Toots Hibbert: The Force of Life & Love in Music
Sean MurphyWas Toots and his 1968 hit “Do the Reggay,” responsible for popularizing both the name and form of reggae that, a few years later — and in no small part…
Ennio Morricone, The Master
Certain things are anathema to the mature writer: hyperbole, cliché, groupthink, money--just kidding, (mostly). Sometimes, and the instances are rare enough to be exceptions to the rule, one can speak…
Keith Tippett: Prog God, Plus
RIP to a musician's musician, a complete and utter original, and icon of the underground. Beautiful tribute to Keith Tippett courtesy of The Guardian here. (I've written about him --and…
Long Live Rock; Long Live Pete
Happy 75th, Pete Townshend! Inspiring? Pete Townshend, arguably, is the ultimate rock hero. He had the Lennon & McCartney songwriting skills; he played the hell of those guitars he ultimately…
The (Really) Real McCoy
An absolute giant, musical genius, and the rarest of human beings has departed from a planet that could scarcely contain him. McCoy Tyner is, without question, one of the most…
David Roback and the Deep, Dark Groove
Not a ton of people remember Opal (actually, to remember a band, you need to have heard of them in the first place, right?). It’s a shame, although admittedly, this…
New World Man: An Appreciation of Neil Peart
He knows changes aren’t permanent, but change is. Taken from Rush’s most famous song, “Tom Sawyer,” this line might best illuminate the “elemental empathy” that came to define Neil Peart,…
A Farewell to the King: Neil Peart
Like, I know, many (many, many) others, it'll be impossible to succinctly or adequately convey my admiration for Neil Peart. (Full and semi-embarrassing disclosure: I wrote my graduate school thesis…
Original Poem, “Bud Powell’s Brain,” in new Anthology
I'm honored to have my poem "Bud Powell's Brain" included in the new anthology Revisiting the Elegy in the Black Lives Matter Era. From the book's description: Revisiting the Elegy…
The Day The Music Died, Redux (Revisited)
(12/9/2010) It was thirty years ago today... Where were you? I was in my mother's bedroom, kissing her goodbye before I caught the school bus, and I heard the horrible…