David Adler
The week on disc (12)
In case you missed the last one… Matt Davis’s Aerial Photograph, Before the Stars Burn Out (Vandolah Sounds, 2006)Howard Alden & Ken Peplowski, Pow-Wow (Arbors)Mark O’Leary, On the Shore (Clean Feed) Herb Robertson NY Downtown Allstars, Real Aberration (Clean Feed) Paul Hanson, Frolic in the Land of Plenty (Abstract Logix) Ryan Blotnick, Music Needs You (Songlines)
Head scarf drama
Turkey’s parliament has lifted the ban on womens’ head scarves in universities, a politically fraught move that nonetheless should be welcomed. “Secular” protesters are taking to the streets with their flags and fervor, which is why I put “secular” in quotes — these folks are under the sway of a competing religion, Kemalism, the near-deification of Kemal Ataturk and the
You want “specifics”?
I am so tired of people, like James Wolcott, regurgitating the line that Hillary Clinton offers “specifics” while Obama offers none. Please. Go here to the “Issues” section of Obama’s website and you will find specific after specific on no fewer than 20 relevant policy categories. Wolcott sniffs: “… [Obama’s] summons to history and call to hope seems to transcend
Political bits, bytes cont’d.
~ A friend noted that I’d yet to offer my take on Ron Paul, so for the record: he’s an irrelevant kook with ties to the xenophobic paleo-right, and he’s stated that he doesn’t accept the theory of evolution. (Like others similarly ignorant of science, Paul seems to think that the word “theory” is synonymous with “wild guess.”) And yet
On Tim Berne’s Bloodcount
My piece on the reunion of Tim Berne’s Bloodcount, in the current Philadelphia Weekly.
The day after
You look at the Democratic electoral map and you see something incredible: a resounding “yes” vote for Obama’s message, stretching from Connecticut to Georgia to New Mexico to Idaho. Andrew Sullivan says it best: “…the race goes on and [Obama] may not ultimately win the nomination. But he will have won this campaign. And he will have won the argument.”
Yes We Can
Yes We Can. (Herbie says so.) Obama on Super Tuesday.
Six Picks: February 2008
My monthly list of recommended CDs, as published in All About Jazz-New York, February 2008: Ron Blake, Shayari (Mack Avenue) Bill Dixon with Exploding Star Orchestra (Thrill Jockey) Hans Glawischnig, Panorama (Sunnyside) Tony Malaby/William Parker/Nasheet Waits, Tamarindo (Clean Feed) Matana Roberts, The Chicago Project (Central Control) Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Avatar (Blue Note)