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Meet Mark Weber
by Tessa Souter and Andrea Wolper
Almost every aspect of Mark Weber's life ends up intersecting with jazz; he just might be the original Renaissance jazz fan. A former wedding photographer, he found himself photographing nearly every jazz musician to pass through Los Angeles and Albuquerque in the past several decades and, without planning to, ended up writing for CODA, deejaying a ...
Alexander Hawkins/Elaine Mitchener Quartet at Sonorities Festival Belfast 2018
by Ian Patterson
Alexander Hawkins/Elaine Mitchener Quartet Sonic Lab Sonorities Festival Belfast Belfast, N. Ireland April 21, 2018 Sonorities Festival Belfast is one of Ireland's longest-running contemporary music festivals. This year saw the biannual SFB hit the thirty-year mark and to celebrate the milestone festival directors Miguel Ortiz and Simon Waters assembled ...
Sun Ra: Of Abstract Dreams
by Ian Patterson
Neither Sun Ra's death nor the passing of a quarter of a century since has slowed down the seemingly insatiable appetite for archival recordings of the pianist, composer and poet. In 2014, to mark the centenary of Sun Ra's birth--né Herman Poole Blount--Strut Records and Art Yard issued the 2-CD, career-spanning compilation In The Orbit of ...
Sun Ra: God Is More Than Love Can Ever Be
by Chris May
Sun Ra is best known for the extensive archive of recordings he made with his Arkestra, and most Ra enthusiasts are probably first attracted to his work by the sui generis imagination he brought to arranging for large ensembles. These span the recalibrated swing-band tropes of Jazz In Silhouette (Saturn, 1959), a perfect choice for an ...
Cecil Taylor: 1929-2018
by Karl Ackermann
As he approached the age of ninety, Cecil Taylor could be excused for some of his indulgences. Still highly opinionated on a range of subjects; still chain smoking, still harboring old resentments, and so on. For a man from whom new ideas sprang constantly and effortlessly, Taylor could get stuck in real-world dramas. He had a ...
Sun Ra And His Astro-Ihnfinity Arkestra: Sun Embassy
by Mark Corroto
I know what you're thinking, the world doesn't need another Sun Ra record. You don't need another Sun Ra record. With a discography swelling monthly, sometimes weekly, I often think when will it end? Then, once back in my right mind, I rejoice to find some tasty unreleased material from a very fertile period in Herman ...
Sun Ra: Exotica
by Chris May
Spring 2018 is delivering a welcome batch of Sun Ra reissues, some of them remastered editions of existing albums, others newly put-together compilations. Among the compilations, two stand out: the previously reviewed Sun Ra Plays Gershwin (Enterplanetary Records, 2017) and now Exotica. Both are mellifluous beauties which showcase Ra's unapologetic love of a good tune. Listeners ...
Leonardo Pavkovic: Nothing is Ordinary
by Chris M. Slawecki
More than any other person, Leonardo Pavkovic has made me write some crazy shit. Pavkovic is the primal force behind the joyously eclectic MoonJune Records, which he established in 2001. “Established" may not be the right word: “I am truly an unusual and rules breaking call-it-record-company with a 'label' identity despite the fact that ...
Sun Ra: Sun Ra Plays Gershwin
by Chris May
Here is a treat for all lovers of the Great American Songbook. Well, maybe not quite all, for the confluence of names in the album title Sun Ra Plays Gershwin may sound ill-matched to Ra's detractors. But that would be to ignore Ra's love of good tunes and his sure touch when it came to arranging ...
Culture Clubs: Part IV: When Jazz Met Europe
by Karl Ackermann
The Geography of Jazz--When Jazz Met Europe In 2004 Maureen Anderson, a researcher at Illinois State University contributed a dissertation to the journal, African American Review, titled The White Reception of Jazz in America. Ostensibly, her article deals with stories published in high profile periodicals and journals from 1917 and into the 1930s, written by white ...
