David Adler
Three dangerous ideas
1. Torture is justified, or can be called something other than torture. Read Mark Danner’s essential NYT op-ed. 2. Antisemitism is “understandable.” So says British moviemaker Ken Loach. Does he believe that going out and harassing Muslims after a terror attack is “understandable”? I very much doubt it. 3. One-party dictatorships have rights; civilians who raise grievances against them do
Speaking nonsense to power
[Credit where it’s due: the above phrase is Bill Maher’s.] Because writeups of the band Propagandhi appear in this week’s Time Out and Philadelphia Weekly, right alongside my own work, I feel obliged to comment. I don’t know Propagandhi’s music. I do know their politics, however. The links to ZNet and to the likes of John Pilger tell you all
The week on disc (38)
In case you missed the last one… David Binney, Third Occasion (Mythology) Gilad Hekselman, Words Unspoken (LateSet Records) Leonardo Cioglia, Contos (Quizamba) Abdullah Ibrahim, Senzo (WDR/Sunnyside) Denny Zeitlin, The Columbia Studio Trio Sessions (Mosaic Select) Martial Solal, Live at the Village Vanguard (Cam Jazz)
On Daniel Kelly
My review of Daniel Kelly’s solo piano disc Portal, in the current Time Out New York. Daniel plays solo at The Stone this Sunday, March 15.
On Sonic Liberation Front
My preview of Sonic Liberation Front (Gojjo, March 15), in the current Philadelphia Weekly.
On Tar Baby
My profile [pdf] of Tar Baby (Orrin Evans/Eric Revis/Stacey Dillard/Nasheet Waits) is in the April 2009 issue of Jazz Times. The magazine has just relaunched its website. Huge improvement. My contributor’s page is here.
Atzmon PS
From another adulatory interview, this one by Martin Gibson in New Zealand’s Gisborne Herald (via Harry’s): There have been numerous attempts to silence Mr Atzmon, including inevitable charges that he is anti-Semitic, although he is Jewish himself. (Gibson fails to document one single such attempt to silence Atzmon.) Here is Atzmon, from the same interview: “One of the things that happened to
Airbrushing racism
[Cross-posted at Z Word and Harry’s Place.] Can you imagine a journalist for a liberal newspaper referring in neutral, even vaguely congratulatory terms to an artist’s “provocatively anti-gay rhetoric,” or “provocatively anti-black rhetoric,” or “provocatively anti-Arab rhetoric”? Well, have a look at John Lewis’s profile of Gilad Atzmon for the Guardian, in which we read about the saxophonist’s “provocatively anti-Jewish