Coltrane: Ascent
Sean MurphyFirst there's the solo by Jimmy Garrison; actually it's a soliloquy, as eloquent and convincing --urgent yet calm in its confidence-- as any extended statement on bass by anyone in…
John Coltrane at 90
For those whose definition of genius is either too encompassing or excessively narrow, John Coltrane poses no problems: there isn’t anyone who knows anything about music (in general) and jazz…
10 for NYC by 10, on 9/11
New York City would be unimaginable without jazz, and vice versa. Here then is a tribute for --and by-- several musicians who help define and celebrate the cultural mecca of…
Bobby Hutcherson: Thanks for the Good Vibes
Bobby Hutcherson was not just a major, and positive force for good in the jazz idiom, he was a genuine innovator. Before him, the vibraphone was largely considered a novelty…
Improving Upon Perfection, Part Three: Rodgers & Hammerstein & Coltrane
Check it out: Most people, at least post Baby Boom generation, know this from the insufferable, I mean delightful family masterpiece, The Sound of Music. It was, and remains, an…
O’Connor and Coltrane: Saints of American Art
i. I never, until this year, made the explicit connection between John Coltrane and Flannery O’Connor. Why should I have? One was an introverted white woman, a southern writer who…
Yusef Lateef: R.I.P., Gentle Giant (Revisited)
We have lost one of the great, indeed one of the greatest, ones. Yusef Lateef, aged 93 years young, was finally stopped by cancer on December 23. I say "finally"…
Hurricane Music, Sandy Style (Three Years Later)
Let's just get right into it. Some of Young's finest blistering guitar fury. Led Zep may have had the hammer of the gods, but there were four of them; Neil…
10 for NYC by 10, on 9/11
New York City would be unimaginable without jazz, and vice versa. Here then is a tribute for --and by-- several musicians who help define and celebrate the cultural mecca of…
Charlie Haden R.I.P. (Revisited)
1959 was a watershed year for jazz music (arguably the greatest single year for jazz in all history–which is saying a lot). Here’s a taste: Miles Davis Kind of Blue,…