Articles by Bill Siegel

Charlie Parker's telegrams to Chan Parker, on hearing of the death of their daughter

by Bill Siegel
March 31, 2007

Chan, please help meDropping from the wires,a cry hangs in the air like a dustcloudabout the shoulders of the man aloneworking its way into the wrinkles of his coatthe cracks of his facefilling his jowls, bending his neck

Chan, please helpIn his head, he works over one wordtries it out on the lampposts, the hydrantsthe curbstonesLike last night's ...

The Flutist

by Bill Siegel
March 31, 2007

for Elyse Wood

she listens to the bass strings moanrolls her cold silver fluteacross one cheekwhile the bassist's fingers sweat tearson the polished woodas she playsthe saxman's shadow croucheshunchbacked on the wallwhen she finishesshe stands straight as the fluteresting along her armand quiverswith the strings of the bass. ...

so listen:

by Bill Siegel
March 25, 2007

so listen:

i've counted the moose that might have crossedthe fields we passedthought of the bear at the woodpileat night one summer wandering headcockedlike a drunk looking for a friendly eartell you his story for a drinktell you his story for a drink

i've watched crowshadowed houses cower at dawnlike the dalton boys waiting out a trainemmet & grat & the rest

Michael Brecker: Celebration of a Healer

by Bill Siegel
March 1, 2007

Michael Brecker Memorial Town Hall, New York February 20, 2007Town Hall was the scene for a spirited memorial service for Michael Brecker, universally acclaimed as one of the most influential jazz sax players since John Coltrane—and certainly among the most productive and ubiquitous: think of a name in innovative jazz or pop, and chances are Brecker's sax has been in the studio or on stage with them—from McCoy Tyner to Paul Simon, Herbie Hancock ...

Jim Pepper: Polar Bear Stomp

by Bill Siegel
July 23, 2006

Jim Pepper Polar Bear Stomp Universal Music (Austria) 2004

“Jim didn't want me to write about the music, since he thinks the music has the right to speak for itself. He also didn't want me to write a biography; instead, only my impressions." Enja Records co-founder and Jim Pepper producer, Horst Weber.

How fitting that Jim Pepper's friend and professional associate Horst Weber remembers that it was by impressions that Pepper wanted ...

Jim Pepper: Afro Indian Blues

by Bill Siegel
July 22, 2006

Amina Claudine Myers & Jim Pepper Afro Indian Blues PAO Records 2006

Why now? Why review a recording of a concert that happened fifteen years ago? For one, because it's taken this long for anyone to get around to releasing the performance on CD. But even more importantly, because this is a major event and should get all the exposure possible.

In 1991, at the time of the gig, Pepper was already sick with ...

Thinking Mingus

by Bill Siegel
February 15, 2006

“But jazz is decadent bourgeois music," I was told, for that is what the Soviet press had hammered into Russian heads. “It's my music," I said, “and I wouldn't give up jazz for a world revolution." ~ Langston Hughes

“No matter what LeRoi Jones says to the contrary, the essence of this music, this 'way of making music', is not simply protest. Its essence is something far more elemental: an elan vital, a forceful vitality, an explosive creative ...

Jazz-Rock Fusion: The People, The Music

by Bill Siegel
August 24, 2005

Julie Coryell Jazz-Rock Fusion: The People, The Music Hal Leonard 1979 Preface by Ramsey Lewis 2000 edition with new preface by Julie Coryell Photographs by Laura Friedman

“Jazz-rock fusion . It's a tag, a label from the 1970s that can still provoke impassioned arguments from all sides -- pro, con and every stop in between. Not to mention the way the debate was, for a long time, stoked ...

John-Carlos Perea: First Dance

by Bill Siegel
August 15, 2005

John-Carlos Perea First Dance Aerep Music 2001

What do a Mescalero Apache electric bassist, a Michoacan-Mexican percussionist, a Chicano guitarist, a Nicaraguan-Jewish drummer, and French-Iranian, Argentine and Chinese-American saxophonists have in common with John Coltrane and Jim Pepper?

The answer comes in the form of John-Carlos Perea's First Dance. Perea--who plays fretted and unfretted electric bass--produced the CD and composed all but one of its cuts. First Dance is a ...

There Are No Coincidences: A Tale of Synchronicity

by Bill Siegel
June 21, 2005

Or Meditations on Jim Pepper, Chief Bey, Milford Graves, a Heron and a Flock of Geese

(excerpts from this appeared in the Winter/Spring 2005 issue of Planet Jazz magazine)

If anything is a coincidence, then everything must be; And if everything is coincidence, then surely nothing really happens by chance.

Item: One of the first times I listened to saxophonist Jim Pepper ("Comin' and Goin,'" from the album of the same name). I was driving on a crowded ...