Haven't posted in awhile but am moved to do so by the S. Carolina primary results. Disclosure: on any given day, all of the Republican candidates (since the departure of Huntsman) have me thinking about what other countries I could actually live in. I mean, after 8 years of W., I… Read full post »

In Music Matter's 45 rpm reissue of this gem, one of Gordon's stronger recordings, fellow Dexter Gordon aficionados will find a stunning presentation of the both his music and playing. For those perhaps first exploring beyond Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and other possibly better known (today) tenors, thi… Read full post »

We get used to big advances  in science coming every few years, so much so that it's often impossible to distinguish what are truly pivotal moments from the steady march of progress. The next decade will bring no less than three pivotal moments, possibly answering three of the biggest… Read full post »

Ok, my two cents.

Let's start with a few facts:

•  The United States spends more on the military than the next 25 countries combined. It spends somewhere on the order of more than half of all money spent in the world on military affairs.
• The United States has armed personnel
… Read full post »

Branford Marsalis released an album earlier this year called Metamorphosen,  German for metamorphosis. Jazz is often about change and changes, the chords that make up the harmonic structure of the tune. Too often, it can be about getting through the changes at any price -- sometimes at the expen… Read full post »

Nor is Office James Crowley, Cambridge, PD. But race relations in America once again are.

Here are some thought experiments to help untangle this mess:

 If one of the Rockefellers was shouldering their way into their own house (yes real Rockefellers live in Cambridge), what would have happened?… Read full post »

Aretha Franklin is one of my obsessions, especially her first 6 years or so on Atlantic. I've made a point in recent years to buy prisitine vinyl or remastered, reissued vinyl of all of those albums, and boy, what a treasure that is. If you've never heard I Never Loved A… Read full post »

Recently I attended the CD release party for Stephanie Corby's new album, More to Show You. Full disclosure: Steph is a friend and coworker. Anyway, she's not only a great songwriter, she can rock the house seven days a week -- check her out. But her party is just a jumping off… Read full post »

If you're an electric guitar player, forget reading this. Just go get the DVD and watch it. You'll probably have to watch it in halves, as I did, because you're likely to be overwhelmed by  two and a half hours of it. If you're not sure whether to laugh, cry or… Read full post »

Here's the straight-ahead ensemble I play in performing at Ryle's in Cambridge, MA, March 15, 2009. You can't see me very well -- I'm playing guitar to the right of the bass player in the red T-shirt.

Caught McCoy Tyner at Regatta Bar the other night and it was a revelatory experience. Here's a man looks like he's not got long to live, who's already lived a very full life, playing in his 70s with more verve than most guys half his age.

Gary Bartz was on the… Read full post »

Driving in the car today, I heard Patti Smith singing Because the Night and after soaking that up, I found myself musing that Bruce Springsteen will probaby never write another song that good, or at least that intense.

Bruce is in the news a lot these days, having sung at the… Read full post »

The three big divas of jazz are unquestionably Billy Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sarah Vaughan. Yet Vaughan seems to have been relegated to the status of insider's gem. Think of Ken Burn's Jazz series; you came away with a strong sense of Billy and Ella, but Sassy? Not so much.

For… Read full post »

January 20th was an odd night to go hear music. It was an odd night to play music. The normally tight-lipped Bill Frisell came on to the bandstand at the Regatta Bar in Cambridge, MA, hesitated a moment, and said "What do you play on a night like this?"

Then ensued… Read full post »

Not familiar with jazz vocalist, pianist and songwriter Patricia Barber? Let her introduce herself to you:

 Do you think of me like snow
cool, slippery and white?
Do you think of me like jazz
as hip, as black, as night?

That's a better description than I could write, from one of three origi… Read full post »

At the start of her one-woman show "Let me down easy," Anna Deveare Smith explains that we will be exploring grace and vulnerability, two fundamental human qualities. It quickly becomes apparent that she is letting us in easy. What she does make us look at for nearly two hours is the… Read full post »

Somewhere along the way, somewhere on one of those 300 dates a year, BB King went from being a blues musician to being an entertainer. It's happened to many other performers, even iconic ones like Elvis. It's not that his playing suffered, or his singing, or that he somehow "whited" up… Read full post »

Here's some video of me playing guitar with the straight-ahead jazz ensemble I play in Monday nights. This is our occasional gig at Ryle's, a once-storied Cambridge jazz club (Pat Metheny got his start there).

 Cariba features a special treat -- altoist John Payne sits in with us. 

&… Read full post »

In the last year, I've purchased LPs of Hancock's first two albums (Takin' Off, Maiden Voyage) and the remastered CD of Empyrean Isles, his third. It's given me a chance to hear the early Hancock in a concentrated dose and reconsider his place in the evolution of jazz. And a lofty… Read full post »

Recently, I got a chance to see Dave Holland's current ensemble at Cambridge's Regatta Bar. It's a smallish club and the intimate atmosphere is perfect for seeing top flight musicians play with and off each other, which is exactly what Holland's group delivered.

Holland is one of the top jazz bass… Read full post »