Jazz Is Dead

Humanity has a longstanding fascination with incorporating the latest technological developments into music. This interest is perhaps most evident in the history of sampling. In the 1940s, Pierre Schaeffer started producing sonic collages by splicing and manipulating sound recordings. His works formed the base of an experimental form known as musique concrète, an avant-garde progenitor… Read more: Review: Roy Ayers, Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad’s ‘Roy Ayers JID 002’

In the year 1500, navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral claimed Brazil as a colony for the Portuguese empire. Despite the region’s immense beauty, the measure was primarily a strategic one, beginning an era deemed “The Sugar Age,” in which millions of slaves were imported, particularly from Congo,  to harvest the resource and send it throughout the… Read more: Review: Marcos Valle, Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad’s ‘Marcos Valle JID 003’

In the field of astrodynamics, azimuth is essentially a way of navigating based on an established location, usually true North. Even its etymology suggests use in voyaging as it was derived from the Arabic term as-sumūt, roughly translated into “the directions.”  It is an excellent descriptor for a trio that has been spanning outward from… Read more: Review: Azymuth, Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad’s ‘Azymuth JID 004′

Across their almost twenty volumes of the Jazz is Dead series, performer-producers Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Adrian Younge have exposed listening audiences to under-discussed legends among us who continue to shape music. Of particular focus have been the luminaries who made incredible improvisation-based music during the era of jazz’s alleged demise, the 1970s. Though occasionally… Read more: Peace Through Sound: A Conversation with Lonnie Liston Smith (Part One)

In the second part of our Conversation with Lonnie Liston Smith (read part one here), we discuss his time with Miles Davis, his work with the Cosmic Echoes, and his discovery of a young Marcus Miller. PostGenre: After Pharaoh Sanders, you joined Miles [Davis]’ band. You were even part of the session for On the… Read more: Peace Through Sound: A Conversation with Lonnie Liston Smith (Part Two)