Across his almost six-decade career, Bob James’ music has meant many things to different people. To those who have an interest in Creed Taylor’s iconic CTI Records, the memorable label that incentivized artists to merge jazz with ideas from other genres, James is a familiar name. Between his own significant releases and his contributions to […]
Has there ever been a musician whose musical imagination is as universal and as omnivorous as William Parker’s? Perhaps Alexander Scriabin, a composer and virtuoso instrumentalist whose unfinished “Mysterium” was conceived to be performed over a week’s time by an orchestra, choir, dancers, visuals, and incense in the foothills of the Himalaya. Or possibly Don […]
Protest songs, those associated with a movement for social change, have existed at least since the psalms of grassroots Protestant religious revival movements in the United States. Two of the best-known protest songs – Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War” and Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On”- were by Americans. It is easy to fall into the […]
In some ways, 2021 can be seen as a return of music. In reality, through live-stream and various recordings, music continued to be created the year before. But 2021 felt like- to steal a subtitle of one of the albums on my top ten list- a freeing out of our constrictions. Certainly, live music returned. […]
[Editor’s Note: We are excited to have Anthony Dean-Harris join us again for our year-end lists to share his 25 favorite “jazz” albums and 10 “other” albums of 2021. Anthony is a skilled writer whose credits include being a contributor to Downbeat and serving as the former Editor-in-Chief of Nextbop. He is also an accomplished […]
Immediately following the year that artificially paused many releases, in 2021, the floodgates broke loose. It was nearly impossible to keep track of all recordings released between this Thanksgiving and the prior one. And, even ignoring this, the quality and volume made it especially difficult to rank even the ones you did notice. Consider even […]
Our conversation with the legendary Wadada Leo Smith continues with a further discussion on the business side of music, including his own label, Kabell. We go into a deeper dive on his recent duet with Jack DeJohnette and Vijay Iyer, A Love Sonnet for Billie Holiday (TUM, 2021), and his latest solo release, Trumpet (TUM, […]
Many people, as they get older, tend to slow down and reduce their workload. Some even step aside and retire entirely. Wadada Leo Smith takes the opposite approach. Over the past year, Smith has been perhaps more productive than ever. 2021 has found him behind a 3 CD solo trumpet box set (Trumpet (TUM, 2021)), […]
Remember the old “Saturday Night Live” parody of the “60 Minutes” Point/Counterpoint debate, the one remembered for the line “Jane, you ignorant slut”? Things didn’t get that heated on the December 3, 2021, edition of WBGO’s excellent “Jazz United” podcast, but co-hosts Nate Chinen and Greg Bryant revealed a definite difference of opinion in their […]
Historians believe some form of the harp existed as far back as the beginning of ancient Egypt’s “Old Kingdom”, 2500 BC. Even as early as 4,500 years ago, it was commonplace for a harpist to give solo performances. Across the ages, the instrument adapted and changed to meet the musical needs of the time. Despite […]
![Review: William Parker’s ‘Migration of Silence into and Out of the Tone World [Volumes 1-10]’](https://postgenre.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/William_Parker_AUM-18-RS-1.jpg)
