David Adler
Hentoff?
Didn’t see this coming. Nat Hentoff, dean of American jazz commentators and civil libertarians, my fellow Jazz Times contributor, buys into the “death panels” nonsense. How sad. He’s better than that. I thought.
Health care and fringe politics
Which is to say, mainstream Republican politics. Let me explain. About that now-famous Barney Frank clip, in which a maniac health-reform opponent accused the (Jewish) congressman of supporting “a Nazi policy” and was rebuked and humiliated by Frank in turn: It turns out that this woman is a Lyndon LaRouche cultist. And so now, right-wing pundits like Michelle Malkin are
Jazz and the young, PS
Thank goodness, Nate eviscerates Terry Teachout’s ill-informed, poorly conceived “Can Jazz Be Saved?” column. Imagine that: a piece that actually talks about the music, the venues, the musicians, instead of speaking in generalities and dubious crunched numbers. Nate, in other words, performs the task of a critic.
On Marcus & E.J. Strickland
My preview of their dual-CD-release show at Joe’s Pub (Friday, Aug. 21), in the current Time Out New York.
Philadelphia haps cont’d.
In the current Philadelphia Weekly: Avant Ascension Wed., Aug. 19, 9pm-2am. $5. Tritone, 1508 South St. 215.545.0475 www.tritonebar.com How time flies! It’s been a year since Avant Ascension, one of Philly’s bootstraps, artist-run jazz series, got off the ground at Tritone. Hosted by two young colleagues from Bobby Zankel’s big band Warriors of the Wonderful Sound — trombonist Larry Toft
Guns and health care
There’s nothing about the current healthcare reform “debate” I could say that hasn’t already been said, and said brilliantly, by Rachel Maddow and other liberal commentators. But I will say this about reform opponents showing up to Obama town halls with guns, including assault rifles, in recent days: Right-wing ideologues, including members of Congress, can mouth all the platitudes they
The week on disc (49)
In case you missed the last one… Paul Meyers, World on a String (Miles High Records) Andrew Rathbun, Where We Are Now (SteepleChase) Edmar Castaneda, Entre Cuerdas (ArtistShare) Donny McCaslin, Declaration (Sunnyside) Pete McCann, Extra Mile (Nineteen-Eight) Steve Swell, Planet Dream (Clean Feed)
Pacifica death spiral
Marc Cooper on the continuing nosedive of “alternative media” bastion Pacifica Radio, and what this disaster says about the “media reform” movement. “If it can’t bring itself to scrutinize the squandering and trashing of the $500 million Pacifica network (the market value of its licenses), then why should we trust this movement to offer serious analysis of the rest of