Celebrating Community
Those who lived through the ’70s may recognize the title of this column as the signature line from the harrowing torture scene in the movie Marathon Man. Dr. Christian Szell (Laurence Olivier) drills into Babe’s (Dustin Hoffman) teeth, without anesthetic, while asking, “Is it safe?” Beyond the sheer pain, what makes the scene that much more excruciating is that Babe […]
Two movies about important Black individuals in American history came out this past winter, one looked at the political persecution of a prominent public figure, the other was a movie about, in an important way, the presence of jazz in American life. I’m talking, of course, about The United States vs. Billie Holiday and Judas And The Black Messiah, and […]
On January 10, I stayed home and near the stereo to catch as much of WKCR’s annual Max Roach birthday broadcast as seemed reasonable. After so many fantastic records from the Charlie Parker Quintet and the Max Roach/Clifford Brown Quintet, the DJ started spinning Max Roach Plus Four, pretty much the Roach/Brown Quintet but with Kenny Dorham replacing the at […]
You have to wait until nearly the end of the scrolling credits to see who the musicians are who represent the on-screen characters in Disney’s new animated movie, Soul. The movie is about a jazz pianist, Joe Gardner (voiced by Jamie Foxx), who snags the gig of a lifetime, dies in an accident, and then strives to return his soul […]
As I type this shortly after Christmas, I’m already listening to 2021. And man it sounds good. I try not to be a person who depends on hope, and that negative capability is one of the things that helped keep me (mostly) rational and above water through 2020. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst? More like, expect the […]
What a year. Like a lot of eras, 2020 doesn’t fit easily into pre-defined calendar definitions. Did the 19th century end in in 1900 or 1914? Did the World Wars end in 1945 or 1989? The 20th century certainly came to a close on September 11, 2001, or was that just America? And 2020 probably began with the first Democratic […]
There is something disorienting and unsettling about experiencing an artist talking about the end of their career in real time. They narrate the end of something that, until uttered, still existed. Imagine reading a book where every word disappears as your eyes move along the line, the only trace the one left in your memory. That is what it was […]
Beethoven was born 250 years ago this year. What this fact has to do with jazz, in the musical sense, is very little. But it does have to do with the formation of a body of work that represents the aesthetic virtues and values of an art—in other words, what the academies and institutions call a canon. Classical music did […]
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah, fuckin’ with some wet-ass pussy Bring a bucket and a mop for this wet-ass pussy Give me everything you got for this wet-ass pussy “WAP,” it’s the song of the summer, even though summer was cancelled by the coronavirus. So, not much of a summer, and truth be told not much of a song. Once […]
MTV launched in 1981 with a video for the Buggles song “Video Killed The Radio Star,” and the medium of music has never been the same. Most music that is. Music at the edges and in the niches that line mass, popular culture has been little affected by music videos. Opera and experimental Western art music have been working with […]