Passing Notes

2/12/12

Sunday Time Warp - Jazz, blues, and funk for the weekend

It's been a while since I've had a regular music show on the air -- I went on hiatus in 2007 just before my wife and I started having all those bouncing baby boys -- but I'm completely excited to announce that WDNA will be airing my new show, Sunday Time Warp, every Sunday from 1 to 3 pm. The types of music will stay rooted in jazz both old and new, with a healthy infusion of blues, funk, and other flavors of creative backbeats. The first show is February 19, so let your family, friends, and even enemies know about the Sunday Time Warp. If you're in South Florida, tune in at 88.9 FM; anywhere else in the world, stream it online at wdna.org. Passing Notes, of course, will continue as usual at 11:05 am on Fridays, right after the BBC News. Thanks for tuning in, downloading, or otherwise giving up a little access-love.

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2/10/12

PN 187 - Pete Hamill - 'Deadline Artists' and 'Tabloid City'

The great journalist talks about writing under pressure and the decline of the newspaper business. Pete Hamill's work was recently included in the anthology Deadline Artists, and his latest novel is Tabloid City.

Listen to PN 187 on Stitcher
Listen to PN 187 on iTunes

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2/5/12

Playlist - Jazz Cafe - 2/5/12

Song, Artist, Album

The Burner, The Sound Stylistics, Greasin' The Wheels
Booker's Waltz, Carol Morgan Quartet, Blue Glass Music
Pretty Ugly, Alex's Axiom, Uncommon Sense
New Muse, Jack DeJonette, Sound Travels
Epistrophy, Goldberg/Jackson/Avital, Yes!
Simply Put, John Scofield, Simply Put
Black Truman (Harry the Hottentot), Dead Kenny G's, Operation Long Leash
Diablo's Dance, Wes Montgomery, Echoes of Indiana Avenue
I Will, John Scofield, A Moment's Peace
Drive My Car, Soulive, Rubbersoulive
Jealous Guy, Ben Allison and Man Size Safe, Little Things Run The World
Milestones, Bill Evans Trio, Waltz for Debby
Chim Chim Cheree, John Coltrane, The John Coltrane Quartet Plays
Let's Move, Pat Metheny, Day Trip
Coconut Boogaloo, Medeski Martin and Wood, Combustication
Nothin' But Trouble, Charlie Hunter, Charlie Hunter
Arava, Avishai Cohen, Continuo

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2/4/12

Guest Host - Jazz Cafe - 2/5

The regular host of Jazz Cafe, Ed Blanco, is getting ready to watch his New York Giants as they prepare to lose to my New England Patriots, so I'll be taking over for Ed from 7 to 9 am tomorrow morning. It's been a longish hiatus away from the airwaves for Passing Notes, but I expect to be gradually easing into a more active presence on the radio and online. As usual, for the Jazz Cafe, I'll be playing the usual mix of jazz, blues, and creative backbeats in the first hour, and new music from the home office in the second hour. Tune in here in South Florida at 88. FM or online anywhere at wdna.org. Thanks!

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1/3/12

Reader's Notes - Jive Talk

12/5/11

Not a Top 10 - Eleven Albums for 2011

In no way should my best of the year be taken as anything other than a statement of my taste and the result of what music I managed to listen to and have the opportunity to write about this year. I missed more than I caught, I’m sure. But here, in alphabetical order by artist, are my top 11 jazz (for lack of a better term) albums of 2011.

Operation Long Leash, Dead Kenny G’s

That’s How We Roll, George Goodwin’s Big Phat Band

90 Miles, Stefon Harris, David Sanchez & Christian Scott

Tirtha, Vijay Iyer with Prasanna and Nitin Mitta

Bird Songs, Joe Lovano Us Five

Unsung Heroes, Brian Lynch

The Lost and Found, Gretchen Parlato

The Dancing Monk, Eric Reed

Tito Puente Masterworks Live!!!, Bobby Sanabria and the Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra

The Gathering, Diane Schurr

This Side of Strayhorn, Terrell Stafford

12/2/11

PN 177 - Joyce Brabner - 'Remembering Harvey Pekar'

