REINCARNATION OF A LOVE BIRD, Paul Motian and the Electric Bebop Band ; JMT, recorded June 1994. Motian had a way of layering his sound against the ring of electric guitars and for a while in the ’90s had bands that doubled up on them and saxophones (see Garden of Eden,…

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I first saw Paul Motian in the early ’70s with the Keith Jarrett Quartet. The group came to our modest Midwestern university one cold Saturday night and set up on risers in the student union ballroom. Except for Motian, none of the group, which included bassist Charlie Haden and saxophonist…

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The story today in The New York Times about the birth –rather than the death– of an independent bookstore is cause for celebration. Novelist Ann Patchett, joining with much of Nashville’s reading community, has spurred the opening of Parnassus Books after the closing of the city’s  Davis-Kidd bookstore last December. It was…

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THE THIRD MAN  Stefano Bollani, Enrico Rava; ECM, recorded November 2006. The combination of Rava’s scissor-sharp trumpet and Bolani’s velvety piano work makes for designs cut from whole cloth. The opening tune “Estate” is a marvel of interwoven mood and method. Like a long-married couple, these two seem able to…

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In a sense, every jazz performance is a tribute to one –or more likely many — jazz greats. We Four: Celebrating John Coltrane, the collaboration between drummer Jimmy Cobb, saxophonist  Javon Jackson, bassist Nat Reeves and, for this appearance, pianist Eric Reed that appeared Saturday at Vanessie’s in Santa Fe,…

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***I hope our countless fans around the globe will forgive the delay of this Playlist…a winter storm took out our internet and the company formerly known as Qwest took four days to repair it. Hope this isn’t the norm in Santa Fe.

SOULTRANE, John Coltrane; Prestige, recorded February, 1958.  I was…

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Our lack of a Playlist: The Week In Rapid Rotation and other posting the last couple weeks (thanks to the hundreds, if not thousands, who inquired after our absence)  is due to another move,  from our beloved rabbit hole in Montana to a warren in the hills north Santa Fe, New…

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Walter Mosely’s meditation on his first memories in The New York Times is a detailed account of awakening consciousness. Mosely, at the age of three — the year most likely is 1955  –  opens his eyes in front of the television in his parents’ home. He is suddenly flooded with images and…

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