Passing Notes

At the suggestion of a few trusted advisors, I'm going to give Tumblr a try, although I might not be putting much up there that can be found at any of my other usual channels -- see the links below. From time to time I come across images that I might like to share, particularly related to comics and film, and it would be nice to have a quick and clean way to post that material. If you know anyone who's deeply committed to Tumblr and might like the content provided here on Passing Notes, feel free to forward the PN Tumblr link.

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Guest Host - Jazz Cafe, Sunday 2/6

So there's this party, and all those in attendance are action figures. All the little plastic people also happen to be from a particular brand called Action Figure Party. And wait, look, the final guest has arrived -- another action figure. This is the meaning of the lyric: "It's an Action Figure Party action figure party action figure." Can't figure it out? Then you'll just have to listen to the Jazz Cafe this Sunday morning from 7 to 9 am on 88.9 FM WDNA. I'll be playing a mix of funk and fusion, including the Headhunters, Weather Report, Mahavishnu Orchestra, and more contemporary sounds. In the second hour, as usual, we'll be mixing in some of the new music that's arrived at the home office of late. Tune in!

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2/4/11

PN 144 - Sick

I've been sick lately, and so has the rest of the family. It all got me to thinking about health care and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, if you want to know.

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2/3/11

Reader's Notes - Women Writers Reviewed

All the kerfuffle about Jonathan Franzen's Freedom and the accompanying perception of sexism in some circles of literary journalism turns out (again) to be founded -- at least statistically, according to VIDA (Women in the Literary Arts.) Meghan O'Rourke nicely breaks down the numbers and offers some analysis and reflection in her piece in Slate. The question seems to be reduced that age-old question of canon -- who takes part in that conversation about what is considered "important" literature.

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2/1/11

PN Archives - Groundhog Day

From the wayback machine, a few thoughts on my favorite holiday -- and one of my favorite movies -- of all time. In full honor of the great Bill Murray and February 2.

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1/31/11

PN Archives - 4th Chair Trombone (or, What Black History Month Means to Me)

From the Passing Notes Archives, a piece from way back in honor of Black History Month. This piece answers the question that some people might have about why a guy like me might have such an intense interest in jazz and blues. I'm sure the story of this Franco-Irish kid from the woods of Maine is similar to many others out there. How about we go to the National Endowment for the Humanities site on such matters for more information?

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1/29/11

Reader's Notes - Two Teak Tables and a Microplane

A quick note this afternoon to point you in the direction of my friend Carl Rachelson's "Two Teak Tables and a Microplane." Carl is a world traveler, a lover of good food and drink, a man of letters, and a fiend for popular music -- among many other things. As the website's motto says, "All about the beautiful things around us." Enjoy Carl's thoughts on things; he's a beautiful guy.

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1/23/11

Reader's Notes - National Book Critics Circle Finalists

The National Book Critics Circle has announced its lists of finalists for 2010 awards, with the usual mix of obvious choices and eclectic ones. As a former member of the NBCC (2003-2007, no great distinction there), I found the nomination and voting process wonderfully open and spirited. You can find the complete list here.

