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The week on disc (72)
In case you missed the last one… Marc Cary Focus Trio, Live 2009 (Motéma) Yotam, Resonance (Jazz Legacy) Denny Zeitlin, Precipice: Solo Piano Concert (Sunnyside) Dan Willis and Velvet Gentlemen, The Satie Project (Daywood Drive) Ran Blake & Christine Correa, Out of the Shadows (Red Piano) John Tchicai Lunar Quartet, Look to the Neutrino (ZeroZeroJazz)
Hank Jones
The great pianist has passed. Jones was the subject of my first full-length feature in JazzTimes in 2004. Toward the end of the piece I quote him as saying, “I’m just going to keep going until I get it right.” I should have also included his next thought, which I’ll paraphrase: “Although in jazz, there really is no ‘right.’ It’s
Nikki vs. Nancy
Having just heard vocalist Nancy King on Wednesday in a duo with pianist Fred Hersch, I’m all the more unmoved by 16-year-old vocal phenom Nikki Yanofsky, whose Decca debut Nikki grates on my last nerve, and whose rise to stardom has been ably dissected by my colleague Nate Chinen. This child is going to “save jazz” — here we go
Metheny/Kreisberg
In the new Philadelphia Weekly: Pat MethenyTue., May 18, 8pm. $52.50. Keswick Theatre, 291 N. Keswick Ave., Glenside 215.572.7650 www.keswicktheatre.com The former teen prodigy turned jazz guitar icon has done it all — or so it seemed until Orchestrion, Metheny’s latest for Nonesuch. Recording a suite of new music for fully automated acoustic instruments was the first step. Now Metheny
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