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Pass Everything in My Soul: A Conversation with David Murray on ‘Francesca’

The love song is one of the oldest and most primal forms of musical expression, dating back to ancient Greece, if not earlier. Charles Darwin even theorized that the love song was the first form of human musical expression. Of course, the emphasis on romance in songs has continued to the present day. It is […]

The Journey: A Conversation with Kenny Garrett on ‘Who Killed AI?’

Miles Davis once remarked, “It’s not about standing still and becoming safe. If anybody wants to keep creating, they have to be about change.” This emphasis on evolution does not necessarily mean needing to adapt a new voice. The key is to retain your core identity while stretching into new realms. Miles certainly did, and so have many of his protegees, including […]

Virtues of Melody: A Conversation with Alan Braufman on ‘Infinite Love Infinite Tears’

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart once noted that “melody is the essence of music.” This may be true, but such a perspective overlooks how melody can also serve as a restraint. For an artist seeking to freely express themselves, would not adherence to a central motific theme stand in their way? As a result, in the mid to late Twentieth Century, as composers of […]

Electric Connection: A Conversation with gabby fluke-mogul on ‘GUT’

Since the first electric violins hit the market in 1930, the concept of electronically manipulating the violin has maintained an aura of mystery. While musicians including Joe Venuti and Stuff Smith readily adopted amplification to their instruments over the decades, there has remained a resistance among many to change one of the most virtuosic touchstones […]

Tranquility and Rest to the Mind: Conversations with Wadada Leo Smith and Amina Claudine Myers on ‘Central Park’s Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths and Gardens’

Thirty-seven and a half million people visit New York City’s Central Park every year. That, by itself, is a fascinating statistic when one considers the entire population of the metropolis is less than a quarter of that amount. What brings so many New Yorkers and tourists alike to the nation’s first landscaped park? Park architect Frederick Law Olmstead answered this question well by noting […]

Intervalic Awakening: A Conversation with Modney on ‘Ascending Primes’

Prime numbers – whole numbers greater than one that are not the products of two smaller whole numbers – are something of an enigma. While primaility has been under human consideration since at least 1550 BC, there is still a general lack of clarity about these numbers. While generations of mathematicians have formulated equations to […]

Solo? : A Conversation with Josh Johnson on ‘Unusual Object’

Certain instruments seem destined for solo explorations. Perhaps the best example would be the piano, where a single artist can easily use one hand to accompany the other. Less stereotypical, yet no less significant, are the long run of solo saxophone recordings. Many horn players over the years have found that playing alone can provide a […]

Reflections : A Conversation with Karriem Riggins on Jahari Massamba Unit’s ‘YHWH is Love’

The corporate-led division of music into genres ignored the reality of the music presented. This is perhaps no better seen than in the relationship between “jazz” and “hip hop.” Over the last two decades, many have written about the meeting of these two stylistic influences. This analysis, however, is incredibly misguided. Technically speaking, it is […]

Pushing Off: A Conversation with Christopher Hoffman on ‘Vision is the Identity’

Henry David Thoreau once noted, “The perception of beauty is a moral test.” Regardless of whether we wish to acknowledge it, one cannot deny that their biases and history shape how they experience everything around them, including art. Interestingly, this artistic predisposition extends to ideas of how a particular instrument “should sound.” In the case […]