Victory and Sorrow: Bright Moments from Three Masters
Sean MurphyHOW TO TALK ABOUT JAZZ MUSIC? Well, perhaps it’s better to determine how not to talk about jazz music. Hearing is believing. That’s all there is to it. And if…
Please Talk about Me When I’m Gone: A Primer
i. Encomium August 30, 2002. I thought: Everything that is good about me is because of my mother. I was in a church for the first time in forever.…
Talking Tech with Eric Taub
Eric Taub has been writing about the tech industry for more than two decades. His new book, Does This Plug into That?, is a tremendous and overdue public service. In…
Howard Sounes’ ’27’ Has That Train Wreck Kind of Appeal
“You’re drinking with number three,” Jim Morrison allegedly declared, equal parts sardonic and prescient, following the successive deaths of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix in 1970. As it happened, he…
Paul McCartney and Lee “Scratch” Perry (Revisited)
It was 34 years ago today... They almost put Macca away! (Today is the anniversary of Paul being released; hence the epic photo, above.) Do you remember what a huge…
Jimi Hendrix: Isolated and Astonishing
No comment necessary. Hendrix. Isolated tracks. God bless the Internet. "The Wind Cries Mary": "Have You Ever Been To Electric Ladyland": "All Along the Watchtower": "Drifting":
Jon Madof and Zion80 Are Making World Music for a New World
At a concert in New York City a few months ago I saw two things I’d never witnessed before. The first was a group of Jewish jazz musicians playing Afrobeat.…
Roy Campbell, R.I.P.
Another one gone way too soon. I first figured out I should be paying attention to Roy Campbell when I listened to Matthew Shipp's (highly recommended) Pastoral Composure (2000). I…
The Song Remains The Same or, The Agony of Influence (Revisited)
Two thoughts from T.S. Eliot: April is the cruelest month... Whatever. Good poets borrow; great poets steal. Now we're talking. And here is where it gets interesting: debate rages (well,…
Wagner at 200 or, Get Your Götterdämmerung On (Revisited)
Or, If Loving Wagner is Wrong, I Don't Want To Be Reich. (More on one of the most complex and controversial composers ever, who was born 200 years ago today,…