Shrinktunes

There's much to say about the extraordinary My Coma Dreams, the new multimedia piece that describes the medically induced coma experienced by pianist/composer Fred Hersch in 2008. But three days after its world premiere at Montclair State University's Kasser Theater, I'm still looking for the right words to describe it. It seems that my usual critic's ...

For those interested in the continued rumors about bipolar geniuses and mad musicians, here's the latest installment of my campaign against those popular myths.

This article appeared in the May/June issue of The National Psychologist , the 19 year-old newspaper for independent psychology practitioners that prints what's really going on in the trenches, as opposed to ...

On April 23, 2010 we all lost Gene Lees, the incomparable jazz writer, historian, and lyricist. I also lost an irreplaceable mentor and friend.

Unlike the great pianist Eddie Higgins--who died criminally unsung in 2009--Gene was granted a New York Times obituary. Published on April 27, it was written by Peter Keepnews, who attributes Gene's contentiousness ...

Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original, by Robin D. G. Kelley, was published in the fall of 2009.

It arrived surrounded by buzz that, since the author had unprecedented access to the Monk family, he could finally answer those lingering questions about his “mental illness"--as in, was Thelonious schizophrenic, bipolar, obsessive-compulsive, or ...

If Jeff Hamilton isn't the world's greatest living drummer, he's on the short list for coronation. For the past five years, he's been in Modern Drummer's top five (#1 in 2004 and 2006), and was #4 in the most recent Jazz Times readers' poll. Whether you think such polls reflect true quality or just recent visibility, ...

I attended the sold-out March 11, 2005 performance of Fred Hersch's (see April 2005 interview) Leaves of Grass at Zankel Hall, a relatively new and wondrous performance space in the belly of Carnegie Hall. This Palmetto CD has already been reviewed by two AAJ colleagues, and since I largely agree, I'll leave the parsing of the ...

There's not much good news out there lately. Even if you believe we'll be Kerryed out of this economic and global mess, that won't start for another ten months. In general I pay minimal attention to the news, figuring that if anything really terrible happened my friends would tell me, if they had enough time before ...

The Only Normal Family in America

Twas the last shrink convention and all through the house Not a Skinner box was stirring With chimp, rat or mouse.

The speaker that day had the focus of all The seekers of truth who had crowded the hall. Their coffee and ...

In October of 2002, Jazz Times ran a cover story called “Hard Bop, Hard Time: Music, Madness and Roy Brooks. “ It was good timing, since the article was as dark and scary - and as full of fantasy - as Halloween.

It warns that jazz musicians are especially prone to developing bipolar “disease," a “treacherous" ...

It will take years for all the shuddering to settle down. While scrambling to find something positive in the immense tragedy of September 11, many writers have predicted that we'll lose our appetite for cinematic violence and fiery death, now that their ugliness has become so personal. In fact, Schwartzenegger's latest bang-bang was recently pulled from ...

I've learned that nobody wants to hear that musicians are sane. The idea of the dissipated and doomed musician is so deeply embedded in our culture that, after 18 months of intensive hunting, I still can't find a mainstream publisher willing to challenge it in print. A few visionary editors have recognized the pernicious nature of ...

One of the most heinous creatures to stalk the nightmares of a jazz musician - next to the club owner and the wedding guest who keeps requesting “Proud Mary" - is the critic. Even the word is aversive: sharp and insect-like - cri-TICK - it evokes the specter of some prowling bloodsucker, draining people of confidence ...

Antonio Carlos Jobim (January 25, 1927 - December 8, 1994)

The day after Jobim died I was in a store, trying, as usual, to ignore their Muzak. Suddenly they started playing “Ipanema" in one of those murderously perky arrangements. It was so awful, especially coming after all the recent gorgeous airplay of his work, ...

As many of you know, I hate the noxious myth that creativity and mental “illness" are necessarily linked. Being a devoted fan of people with talent, as well as a psychologist, I've been fighting the “mad creative" myth on various battlefields for about 20 years. I addressed it here last December in “ The Jazz Times ...