Wide Open Jazz and Beyond

Ornette Coleman and Humanity: Parts 1 and 2

by Matt Lavelle
June 26, 2015

Part One When we sleep, we're often in commune with our soul. As you wake, you may receive some gentle messages for you to try and remember or use. A few years back as I was waking up I felt that everything in my life was about to change in a way I could never expect. A massive shift was imminent. Shortly after that photographer John Rogers introduced me to Ornette Coleman. I'll always be very grateful to ...

Ode to Jef Lee Johnson: The Promise of Lovolution

by Charles Blass
February 22, 2013

“When the music's happening, life is happening.... Why must we only join hands after the storm?... How true are you? Nothing else even matters." --Jef Lee JohnsonJef Lee Johnson, prolific, virtuosic, humble, was in some ways not made for this world. “I'm over the world," he sang. He was certainly made for music though.Time to tell the truth about Jef Lee Johnson. For too many, it's better late than never. His brilliance was evident enough, however ...

A Question of Time

by Alan Bryson
September 8, 2009

Imagine you were given the chance to go back in time and witness four musical events (one each from jazz, blues, classical, and rock history.) What would they be? That's an after-dinner topic friends might discuss by candlelight. If your inner-child has completely matured, perhaps you could approach it as a potential film: if you were given a massive budget to authentically recreate four musical events, what would they be? This idea has intrigued me for a while, ...

Introduction to Wide Open Jazz and Beyond

by Peter Madsen
May 30, 2006

Greetings fellow jazz-junkies, music aficionados and other folks searching for a little bit of meaningful life between the exit signs. My name is Peter Madsen and in real life I'm a professional pianist, keyboardist and composer that once a month will be masquerading as a music-writer for AAJ. Being that this is the maiden voyage of this monthly event I thought I would take the time to introduce myself and tell you some of my ideas for this column.

It ...

Warne Marsh

by Peter Madsen
May 30, 2006

One of my first great musical experiences in New York happened shortly after I had arrived here in 1980. I was rehearsing once a week with a band co-led by trumpeter Manny Duran and singer Carla White up in Breton Hall on 86th street and Broadway. During one of the rehearsals a shy thin gray haired man with a goatee walked in the room with a tenor saxophone and began to play with us. We were playing something like Tad ...

Improvisation, Part 1-2

by Peter Madsen
May 30, 2006

Happy New Year everyone. Hope 2000 was as great a year for you as it was for me and I hope 2001 is even better.

The following is a letter from an AAJ fan with some questions about scales and improvisation. I was asked to try and wrestle these questions to the ground and turn the answers into an article (or two). Check out the letter:

I have a question, which might make a good topic for an article - ...

Improvisation, Part 2-2

by Peter Madsen
May 30, 2006

Welcome back to part 2 of an article in response to a question from Michael a loyal AAJ reader with some interesting questions that I was asked to write about. Once again here's the letter:

I have a question, which might make a good topic for an article - maybe. In an old interview with Frank Zappa I read a while back, he talks a bit about his guitar playing and some of the nuts and bolts of his group's ...

Muddy Waters

by Peter Madsen
May 30, 2006

Muddy Waters! Muddy Waters! Muddy Waters!

Damn this man could sing and play the blues. Lately I've been listening to his very first recording done for the Library of Congress in 1941 in the fields of the Mississippi Delta. Absolutely some of the finest music ever!!

Beginning in 1933 music researcher and historian Alan Lomax was working for the Library of Congress traveling throughout the Southern United States making field recordings of American traditional music with ...

Holiday Thanks

by Peter Madsen
May 30, 2006

Turkey Day has just passed and Christmas is just around the corner. It's that time of year again to remember and thank the important people in our lives! This year I want to shout-out some historical thanks to a few jazz and blues people who've helped to make my life pretty cool.

I want to thank:

Perry Bradford a black composer, publisher, agent and bandleader for hustling his ass off in spite of death threats to persuade the Okeh Phonograph ...

Kenny Wheeler

by Peter Madsen
May 30, 2006

For years I've admired the great Canadian musician Kenny Wheeler because of his fantastic compositions and arrangements, his incredible sound on both the trumpet and flugelhorn, his superb recordings as well as his wide open artistic vision. Last week I went to a big-band concert that featured Kenny as the guest performer and composer. At 70+ years of age Kenny still has the ability to amaze both as a player as well as composer. He sounds as fresh as any ...