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1/22/11

Playlist - 88 Jazz Place Weekend - 1/22/11

Song, Artist, Album

Sonny, Please, by Sonny Rollins | Sonny, Please

Corner Pocket, by Winard Harper | Come Into The Light

Footprints, by Terence Blanchard | Bounce

Vamp, by Avishai Cohen and the International Vamp Band | Unity

Mo Better Blues, by Jacky Terrasson | Smile

JJ, by Fly | Fly

Nutty, by Ben Riley's Monk Legacy Septet | Memories of T

Buzz, by Ben Allison and Medicine Wheel | Buzz

Big Eater, by The Bad Plus | These Are The Vistas

The Champ, by Joey Defrancesco | The Champ, Round 2

GW, by Eric Dolphy | Outward Bound

St Louis Blues, by Mary Lou Williams | Live at the Keystone Korner

Cryin' Blues, by Charles Mingus | Blues and Roots

Three Hundred Pounds of Joy, by Howlin Wolf | His Best

Diddy Wah Diddy, by Corey Harris | Greens from the Garden

Boom Boom, Out Goes the Light, by Little Walter | His Best

Bad Company (Brought Me Here), by The Reverend Gary Walker | Heroes of the Blues

The Hustle Is On, by T-Bone Walker | The Very Best Of

Sweet Home Chicago, by Magic Sam | West Side Soul

Crosscut Saw, by Albert King | The Very Best Of

Two Sides to Every Story, by Etta James | Her Best

Diamonds at Your Feet, by Muddy Waters | His Best, 1956 to 1964

Donna Lee, by Joe Lovano - Us Five | Bird Songs

Wee Dot, by Steve Turre | One4J

Blackbird, by Cassandra Wilson | Silver Pony

Midnight Blue, by Kenny Burrell | Midnight Blue

Birk's Works, by Nnenna Freelon | Shaking Free

Lester Left Town, by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers | The Best Of

Resolution, by Kurt Elling | Man in the Air

Moment's Notice, by John Coltrane | Blue Trane

Motorin' Along, by Jimmy Smith | Home Cookin'

I'm Yours, You're Mine, by Betty Carter | I'm Yours, You're Mine

On Green Dolphin Street, by Miles Davis | Kind of Blue - Legacy Edition

1/21/11

Guest Host - 88 Jazz Place Weekend

T-Bone Walker

After a day of Nyquil and naps, it appears I am well enough to fill in tomorrow for Skip Lezama, the regular host of 88 Jazz Place Weekend, from 8-12 am on 88.9 FM WDNA. Although I don't have Skip's extensive knowledge of music from the islands, I'll certainly try to keep the pace in another area of Skip's specialties -- the blues. In the 10 o'clock hour, we'll do a full sweep of the clock with the blues, including music from Little Walter, Junior Wells, Freddy King, Albert King, Magic Sam, Howlin' Wolf, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Otis Rush, Elmore James, Luther Allison, T-Bone Walker, and the Reverend Gary Davis. I hope you'll tune in to 88.9 FM in the South Florida area or wdna.org online.

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PN 143 - Lou

We welcome a new member to the family, Lou the dog. Learn about the need for pet adoption through the ASPCA and, for those of you in town, visit Miami-Dade Animal Services.

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1/19/11

PN Video Jukebox - Ornette Coleman

Five performances from the 70s and 80s from the innovative musician and composer. Check out Coleman's website here.

1/17/11

Reader's Notes - Wikipedia: The Real Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Why all the haters? In essence, this is the question about Wikipdia posed and answered by Peter Gill of the UK Guardian. While Wikipedia is still largely viewed inside the academy with suspicion, if not downright derision, I'll be the first to admit that often, as someone who writes about popular culture, Wikipedia is invaluable, and, to my eye, continues to get better as more and more people use it and, consequently, help fact-check and edit its content. While, certainly, in many fields it's best to use edited and sourced materials from reliable publishers, if you're interested in the fast-moving infoverse, Wikipedia is essential. If more people joined in the writing and editing of the Wiki, it might just turn into that authoritative guide to everything -- from jelly beans to Jim Crow to the Jem'hadar - envisioned by Douglas Adams.

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Reader's Notes - Classical and Jazz: The New Underground

New Yorker music critic Alex Ross pulls together a few threads from recent commentary about cultural elites, arguing that, in the age of mass culture, in effect, popular culture is elite culture, simply because other forms of music have much difficulty in being heard at all. In effect, the market rules all, and it's the poor and struggling classical (and, I would ague) jazz musicians who must fight to get their new music heard. Read Ross' short piece here.

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1/14/11

PN 142 - "Abide with Me"/"I Have A Dream"

Thelonious Monk's Riverside recording of "Abide with Me" accompanies the last five minutes of MLK's "I Have A Dream" speech.

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1/13/11

Viewer's Notes - The Tucson Memorial Speech

Video from President Obama's speech in Tucson on 1/12/2011. The full text of the speech can be found here.

