David Adler

Chick Corea and Béla Fleck played Philly on Friday night. My review, in today’s Inquirer.

In the mood for some cognitive dissonance? Read these two pieces back to back: first guitarist Marc Ribot’s attack on the marginalization of creative music; then critic David Hajdu’s attack on John Zorn, king of the New York avant-garde. Both have valid things to say, though I’m far more sympathetic to Zorn than Hadju is.

My review of Kate McGarry’s Friday show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, in today’s Inquirer.

Sorry, my lefty friends, but it’s true. I said it in June of last year, here and here, when I remarked on Amy Goodman’s failure to challenge Arundhati Roy on her professed support for India’s Maoist (Naxalite) insurgents. The Naxalites have a documented policy of harassing community radio activists — i.e., Goodman’s Indian counterparts, the very people you’d expect her

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My monthly list of recommended CDs, as published in All About Jazz-New York, June 2007: Michael Brecker, Pilgrimage (Heads Up) Buffalo Age (ILK Music) Joe Lovano & Hank Jones, Kids: Live at Dizzy’s (Blue Note) Mark Masters Ensemble, Wish Me Well: Reflections on Gary McFarland (Capri) Mike Moreno, Between the Lines (World Culture)Joshua Redman, Back East (Nonesuch)

How terrible to learn of the stabbing death of Rod Poole, the great experimental guitarist. The culprits are in custody. A tribute from Nels Cline is here. A long clip from the Acoustic Guitar Trio record (Poole/Cline/McCauley) is here. More info on the crime here.

My preview of this year’s Electro-Music Festival (Cheltenham, PA), in today’s Inquirer.

A commenter going by “napoleon15” took me to task the other day for this post, one of many in which I’ve denounced the Bush administration’s pro-torture policy. “What the US does to al-Qaida war criminals doesn’t even begin to compare to what the Nazis and others have done,” wrote my respondent. Andrew Sullivan has unearthed a document describing Verschärfte Vernehmung,

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