dev
The current PW
New in Philadelphia Weekly: a preview of Todd Sickafoose’s Sept. 4 show at the Philadelphia Art Alliance, and a review of Appearing Nightly by the Carla Bley Big Band.
Detroit-Philly PS
W. Kim Heron, the moderator of our Coltrane panel in Detroit, has a nice piece in the Metro Times about the Detroit-Philly connection.
Detroit-Philly Summit
I returned yesterday from the Detroit International Jazz Festival, billed this year as a “Detroit-Philly Summit,” with artist-in-residence Christian McBride (Philly bassist extraordinaire). My business there was to speak about John Coltrane with fellow panelists Ashley Kahn, Jimmy Heath, Benny Golson and local Detroit legend Faruq Z. Bey. It was a great time, though I was boxed into a pretty
New at Democratiya
My review of Kabir Sehgal’s Jazzocracy: Jazz, Democracy, and the Creation of a New American Mythology (Better World Books) is now online in the Autumn 2008 edition of Democratiya.
Six Picks: September 2008
My monthly list of recommended CDs, as published in All About Jazz-New York, September 2008: Brinsk, A Hamster Speaks (Nowt) Eric Hofbauer & the Infrared Band, Myth Understanding (Creative Nation) Ahmad Jamal, It’s Magic (Birdology) Rosa Passos, Romance (Telarc) Martial Solal Trio, Longitude (Cam Jazz) Torben Waldorff, Afterburn (ArtistShare)
Israeli musicians bullied, not bowed
Many an unkind word has been said about the late scholar and radical Palestinian activist Edward Said, but at least he firmly believed in the necessity of cultural contacts between Arabs and Israelis, so much so that he co-founded (with Daniel Barenboim) the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, one of the most notable peace-oriented artistic endeavors ever to have come out of
Enough!
Hit it out of the park. I like John Dickerson’s take: After one of several passages in which he described the troubles of everyday people, he said, “Tonight I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and independents across this great land—enough!” It was the single most emphatic word of his address. Change is all well and good,
What a week
At an earlier, benighted time in our nation’s history, as historian Michael Beschloss pointed out the other night, Southern Democrats walked out of the party convention in protest of an African-American preacher taking the podium. Last night the party nominated an African-American as its standard bearer, a man who will be, must be, the next President of the United States.