David Adler
Benjamin Barber’s prescience
Political theorist Benjamin Barber (pictured, right) has been shilling for the Libyan regime for a number of years. On February 1 his article “No Democratic Dominoes in the Middle East” was published by HuffPo. It contained the following insight: Qadaffi himself is not detested in the way that Mubarak has been detested and rules by means other than fear. His
Nir Rosen, major war monger
After critiquing Nir Rosen’s shoddy excuse-making for terrorism in January 2009, I paid only slight attention to his work. But on the occasions when I stumbled onto his Twitter feed, I actually had to stop and wonder whether someone had hacked his account. The opinions were so extreme, so loutish, so flagrantly unprofessional, so obviously unbecoming of a Fellow at
Bern Nix in Philly
A short preview in the new Philadelphia Weekly.
The week on disc (86)
In case you missed the last one… Marty Ehrlich, Fables (Tzadik) Donny McCaslin, Perpetual Motion (Greenleaf) Dymaxion Quartet, Sympathetic Vibrations (ind.) Jin Hi Kim & Gerry Hemingway, Pulses (Auricle) Tigran, A Fable (Verve/Universal) Robert Hurst, Unrehurst, Volume 2 (Bebob)
Randy Sandke and the critics, continued
Soon after my first post on Randy Sandke’s book Where the Dark and the Light Folks Meet, Ethan Iverson posted a far more detailed two-part critique (here and here) at Do the Math. As always with Ethan, it’s a must-read. He’s also announced that he’ll be publishing a guest post by Sandke in reply. At the risk of spending too
On Shauli Einav
This review appears in the February 2011 issue of All About Jazz-New York. [Note: As of the March 2011 issue, AAJ-NY will be known as The New York City Jazz Record. Details here.] — Shauli Einav, Opus One (Plus Loin) By David R. Adler It’s clear that Israeli-born saxophonist Shauli Einav is capable of “blowing his face off,” as pianist
On Scott Colley
This review appears in the February 2011 issue of All About Jazz-New York. — Scott Colley, Empire (CAM Jazz) By David R. Adler The title Empire could lead one to think that bassist Scott Colley’s seventh album is an artistic comment on foreign policy. In fact, Empire is a now-vanished town in Kansas where Colley’s great-great-grandfather, Joseph J. Colby, settled
“We were set upon”
This is why Egyptians have taken to the streets to demand Mubarak’s ouster – exactly this sort of thuggery, for decades, but always away from the cameras. Until now.