After Bill Lee’s 40 Years in Brooklyn: There Goes the Neighborhood…
Jazz has only been a bit more than a century old; for some 40 years of that century, venerable bassist Bill Lee has seemingly lived a relatively tranquil life as a musician living in the Fort Greene community in Brooklyn. Now, according to a neighbor of recent vintage, Bill Lee is making too much noise. What gives? Maybe the New York Times can help shed some light.
-Nick Moy
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Christian McBride Picks Five Bass Tracks that Made a Difference
In this JazzTimes feature, bassist Christian McBride shares with Nate Chinen five bass tracks that turned his head when he was young, and tells why they still do that today. I knew he wasn’t kidding when he picked Bootsy Collins on James Brown’s “Soul Power,” but I’m glad he directed me to Ray Brown’s walk on “Killer Joe.” All these choices feed valuable insight into the composite that is Christian McBride and the bass today.
-Nick Moy
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Monk’s List
It shouldn’t be surprising that even great jazz musicians compile personal lists of things to do. So here’s Thelonious Monk’s list of things to do at a gig — notes for himself as well as for others— as transcribed by Steve Lacy. From Open Culture.
-Nick Moy
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Roscoe Mitchell: Looking Back and Looking Ahead
Roscoe Mitchell has a long and distinguished track record of musical accomplishment, but should come as no surprise that he’s looking up the track at what lies ahead. In this interview with Seth Colter Walls of emusic.com, Mitchell looks back on his work from two decades ago, and talks about how his latest composition emerges from that early work. From another, more amusing perspective, read about what Roscoe Mitchell and Michael Jordan have in common.
-Nick Moy
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Why Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring,” Now 100 Years Old, Fascinates Jazz Musicians
May 29 marked the centennial of the 1913 premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du Printemps) — one of the unquestioned landmarks of modern music. (Listen to this NPR feature on the impact of Stravinsky’s premiere, both on the 1913 audience on Paris and on composers, dancers and audiences ever since.)
After a century, Stravinsky’s score still fascinates, invigorates and jars listeners. It’s no wonder that jazz musicians are strongly drawn to the rhythmic, tonal and harmonic invention of Stravinsky’s masterpiece. NPR’s Patrick Jarrenwattananon takes a closer look at the love that generations of jazz musicians, from Charlie Parker, Coltrane and Miles Davis to the Bad Plus, have harbored for Stravinsky’s music.
-Nick Moy
(Photo: Dancers in folkloric costume from The Rite of Spring in 1913. Keystone-France/Getty Images)
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Donald Byrd 101
This beginner’s guide to the music of Donald Byrd is incredibly comprehensive. It starts with the wonderful quintet he led with Pepper Adams, moves to his work with choral voices and then on to albums like “Fancy Free” that were clearly inspired by “In A Silent Way.” The ‘70s is represented by the funk/pop music that Donald made with the Mizell Brothers. Things end in the ‘90s with his work with Guru in hip hop group Jazzamatazz. An amazing and restless career.
-Michael Cuscuna
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Thelonious Monk, Through the Eyes of His Son T.S. Monk
This post in iRockJazz adopts the perspective that Thelonious Monk’s intellect was not confined to music, but permeated his entire way of life. That point of view runs throughout Paul Pennington’s interview with Monk’s son, T.S. Monk. Many of T.S. Monk’s recollections of Monk family life, even the seemingly common imperatives of father and family, appear filtered through that lens of Monk senior, and the parental experience that perhaps only he could impart.
-Nick Moy
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Sun Ra Calling
May 22 was what earthlings call a “birthday” of Sun Ra. In earth years, Sun Ra, or, as he was otherwise known, Herman Blount, would have been 99 years old in 2013. We found this image of Sun Ra’s business card circulating in cyberspace. We would consider it one of a kind — much like its owner.
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Mary Lou Williams on the First Piano Jazz
Mary Lou Williams was always a musician’s musician — far better known among her peers than among the jazz public. A pioneer in jazz as a woman, as a composer and as an artist who bridged the leap from swing to modern, Mary Lou was also a strong supporter of younger artists like Thelonious Monk and Randy Weston. This 1978 episode of NPR’s Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland is a real treat.
-Michael Cuscuna
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