlds you can get lost in; time well-spent. McAuley, a West Coast acoustic guitar improviser, goes some way toward reconciling the arid experimental sound of Derek Bailey with