G. Pascal Zachary

Since: 2024 | Position: Contributor | Location: Oakland | Page Views: 503

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About Me

Zachary is a passionate, discerning jazz fan with a lifetime in publishing, media and higher education

G. Pascal Zachary is a writer and educator, specializing in the history technological change, 20th century American history, the quest for enhanced consciousness and African affairs with an emphasis on traditional African art. He is the author of “Endless Frontier: Vannevar Bush, Engineer of the American Century” (1997) and editor of “The Essential Writings of Vannevar Bush” (Columbia University Press, 2022). He has taught at Arizona State University (2010-2020), Stanford University (2007-2009) and the University of California at Berkeley (2001-2002). He consulted on technology and development for the Gates Foundation (2007-2009) and has made more than 50 research visits to sub-Saharan Africa this century. Zachary is the author of “The Diversity Advantage: Multicultural Identity in the New World Economy” (2003) and “Showstopper” (1994), a “creation story” about the making of the Windows NT program at Microsoft. For the PBS network, he co-wrote Code Rush, on the rise and fall of Netscape (2000). Zachary lives in northern California with his wife, Chizo Okon; he chronicled their adventures in “Married to Africa: A Love Story” (2009).

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My Jazz Story

The first jazz record I bought was Lee Morgan's Blue Note album, Cornbread. Vinyl LP for $2.99 in 1976. My enthusiasm for jazz blossomed in the late 1970s, and my enthusiasms run towards the mainstream (Miles, Coltrane, Monk, Blakey, Ellington, Ben Webster, Art Pepper); but his tastes run the gamut of the history of jazz (from Armstrong and Art Tatum to David Murray, Donald Harrison, Billy Harper, Pharaoh Sanders and Abdullah Ibrahim). I have an enormous collection of jazz recordings.. In the decades of the 80s and 90s I spent much time in jazz clubs in Oakland and Manhattan but these days I do nearly all my listening at home. About the year 2000 I sold thousands of jazz LPs to a prime dealer and in recent years I build a small "out building" to house my (rather large) CD collection. I've always maintained a strong side interest in the blues and, having made many visits to West and East Africa, I've gained a strong appreciation for music from these regions. Lately I've ventured into the baroque world of classical music, and to my surprise found that chamber music in particular has enriched my sense of what makes acoustic jazz so special and singlular in the history of music.