dev

11
Dec

Greater Surbiton

Marko Attila Hoare, a Balkan specialist whose views I greatly respect, recently launched a blog called Greater Surbiton. From his bio: I have been variously accused of being a neoconservative, Trotskyite and Croat nationalist and a supporter of Islamism and Western imperialism. Depending on how you define these terms, some or all of this may be accurate. I’m honored to

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10
Dec

The week on disc (9)

In case you missed the last one… Carla Bley, The Lost Chords Find Paolo Fresu (Watt/ECM) Asaf Sirkis & the Inner Noise, The Song Within (SAM)Loren Stillman, Blind Date (Pirouet) Dena DeRose, Live at Jazz Standard, Volume One (MaxJazz) Tardo Hammer, Look Stop & Listen: The Music of Tadd Dameron (Sharp Nine)Alan Pasqua, The Antisocial Club (Cryptogramophone)

10
Dec

The JJA Top Tens

The Jazz Journalists Association presents its members’ annual Top Ten CD lists, including mine. I’ll be publishing more year-in-review comments on this blog in the coming days.

9
Dec

Erasing torture

Important detail in this NY Times piece on the CIA torture video coverup. The FBI got Abu Zubaydah to give up Khalid Shaikh Mohammed without using torture; then the CIA began torturing him and it’s far from clear that they got anything. Gov’t officials are cited saying: …Zubaydah, who had been taken to a secret location in Thailand, cooperated with

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8
Dec

Stockhausen: a political postscript

I listened to a fair amount of Stockhausen while writing my recent Anthony Braxton feature [pdf]. Now that he has died, I want to vent on an obscure political detail likely to be left out of most of the obits. No, not the notorious 9/11 comment. I’m speaking of Cornelius Cardew’s 1974 essay Stockhausen Serves Imperialism, largely and very deservedly

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8
Dec

On Sex Mob

My review of Sex Mob’s Dec. 4 show at Johnny Brenda’s — part of an Ars Nova Workshop triple bill — in today’s Inquirer.

6
Dec

On the radio

I’ll be a guest panelist on J. Michael Harrison’s The Bridge, WRTI 90.1 FM Philadelphia, on Friday, December 7 at 10pm EST. We’ll be spinning recent tracks and talking about why we like ’em. I believe you can stream the program live, info here.

3
Dec

Six Picks: December 2007

My monthly list of recommended CDs, as published in All About Jazz-New York, December 2007: Harry Allen, Hits By Brits (Challenge) Martin Bejerano, Evolution/Revolution (Reservoir) Michael Blake Sextet, Amor de Cosmos (Songlines) Peter Evans, The Peter Evans Quartet (Firehouse 12) His Name Is Alive, Sweet Earth Flower: A Tribute to Marion Brown (High Two)Henning Sieverts, Symmetry (Pirouet)