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Mandela at 90
One of the high points of my adult life was watching Nelson Mandela, Mario Cuomo and David Dinkins ride past in a motorcade in New York on June 20, 1990. The legacy of Mandela, or “Madiba” as South Africans affectionately call him, is a complex one. His reaching out to Castro, Gadhafi and other autocrats during those days is still
Verse for the day
The passageof a life should show;it should abrade.And when life stops,a certain space —however small —should be left scarredby the grand anddamaging parade. — Kay Ryan, U.S. poet laureate From “Things Shouldn’t Be So Hard”
Jazz wars
A must-read from Darcy James Argue on the aftermath of the jazz culture wars.
New Yorker cover
Jack Shafer rejects the argument that the cartoon will merely reinforce anti-Obama prejudice: Calling on the press to protect the common man from the potential corruptions of satire is a strange, paternalistic assignment for any journalist to give his peers, but that appears to be what The New Yorker‘s detractors desire. Forcefully put, but I still think the cover image
CD reviews
I have a few in the current Jazz Times: Jason Ajemian, The Art of Dying (Delmark) James Carter, Present Tense (EmArcy) Anthony Braxton, Quartet (GTM) 2006 (Important) Steuart Liebig’s Tee-Tot Quartet, Always Outnumbered (pfMentum)
Greens part two
Rosa Clemente, the hip-hop activist who is now Cynthia McKinney’s vice presidential running mate on the Green Party ticket, made an acceptance speech this weekend during which she offered unequivocal praise for the Weather Underground, Mutulu Shakur (currently serving a 60-year term for his involvement in the BLA’s notorious 1981 Brinks heist) and other supposed paragons of progressivism in America.
Make my day
The specifics of Obama’s alleged “move to the center” are complex, but I have to say I’m amused that lefties like Oregon artist Martha Shade, quoted in this NY Times piece, are abandoning Obama for the Green Party. (I say this as someone who voted for Nader in ’96 and ’00.) A person who hangs an “Occupation Is Terrorism” banner
The week on disc (21) – big band edition
In case you missed the last one… Evan Parker & the Transatlantic Art Ensemble, Boustrophedon (ECM) Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, Song for Chico (Zoho) The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Monday Night Live at the Village Vanguard (Planet Arts) Barry Romberg’s Random Access Large Ensemble, Existential Detective (Romhog) Keefe Jackson’s Project Project, Just Like This (Delmark, 2007) Bob Mintzer