Posted in Jazz Notes on Jan 19th, 2008
A number of radio stations around the country have picked up the Night Lights show Dear Martin: Jazz Tributes to Martin Luther King Jr. Station links and air dates follow:
WGBH-Boston: Monday, Jan. 21 from midnight-1 a.m. EST
KZYX-Mendocino County, California: Sunday, Jan. 20 at 2 p.m. Pacific time
KSJD-Cortez, Colorado: Monday, Jan. 21 at 1 p.m…
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Posted in Jazz Notes on Dec 7th, 2007
First a Pulitzer, then a Grammy and a presentation on the Grammy TV show (somewhat akin to seeing a holy man appear in the temple of Babylon), now a feature in Rolling Stone…at the age of 77, Ornette Coleman has finally received the…
Posted in Shows on Nov 26th, 2007
Trumpeter Don Ellis is best-known today for the big bands he led during the late 1960s and early 1970s that made use of odd time signatures, but he made his first impact on the jazz world at the beginning of the 1960s, leading several progressive small-group dates that drew both praise and criticism from the jazz media. Ellis made himself available for the fray, joining roundtable discussions and firing off a three-page riposte in response to a bad review from…
Posted in Jazz Notes on Nov 24th, 2007
Brief notes for the holiday weekend:
*Brian Morton–co-author, along with the late, great Richard Cook, of the Penguin Guide to Jazz–has an article about Roscoe Mitchell in the latest issue of The Nation. Keep an eye out for Mitchell’s classic late-1970s album Nonaah, which should be surfacing as a Nessa Records reissue very, very soon.
*Copacetic Night Lights friend Bill Kirchner is taking his monthly turn on WBGO’s Jazz From the Archives this Sunday evening with a program on pianist Dick Twardzik…
Posted in Shows on Oct 22nd, 2007
Sun Ra, whose real name was Herman or “Sunny” Blount, grew up in Birmingham, Alabama in the 1920s and 30s, living within sight of a huge sign welcoming Birmingham visitors to “the Magic City.” It’s a prophetic sign in the Sun Ra legend, for Herman Blount—who was named by his mother after the popular vaudeville magician Black Herman– went on to become a sort of musical wizard, staging shows with dancers, wild lighting, musicians dressed in space costumes, sermons on far-ranging topics, and music that drew on hardbop, big-band, and free jazz, with chanting, electronic keyboards, shrieking saxophones, and a wide array of unusual musical effects that resulted in what he called “cosmo dramas”…
Posted in Jazz Notes on Oct 12th, 2007
Michigan’s Blue Lake Public Radio carries Night Lights every Sunday evening at 10 p.m. EST. This Sunday, October 13, Blue Lake jazz DJ Lazaro Vega will be offering up a three-hour special on pianist Muhal Richard Abrams from 7-10 p.m, preceding the Night Lights Portrait of Max…
Posted in Jazz Notes on Aug 22nd, 2007
…gotcher Brooklyn right here. My colleague Joe Bourne received a box full of ESP disks the other day, including gems from Albert Ayler, Pharoah Sanders, Don Cherry, Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, and much, much more. Evidently he’s been living right, and I’ve been… well, erm, coming up short in the jazz karma department or something. But it’s good news…
Posted in Jazz Notes on Jul 10th, 2007
A meeting of gigantic musical minds, from one who was there.
Update: BBC broadcast this Friday.
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