My sister and I made the scenic journey through the picturesque farmlands of central Pennsylvania, through the bucolic splendor of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, on a nine-hour road trip to Knoxville, TN, for the annual Big Ears Festival. The fest has become America’s – and perhaps the world’s – most diverse, eclectic, and exploratory festival comprising […]
Jazz music and dance have long had intertwined histories. For one, the music of people like Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, and the Dorsey brothers fueled the widespread craze of swing dancing throughout the 1930s and 40s. But, over time, the music changed. Bebop expanded chordal structures beyond their traditional realm. The avant-garde movements […]
The second day (check out day one here) of the 2023 Newport Jazz Festival, Saturday, August 5, 2023, can be seen as a masterclass on the intersectionality of tradition and innovation. Specifically, the day emphasized different artists that take traditional jazz ensemble settings, and stretch them into new areas. In so doing, the musicians proved […]
On Friday, August 4, 2023, the historic Newport Jazz Festival presented a highly pleasurable afternoon of music, as it has for almost seven decades. But across the day, one sensed something more. While audience members enjoyed themselves, a more significant message emerged from Fort Adams’ stages. Intentionally or otherwise, the event’s organizers presented an exposition […]
Who exactly is Pat Metheny? “Smooth jazz” enthusiasts claim him as one of their own. But the guitarist eschews that label and has even eviscerated their king, Kenny G, on several occasions. Metheny has ties to the avant-garde – recording albums with Ornette Coleman and John Zorn, and his own Zero Tolerance for Silence (Geffen, […]
Established in 1915, Austin’s Paramount Theatre has hosted many iconic figures in American culture, including Harry Houdini, Katherine Hepburn, and the Marx Brothers. Even just limited to music, one finds, among others, John Phillip Sousa, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Ray Charles. In 1983, Miles Davis performed there, and in the nearly four decades since, the […]
Jimmy Heath. Tony Allen. Chick Corea. Wallace Roney. McCoy Tyner. The names and pictures of iconic artists who passed since the last Newport Jazz Festival regularly flashed on both stage’s large screens between sets. While the Festival had made such touching presentations in years past, they were particularly noticeable at the 2021 Festival as thoughts […]
2020 was a pivotal year in the history of civil rights. While a prominent case, George Floyd’s murder was no more the beginning of the struggle than his killer’s conviction was its end. Racial justice has served as a central impetus throughout much of the lineage of Black American Music, from Fats Waller’s “Black and […]
After a year canceled by COVID-19, audience members on July 31st, the first day of the 2021 Newport Jazz Festival could feel the lingering effects of the pandemic. There was a sixty percent cap on attendance. Half of the stages were closed for business. The Harbor Stage became an area for a tent with picnic […]
