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“Jazz in the Global Imagination”
Another note about that Columbia jazz conference I mentioned. I’ll be anchoring a live interactive web discussion on the day of the conference, Sept. 29, 9am to 6pm EST, with an evening summation panel at 7:30pm. Login instructions will be available at jazzhouse.org, the website of the Jazz Journalists Association. Full details on the conference, “Jazz in the Global Imagination:
Columbia convergence
I had intended simply to note that I’ll be attending an international jazz journalism conference next week at Columbia University (details here). But I need to point out the sheer oddity of this event following on the heels of a highly controversial visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. I support Columbia’s decision to host Ahmadinejad, a Holocaust denier pledged to
“Do-aye” — “It is our task”
There is a spectacular uprising underway in Burma (I refuse to call it Myanmar). Here’s to the courageous monks and the long-suffering Burmese democrats. May they meet with every success against the “golf-playing generals,” as Amitav Ghosh has called them.
On Odean Pope
My profile of the veteran Philly-based saxophonist Odean Pope, in the Sunday Arts section of today’s Inquirer.
Janeane Garofalo, poseur
Janeane Garofalo fancies herself politically informed, a critical thinker, but she certainly disproved it on last night’s edition of Real Time with Bill Maher. Aside from botching the French president’s name (“Sarkozky,” Maher’s mistake as well), the 9/11 conspiracy theory dabbler first offered a rousing defense of Maher’s satellite guest, former CIA creep-turned-author Michael Scheuer. Funny, since Scheuer is an
The Rite
My first experience of the Philadelphia Orchestra, with Christoph Eschenbach conducting, could hardly have been better. Yesterday’s matinee included a rousing Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 1, followed by a lacerating, sweating, physical account of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. I’ve enjoyed the NY Philharmonic over the years, but this seems to be one area where Philly has the edge. I have
Sonny Rollins: the art of the trio
Last night’s historic Sonny Rollins show at Carnegie Hall was, among other things, a terrific and much-needed jolt of New York energy for this writer. Drummer Rashied Ali marched into the Pick-a-Bagel as I was finishing my sandwich. You just don’t experience this sort of thing in Philly. With a cursory glance around the lobby and inside the hall, one
Kucinich’s shame
On the question of whether to engage a regime such as Syria’s, last discussed here: There is world of difference between the kind of engagement Barack Obama has recommended, or that Nancy Pelosi undertook in April, and the deplorable toadying of Dennis Kucinich as seen in this video interview. The congressman’s hometown paper tears him a new one here (and