1/11/11

Live Webcast - NEA 2011 Jazz Masters

This evening, Tuesday, January 11, you can can join the live webcast as the National Endowment for the Arts celebrates the lifetime achievements of the 2011 NEA Jazz Masters: Orrin Keepnews, Hubert Laws, David Liebman, Johnny Mandel, and the Marsalis family.

From 7:30 to 9:30 pm, the webcast will be coming from the Rose Auditorium at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Featuring the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in a program dedicated to the honorees' works. The evening includes live and video tributes to each of the honorees and performances by some of the 2011 NEA Jazz Masters.

You can view the webcast through the NEA website.

Join the NEA on Twitter! Follow them at @NEAarts and look for the hashtag #NEAJazz. Don't forget to share your comments on the broadcast pages during the webcasts.

For profiles, video tributes, and audio interviews of the NEA Jazz Masters, please see the Jazz Masters section of the website.

The National Endowment for the Arts was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. To date, the NEA has awarded more than $4 billion to support artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. The NEA extends its work through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector.

1/8/11

Reader's Notes - The Man Who Recorded The World

Richard Williams reviews a new biography of the famous ethnomusicologist -- Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded The World by John Szwed. Find the review here on the UK Guardian website. Here's a webcast event with the author sponsored by the Library of Congress if you'd like to hear Szwed himself say a little bit more about the project.

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1/7/11

PN 141 - Jane Leavy, 'The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood'

Jane Leavy, author of Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy and Squeeze Play, talks about Mickey Mantle and her new biography, The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood.

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1/5/11

PN Unscripted - Billy Taylor Farewell

Here's a segment that ran as a farewell tribute to Billy Taylor this past Sunday as I was filling in for Ed Blanco's Jazz Cafe on 88.9 WDNA. This "audio essay" runs about half an hour, and includes both words and music from the late, great pianist and educator.

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1/4/11

Listener's Notes - Alligator Records is 40 Years Old

If you've got more than a handful blues albums in your collection, you've probably got some records from Alligator in the mix. My brother Jon and I have purchased a lot of blues albums, so we know the Alligator label well. Started in 1971 by Bruce Iglauer as a means to promote his beloved Hound Dog Taylor, Alligator is without a doubt the top blues label in the world. Koko Taylor, the Living Chicago Blues series, Lonnie Brooks, Albert Collins, Clifton Chenier, Johnny Winter, Lonnie Mack, Roy Buchanan -- and on and on it goes. By the 1990s, when my brother and I really started getting much deeper into the blues, it seemed that everyone was on Alligator. Very little has changed, save for the size of the Alligator catalog and the prestige of recording for the label. Happy 40th anniversary to the folks at Alligator.

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1/3/11

Viewer's Notes - Wynton Marsalis on '60 Minutes' - The King of Jazz?

The profile of Wynton Marsalis on 60 Minutes has stirred up a small amount of controversy – or could it be called resentment? – for a few people in the jazz community. On the jazz programmer’s mailing list that I subscribe to, one person writes, “It's really time for us to say it's a better thing for the artist being featured. It does little or nothing for other jazz artists out here trying to make it to get exposure for their work and opinions; consequently, [a profile like this is] not doing much to help jazz in general. I'm not blaming Wynton, but [the story is] so one-dimensional now, it's silly. It's time the mainstream media recognizes there are more creative, articulate and informative jazz artists out here who can play, teach and deliver a message that brings a fresh perspective to the masses.”

While I would go along with everything stated above, it’s important to point out that a profile on 60 Minutes, to a great extent, is a profile on a mainstream show begun in 1968 on a mainstream broadcast network that’s been in existence (in one form or another) since 1927 and whose content is produced by journalists who are, well experienced. Morley Safer, the reporter on the Marsalis story, is almost 80 years old. There’s going to be a certain cultural reserve coming from any program with that pedigree. You’re going to get the usual watered down Edward R. Murrow, Person to Person feel to things. In short, what do you expect?

