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Covers vs. standards
Regarding the need for jazz musicians to be original, Phil Freeman tweeted today: “No rock artist could expect to be taken seriously releasing a covers album as their debut.” I wouldn’t normally respond to random tweets with a blog post, but there’s an important issue at stake here. As much as they may continue to inform one another, and as
The week on disc (63)
In case you missed the last one… Dave Rempis & Frank Rosaly, Cyrillic (482 Music) Tigran Hamasyan, Red Hail (Plus Loin, 2009) Soren Moller & Dick Oatts, The Clouds Above (Audial, out February 9) Jerry Bergonzi, Three for All (Savant) Nilson Matta’s Brazilian Voyage, Copacabana (Zoho, out February 10) John Funkhouser Trio, Time (ind.)
Mahathir Mohamed, from the heart
I think this qualifies as a remarkable statement: The Jews had always been a problem in European countries. They had to be confined to ghettoes and periodically massacred. But still they remained, they thrived and they held whole Governments to ransom. Even after their massacre by the Nazis of Germany, they survived to continue to be a source of even
Metheny’s Orchestrion
Nate’s NYT feature on the Pat Metheny Orchestrion project comes out this weekend, if I’m not mistaken. [Update: I’m mistaken — it runs January 31.] After I read it, I’ll be hitting the woodshed to do my cover story for the April issue of JazzTimes. If you’re wondering what the Orchestrion project is, it’s this:
Honoring Clark Terry, and more
Trumpet legend Clark Terry will receive this year’s Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (click on “news” from his homepage). Glad for this. About four or five years ago, Terry played one of the best shows I’d seen in a while at the Village Vanguard, wiping away all memory of a mediocre gig I caught earlier the same evening. One clarion trumpet
Lerner on Obama
Josh Marshall and Marc Cooper make good sense on the Massachusetts aftermath, and although I remain a staunch Obama supporter, I can agree with this from Cooper: Obama conceded way too much power to a feckless and literally corrupt Congress. He pandered to such dolts as Baucus and Lieberman instead of going to the Hill early on and sternly warning
Haiti reflections
About 15 years ago, when the Clinton administration sent troops to Haiti to restore the democratically elected left-populist Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power, I joined a small group of hard-left demonstrators in a number of pitiful marches against the intervention. For the life of me, today I cannot tell you why. George Packer, writing in Dissent, supported the intervention, and soon
On Inzinzac
My feature on Philly-based trio Inzinzac (guitarist Alban Bailly, saxophonist Dan Scofield, drummer Eli Litwin), in the new Philadelphia Weekly.