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Me on the Beeb
Apparently my comments on this year’s Vision Festival will be a part of the BBC radio program “Jazz On 3” this Friday, September 14 from 11:30 pm – 1 am (London time). You can listen, or access the broadcast after the fact for one week, here.
The week on disc (3)
In case you missed the last one… Eldar, Re-Imagination (Sony BMG Masterworks): The young Kyrgyz-American pianist goes nu-jazz on us. A bit chirpily bright at times, but it’s honest, gutsy music, fueled by the monster drumming of Terreon Gully and the stratospheric guitar of Mike Moreno. Jason Smith, Tipping Point (MoonJune): Californian drummer with Allan Holdsworth associates Gary Husband on
Exploding Star
Marvelous, though under-attended, performance last night at Philly’s International House by the Exploding Star Orchestra Quintet — a scaled-down incarnation of the group that released We Are All from Somewhere Else (Thrill Jockey) earlier this year. Even in the smaller-group context, orchestral timbres abounded, thanks in part to Rob Mazurek’s delay-enhanced cornet (distinct shades of Bill Dixon) and the painterly,
Joe Zawinul passes
I’ll go out on a limb and say Miles Davis couldn’t have done it without him. On the occasion of Zawinul’s death from cancer at 75, I thought I’d relink to my October ’06 Jazz Times review of Forecast: Tomorrow, the recent three-disc Weather Report collection from Legacy. I saw Zawinul only once, with Weather Update, his retooled, ethereal, vamp-oriented,
Remembering
I wasn’t able to work this into my piece on the writings of Amitav Ghosh, but the following passage from his 1988 novel The Shadow Lines stopped me short. It’s not about 9/11, obviously. It’s a semifictional account of anti-Muslim communal violence in Calcutta in 1964. Parallel anti-Hindu riots erupted in Dhaka, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) around the same time;
On Aesop Rock
My review of Aesop Rock’s show at the Starlight Ballroom in Philly, in today’s Inquirer.
Bin Laden speaks
A couple of things stand out, aside from the priceless shout-out to Noam Chomsky: You permitted Bush to complete his first term, and stranger still, chose him for a second term, which gave him a mandate from you — with your full knowledge and consent — to continue to murder our people in Iraq and Afghanistan. Then you claim to
Matthew Shipp Trio
An engaging Philadelphia performance last night by pianist Shipp, bassist Joe Morris and drummer Whit Dickey, the lineup heard on Shipp’s latest for Thirsty Ear, Piano Vortex. Thus began the fall season of the Ars Nova Workshop. ANW practically is the creative jazz scene in Philly. When the Jazz Awards ballot next circulates, Jazz Journalists Association members should keep ANW