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On Gerald Cleaver
This review appears in the March 2011 issue of The New York City Jazz Record: — Gerald Cleaver’s Uncle June Be It As I See It (Fresh Sound New Talent) By David R. Adler It’s scarcely an exaggeration to say that drummer Gerald Cleaver can play everything: from the down-the-middle postbop of Jeremy Pelt to the free-blowing fury of Charles
On Dave Douglas
This review appears in the March 2011 issue of The New York City Jazz Record: — Dave Douglas & Keystone Spark of Being: Soundtrack/Expand/Burst (Greenleaf) By David R. Adler Something about trumpeter Dave Douglas’s electric band Keystone lends itself to film projects. The first two records, Keystone (2006) and Moonshine (2008), took silent film icon Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle as their
On Brad Mehldau
This review appears in the March 2011 issue of The New York City Jazz Record (formerly All About Jazz-New York). — Brad Mehldau Live in Marciac (Nonesuch) By David R. Adler Brad Mehldau’s 2010 release Highway Rider, a sweeping orchestral double-album, was muddled in some respects, but one thing was clear: It was hardly intended as a bravura piano showcase.
New York @ Night: March 2011
From the March 2011 issue of The New York City Jazz Record (formerly All About Jazz-New York): — When drummer Neal Smith took the stage at Miller Theatre (Feb. 5), eyes and ears were focused on the band’s pianist, Mulgrew Miller, who had recently suffered a stroke. Thankfully, Miller’s playing was undiminished, as pliant and rhythmically confident as ever. The
Six Picks: March 2011
My monthly list of recommended CDs, as published in The New York City Jazz Record (formerly All About Jazz-New York), March 2011: David Cook, Pathway (BJU) Carlo De Rosa’s Cross-Fade, Brain Dance (Cuneiform) David Liebman Trio, Lieb Plays the Blues A La Trane (Challenge) Joe Lovano, Bird Songs (Blue Note) Daniel Peterson’s Truth & Consequence, October (ind.) Eric Reed, The Dancing
The week on disc (87)
In case you missed the last one… Ben Kono, Crossing (19/8) Chris Parrello, Things I Wonder (Popopomo) Robert Piket, Sides, Colors (Thirteenth Note) Jason Stein’s Locksmith Isidore, Three Kinds of Happiness (Not Two) Billy Fox’s Blackbirds & Bullets, Dulces (Clean Feed) Ken Filiano’s Quantum Entanglements, Dreams from a Clown Car (Clean Feed)
Benjamin Barber’s prescience
Political theorist Benjamin Barber (pictured, right) has been shilling for the Libyan regime for a number of years. On February 1 his article “No Democratic Dominoes in the Middle East” was published by HuffPo. It contained the following insight: Qadaffi himself is not detested in the way that Mubarak has been detested and rules by means other than fear. His
Nir Rosen, major war monger
After critiquing Nir Rosen’s shoddy excuse-making for terrorism in January 2009, I paid only slight attention to his work. But on the occasions when I stumbled onto his Twitter feed, I actually had to stop and wonder whether someone had hacked his account. The opinions were so extreme, so loutish, so flagrantly unprofessional, so obviously unbecoming of a Fellow at