Music
Socialist Worker on Atzmon: “The evidence for these serious charges is damning.”
Yes, it is. So it’s good to see the fringe lefties at Socialist Worker retract and apologize for publishing an interview with a Nazi sympathizer. The fact that they felt no need to vet Gilad Atzmon beforehand speaks volumes, however. “Critics of Israel,” no matter how virulent, have come to be given the benefit of the doubt on the radical
The week on disc (75)
In case you missed the last one… Barry Harris, Live in Rennes (Plus Loin) Kris Davis/Ingrid Laubrock/Tyshawn Sorey, Paradoxical Frog (Clean Feed) Azar Lawrence, Mystic Journey (Further More) Odean Pope, Odean’s List (In and Out) Peter Evans Quartet, Live in Lisbon (Clean Feed) José James & Jef Neve, For All We Know (Impulse!)
Nels Cline in Philly
Missed him last night in New York, but … in the new Philadelphia Weekly: Nels Cline Singers Wed., July 7, 8pm. $15 ($12 advance). With Richard Crandell, Good for Cows. Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 N. Frankford Ave. 215.739.9684 www.arsnovaworkshop.org Long before he became Wilco’s lead guitarist in 2004, Nels Cline was already a leading West Coast avant-gardist, making dissonant garage-jazz with
On Herbie Hancock
My review of The Imagine Project, in Sunday’s Philadelphia Inquirer.
Yotam’s Resonance
This review appears in the July 2010 issue of All About Jazz-New York. — Yotam, Resonance (Jazz Legacy) By David R. Adler Israeli-born guitarist Yotam Silberstein has dropped his surname for performance purposes — he’s simply “Yotam” now. But the crisp and determined quality of his playing remains intact on Resonance, his third disc as a leader. All three outings
New York @ Night: July 2010
In the July 2010 issue of All About Jazz-New York: — When Dave Douglas and Keystone played (Le) Poisson Rouge in the prime 8:20 p.m. slot of the Undead Jazzfest (June 12), DJ Olive was not there to provide his sonic trickery, which has done much to define the group since its 2005 inception. But Adam Benjamin’s heavily tweaked Fender
Six Picks: July 2010
My monthly list of recommended CDs, as published in All About Jazz-New York, July 2010: Steve Coleman and Five Elements, Harvesting Semblances of Infinity (Pi) Alan Ferber, Chamber Songs: Music for Nonet and Strings (Sunnyside) Eric Hofbauer, American Fear! (Creative Nation) Ideal Bread, Transmit: Volume 2 of The Music of Steve Lacy (Cuneiform) Alex Machacek, 24 Tales (Abstract Logix) David Weiss &
Bird lives? A response to Will Layman
I’ve opened what I hope might be a productive tweet-ologue with jazz critic Will Layman about this piece, with the provocative headline: “Jazz Ain’t Dead, But Charlie Parker Is — So Let’s Move On, Shall We?” Which seems to rest on the assumption that jazz hasn’t moved on since Charlie Parker. And that’s not what Layman ends up arguing, so it’s