Opinion
Jazz and Assault Rifles: A Peace Barrage
I just participated in the March 24 “March for Our Lives" event in Philadelphia, one among many cities where the Parkland, Florida Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shootout led to a large turnout of people advocating for an end to school violence and greater gun control, including, for many, the banning of assault rifles. You may think this violence-preventing effort has nothing to do with jazz, but I think of jazz as an antidote to violence of all kinds, a ...
read moreTrumpet Miming in Film: Mostly Jive
No surprise that filmmakers want to feature trumpet players in their films. After all, we are a complicated, sometimes volatile and, ahem, sexy cohort. I've written here about the odd character-illogical bent that movies show toward the species, but in this post, I'll restrict myself to analyzing how well filmmakers pull off the act of shooting a character playing the trumpet or cornet. Let me note that, technically, no one is actually playing for the soundtrack while scenes ...
read moreNEA Dismantling: Let's Do The Time Warp Again
In a response to the recent local and national actions demanding that President Trump rescind his proposal to dismantle the NEA/NEH/IMLS, I feel like I'm in a sorta twisted, time-warp. Twenty years ago, in the midst of the 1990s, the very same debate to decimate the NEA by a Republican- empowered Congress took place. Lots of news stories, factoids and even mythology about the benefits and/or wasted resources concerning the Arts and Arts Education clogged the air waves. ...
read moreChuck Berry: 1926-2017
In the same spirit of the evolutionary question, “What comes after Music," I ask how does one simply acknowledge, if not pay homage, to what is beyond Greatness? The Saturday, March 18th New York Times did not do bad with: “While Elvis Presley was rock's first pop star and teenage heartthrob, Mr. Berry was its master theorist and conceptual genius, the songwriter who understood what the kids wanted before they knew themselves. With songs like “Johnny B. Goode" ...
read moreNew York Times Downsizes Jazz Coverage: A Response
The February 23rd report from the Salon website that the The New York Times has downsized its coverage of live and recorded jazz is quite a shock, and, in my opinion, a poor decision on their part which I hope they will seriously reconsider. Their iconic and highly competent reviewers, Ben Ratliff and Nate Chinen, have left the newspaper, although their reasons for departure aren't clear. Salon cites the reason for the downsizing to be a decline in the number ...
read moreHentoff helped pave way for jazz journalism’s acceptance
Nat Hentoff's passing last week left me feeling, well, old. Whenever we lose a mentor--a grandparent, a teacher, someone who encouraged us--it's a reminder of our own mortality, that we are, in the parlance of football coaches, the next ones up. I don't feel anywhere near to ready or worthy or capable of assuming even a sliver of Hentoff's prodigious mantle, and yet the only way to honor a mentor is take up their work and carry it ...
read moreA giant of jazz journalism silenced
Nat Hentoff was an old-school intellectual whose favorite topic--whose very touchstone--was, throughout his life, jazz. At one point in the 1990s, Hentoff--who passed of natural causes on Jan. 7--announced that he was giving up writing about jazz to focus on topics that seemed more critical--free speech and civil liberties, which he felt were under constant attack from all ends of the political spectrum. And while he continued to advocate for free speech and civil liberties for the rest ...
read moreShowcase
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Portraits featuring Adalia... by Portraits Jazz Project
Contest Giveaway
ELIGIBLE WINNERS: 1 | DAYS REMAINING: 24
Prize: GroundUP Music Festival Tickets
Enjoy Three Days on the Beach with Snarky Puppy, Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band, Lettuce, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Lila Downs, Michael McDonald Acoustic Quartet, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Flor de Toloache and more—February 14-16, 2020 at the North Beach Bandshell in Miami, FL.
The winner receives a 3-day pass for two. Excludes travel or lodging.
Acclaimed by the New York Times as one of the “Top 10 Definitive Moments of the Decade in Jazz Music,” GroundUP goes beyond the typical festival experience, breaking down the barriers between audience and artists...
