David Adler
Writing and truth
The cover of the NYT Week in Review concerns James Frey’s memoir A Million Little Pieces, embellished to the point of fraudulence. Randy Kennedy explores the relativist public response to the fakery, noting that suspicion of the memoir genre stretches back at least to Montaigne. Indeed, in the final chapter of Fascinating Rhythm: Reading Jazz in American Writing (Princeton U.
Best music writing/videos
Jason Gross of Perfect Sound Forever has a great music journalism roundup for 2005 here. [Via Artsjournal.com] And this page takes you to some incredible music videos (remember those?). [Via Phil DiPietro]
The duty to deliberate
Just finished three pretty intense days of jury service. My only previous one was a state trial in 1994, ending in acquittal. This was federal, ending in three guilty verdicts. One passage from the judge’s written charge to the jury stays in my mind: Each juror is entitled to his or her opinion, but you are required to exchange views
Slate props
Not to toot my horn, but there’s a very generous assessment of my recent jazz/hip-hop piece for Slate here.
Happy New Year
All best wishes for 2006. I kick off the year with jury duty. I’ll take this opportunity to post my top 10 live jazz shows (NYC) of 2005, as published in All About Jazz-New York: BRIAN BLADEJon Cowherd, Myron Walden, Melvin Butler, Chris Thomas, Mark GriffithJoe’s Pub, January 13th PAT METHENYLyle Mays, Steve Rodby, Cuong Vu, Antonio Sanchez, Gregoire Maret,
Rewarding genocide
Back after a break–the transit strike and the holidays slowed me down some. My feature on Chris Potter will be published shortly in Jazz Times. I’m currently finishing a piece on Andrew Hill, which has consumed most of my energy and attention. But I wanted to point readers to this piece by Eric Reeves in TNR. Turns out the African
War on Christmas footnote
I should add to my reflections here and here: This talk of a “war on Christmas” in the U.S. trivializes the all-too-real oppression of Christians in such places as Burma, China and North Korea. No one is preventing Christians in the U.S. from worshipping as they please. This country, I might add, is being (mis)governed by a born-again Christian. Likewise,
End-of-year music notes
–Records that didn’t make my 2005 end-of-year list and probably should have:Bill Frisell, East/West (Nonesuch)Vijay Iyer, Reimagining (Savoy Jazz)Miguel Zenon, Jibaro (Marsalis Music)John O’Gallagher, Line of Sight (Fresh Sound New Talent) –Four new albums that make use of strings in bristling, avant-garde ways:Assif Tsahar, Solitude (Hopscotch Records)David Murray, Waltz Again (Justin Time)Michel Lambert, Le Passant (rant)Taylor Ho Bynum, Other Stories