It's an easy story to put together. Pick one of the most prominent jazz artists of the past 30 years who helps run the cultural juggernaut that Jazz at Lincoln Center has become -- with an annual operating budget in excess of $40 million -- in New York, where 60 Minutes is produced. Hell, the two institutions are literally a 15 minute walk from one another. And, with the tendency in mainstream journalism -- particularly broadcast journalism -- to have a human interest angle on most stories, Marsalis is your lead and your story. The other guys in the should feel good about getting some time on screen and some substantial quotes for themselves.

I would argue, however, that to go through the usual heroification of Marsalis as the spokesperson for jazz and goes right back to those early days when the mainstream labeled Paul Whiteman as "The King of Jazz." While Marsalis is a gifted virtuoso on the trumpet, a fine composer, and a canny entrepreneur, critics are correct in pointing out that Marsalis is not the face of jazz -- not with the recent death of Dr. Billy Taylor -- not ever. From where I sit, Marsalis (but not necessarily JALC) looks a bit too much to the past, as if Miles never went electric. And the whole neo-primitive riff in the 60 Minutes piece had too much of the aroma of the Cotton Club about it, as Marsalis seemed to lean into the stereotype of sexual, sensual primitivism: "The more refined your concept, the more primitive you have to be." Marsalis may be a genius and know what he means, but mainstream America likely missed the point. The pairing of New Orleans and Havana as "sultry" and "exotic" sister cities, complete with shots of dancing girls, didn't help matters. Furthermore, the presentation of Marsalis as "America's Musical Ambassador" likewise ignores too many people. Back during the Cold War, jazz was a carefully deployed cultural force by the US State Department -- read Satchmo Blows Up the World or listen to Dave Brubeck's The Real Ambassadors. These days, I'd be curious to know who's paying for those overseas JALC gigs.

Maybe Stanley Crouch, one of Wynton's brothers-in-arms, got it right when he wrote recently about a crisis in black culture made all the more evident by the passing of Billy Taylor. Who will articulate what the music means to the culture, and, in doing so, make the argument for the importance of culture in general? Indeed, as Marsalis says to Morley Safer-- on most solid ground -- the state of cultural education in the US is shameful. There is something good for the mind and the soul -- and for us all -- in learning about our own culture, whether it's Duke Ellington or Walt Whitman. We would make much better decisions as a society, argues Marsalis, if we knew our cultural history better.

If anything comes of the usual mainstream heroification of "The Spokesperson for X," it would be that other voices would feel compelled join in the mix, that those in jazz and in other areas of the arts who have differing perspectives would step up and add their interpretation of the tune. While I will fault 60 Minutes for falling into the same old jazz and cultural cliches, I'm not going to fault Marsalis for being himself. If a man stands up and calls the tune, so be it.

1/2/11

Playlist - Guest Host on Jazz Cafe

Song, Artist, Album

Freedom Jazz Dance, Miles Davis Quintet, Miles Smiles
A Shine On Your Shoes, Jane Monheit, Home
The Witching Hour, Russell Malone, Triple Play
Take Out Queen, Wendy Pederson, Miami Jazz Co-op
Groovin High, Billy Taylor, from The Subject is Jazz
Show Me, Billy Taylor, My Fair Lady Covers Jazz
Looking Up, Billy Taylor, It's A Matter of Pride
Four, Billy Taylor, from Jazz and The Young Performer
Welcome Back, Jared Gold, Supersonic
Black Coffee, Gwilym Simcock, Blues Vignette
Basehead, Corey Harris, Greens From The Garden
Hootie Blues, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, American Music - Texas Style
Super American, The Bad Plus, Never Stop
Blue Rondo A La Raad, Glen Ackerman, The Glenious Inner Planet
Swiss Cheese D, Ben Allison and Medicine Wheel, Riding the Nuclear Tiger
Just Three, Negroni's Trio, Just Three
Peripheral Fission, Suresh Singaratnam, Lost in New York

Thanks to Bret Primrack -- AKA Jazz Video Guy -- for uploading the content that became Billy Taylor's "narrative" over his tribute set.

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