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Announcing the launch of JJA News
Today the Jazz Journalists Association launched JJA News, its new official web publication, which takes the place of the quarterly Jazz Notes. I’m excited to be staying on as editor, so check out my introductory statement, and sign up at the column on the right to follow JJA News via Twitter, RSS and so forth.
The week on disc (71)
In case you missed the last one… Jeff Davis, We Sleep Outside (Loyal Label) Michael Musillami Trio, Old Tea (Playscape) Mike Reed’s People, Places & Things, Stories and Negotiations (482 Music) John Hicks & Frank Morgan, Twogether (HighNote) Thomson Kneeland, Mazurka for a Modern Man (Weltschmerz) Bill Carrothers, Joy Spring (Pirouet)
An open letter to Andrew Sullivan
Dear Andrew, You have written approvingly (here and here) of John Mearsheimer’s recent speech in which he divided American Jews into three camps: “New Afrikaners,” or right-wing supporters of Israel; “righteous Jews,” i.e., critics of Israeli policy toward the Palestinians; and the “great ambivalent middle.” I’d like to focus on something that you glossed over entirely in your remarks: Mearsheimer’s
Fred Halliday, 1946-2010
I am devastated to learn that Fred Halliday died while I was away and mostly offline in Florida. Halliday was a scholar of international relations, speaker of seven languages, one of the clearest progressive political thinkers of our day, a ruthless dismantler of nonsense from the right and extreme left. May his example live on for decades to come. His
On Samuel Blaser
This review appears in the May 2010 issue of All About Jazz-New York. Blaser plays Cornelia Street Café this Saturday as part of the Clean Feed Festival. — Samuel Blaser Quartet, Pieces of Old Sky (Clean Feed) Pierre Favre & Samuel Blaser, Vol à Voile (Intakt) By David R. Adler There’s a wonderfully eerie quality to Pieces of Old Sky,
On Manuel Valera
A version of the following review appears in the May 2010 issue of All About Jazz-New York. — Manuel Valera, Currents (MaxJazz) Samuel Torres, Yaoundé (Blue Conga) Oscar Feldman, Oscar e Familia (Sunnyside) By David R. Adler Cuban pianist Manuel Valera is throwing his weight around the jazz scene and having an impact on several different levels. He’s a fine
Jacomo wha?
I’ve been getting sucked into Treme on HBO (and enjoying Patrick and Josh’s in-depth discussions), so thought I’d link to this interesting take on the meaning of the famous refrain “jacomo fi-na-ne.” The Grateful Dead and its fans rendered the song’s chorus as “Hey now, Hey now, Aiko Aiko all day,” but this is it in Louisiana Creole: Ena! Ena!Akout!
New York @ Night: May 2010
In the new All About Jazz-New York: — While bassist Adam Lane’s Full Throttle Orchestra is named to conjure up great size and bombast, at present it’s a compact sextet, and its sonic inventory includes passages of nuance and overall calm. With a Bay Area lineup, Lane has released No(w) Music (Cadence, 2001) and New Magical Kingdom (Clean Feed, 2006).