When Gil Scott-Heron died last May at the age of 62 nearly all the obituaries saluted him as “the Godfather of Rap.” It was a title he modestly denied when I interviewed him in 1995, shortly after his recording Spirits had come out. Poet, novelist, R&B musician and social activist, Scott-Heron…
The Messenger
Gil-Scott Heron memoir gives us half a story.
April 6th, 2012 · No Comments
Tags: Featured
Playlist, 12/11
The Week In Rapid Rotation
December 12th, 2011 · No Comments
DAVID MURRAY CUBAN ENSEMBLE PLAYS NAT KING COLE EN ESPANOl; Motema. Nothing like the original except the tunes. Murray, always adept at finding new ways to frame his music, works with a nine-piece ensemble and strings to do what he does best: cry, caterwaul, lose control (never; it only…
Tags: Music Reviews
Jarrett Miniatures
Solo improvisations, and lots of them.
December 6th, 2011 · No Comments
Pianist Keith Jarrett’s quarter-century of trio recordings with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette sustains his reputation as one of music’s most inventive improvisers. But it’s his infrequent solo work, beginning with his 1971 release Facing You, that best displays his improvisational genius. Rio, recorded live in the Brazilian…
Tags: Music Reviews
Playlist: 11/27
The Week In Rapid Rotation
November 28th, 2011 · No Comments
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,…
Tags: Music Reviews
Paul Motian: Time To Keep
Passing of a quiet revolutionary.
November 23rd, 2011 · No Comments
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…
Tags: Music Reviews
Playlist 11/6
The Week In Rapid Rotation
November 8th, 2011 · No Comments
***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…
Tags: Music Reviews
Playlist 9/25
The Week In Rapid Rotation
September 26th, 2011 · No Comments
Joseph Haydn: Die sieben lezten Worte unseres Erlosers am Kreuze (The Seven Last Words of Our Savior On the Cross); Broodin Quartet, Teldec, recorded October, 1993 . The lush, lovely side of the Passion Play, the Largo second movement is to die for. Grave, but somehow transcendent. No, not first-thing-in-the-morning…
Tags: Music Reviews
Playlist: 9/4
The Week In Rapid Rotation.
September 4th, 2011 · 1 Comment
TIME FOR TYNER, McCoy Tyner; Blue Note, recorded May, 1968.
Harmonic serendipity from vibes and piano, ditto for the personalities. This is our favorite of Tyner periods, beyond Coltrane and into McCoy. Cleverly arranged standards; Tyner puts the crop to the horses on “The Surrey With the Fringe On Top,” working…
Tags: Music Reviews
Metropole Dance
Arranger/conductor/saxophonist Vince Mendoza's orchestra gets down, dirty.
June 28th, 2011 · No Comments
You know the rap about symphonic orchestras playing jazz. Can’t swing. There to frame real jazz musicians in pretty strings. Pops orchestra. Sure, Charlie Parker and Strings was great but strings without Charlie Parker? Are you kidding?
And then there’s the Netherlands Radio’s Metropole Orkest, directed by Connecticut-born Vince Mendoza. Mendoza’s had…
Tags: Music Reviews
The Messenger: Gil Scott Heron
The untelevised revolution goes on.
May 28th, 2011 · No Comments
Gil-Scott Heron, dead today at 62, was equal parts social commentator, freedom fighter and pop star. Known as the Godfather of Rap, a title he vehemently denied in an interview I had with him in 1995, he none-the-less influenced generations of rappers and was sampled dozens of times. Most rappers ignored…
Tags: The Rabbit Rants