11/30/11

PN Unscripted - John Connolly - 'The Infernals' and 'The Burning Soul'

11/29/11

Review: Nica's Dream: The Life and Legend of the Jazz Baroness - David Kasten

The first blurb on the back of the dust jacket of Nica's Dream: The Life and Legend of the Jazz Baroness comes from none other than Robin D. G. Kelley, author of the excellent biography Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original. While I have a general protest with the subtitling of biographies through various combinations of the words life, times, legend, and/or man/woman, the author of Nica's Dream, David Kastin has produced a fine book that does its best to present the narrative of a person whose life was ostensibly public, but really quite private -- even after 200 plus pages of narrative.

Kastin wisely opens his book with a treatment of the persistent and unkind rumors (now myths) surrounding Nica -- the Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter -- and her involvement in the death of Charlie Parker. Although Kastin doesn't completely convey the chaos that Parker's life had become in the weeks before his death, he does establish that much of the mystery surrounding Nica's actual involvement Parker's death were largely a function of her usual mode of operation. She was a generous patron of jazz, always willing to open her home, her purse, her kitchen (or room-service), and the door of her Bentley convertible to those musician who might need a place to sleep, a little money, some food, or even transportation. One gets the sense that Parker could have expired in any one of a dozen living rooms, in the state he was in, and that the hype surrounding the particular circumstances of Bird's death had more to do with sexism, antisemitism, and cultural paranoia about "race mixing." With all he Bird bunk largely debunked, Kastin can get on with Nica's story.

Briskly and entertainingly evoking the family background of the elite British Rothschild family, Kastin evokes the young Kathleen Anne Pannonica as a bright, adventuresome person who has a taste for the fullness of the world and, by the age of twenty-one, has flown her own plane. Married to the French aristocrat, Baron Jules de Koenigswarter, the couple plays a daring role in the French Resistance, and by the time the war is over and the Baron has settled into the staid post as a diplomat, Nica and he had four children. None of that stopped her from running off to New York to pursue her true love -- jazz. It's the death of Parker and the perception of scandal surrounding it that gives the Baron occasion to divorce Nica.

For the better part of three decades, "the Jazz Baroness" played a central role in supporting scores of musicians in the New York scene -- Coleman Hawkins, Jon Hendricks, Sonny Rollins, Art Blakey, among others. Most famously, of course, Nica was a friend and essential supporter of Thelonious Monk, whose "'Round Midnight" set her on the path to New York, and whose "Pannonica" was written in her honor. At time, Monk's presence in Nica's world is so prominent, Kastin's book reads at times like another version of Kelley's Monk biography. Having read both books, I venture to say that Kastin's book does a slightly better job of evoking Monk's final years, suffering from mental illness, living largely as a recluse in a room in Nica's modernist house overlooking the Hudson from its perch in Weehauken, New Jersey.

Kastin doesn't do too much needless psychological probing into the Baroness and her motivations for hanging out so much in the world of jazz musician. As a modern, she understood the music; as a seeker of freedom, she understood very well what largely African-American artists were seeking to achieve through their work; as a generous and kind soul, she could provide what was needed to those for whom so much was denied. Also admirable is Kastin's avoidance of speculation about Nica's romantic liaisons, which would have quickly diminished her importance as a serious patron of the music.

Frustrating for both the reader and, no doubt, Kastin, was the relative lack of access to Nica's family members, who were reluctant to go on the record about the Baroness. In a similar way, but much more profoundly for jazz scholars in general, is the unheard archive of tapes -- hundreds made over many years -- the Baroness made of the conversations, jam sessions, and works-in-progress that happened in her hotel suite and Weehauken house. No doubt in years to come the Rothschild family will be more cooperative in interviews and in letting scholars examine that huge audio archive. For all the significant limitations to primary sources that Kastin appears to have encountered, he's done a fine job of distinguishing the life of Pannonica de Koenigswarter from the legend of Nica. Read in conjunction with Kelley's biography of Monk, Nica's Dream completes a close portrait of a profound artistic friendship, as well as a broad landscape of the New York jazz scene in the 1950s and 60s.

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11/26/11

PN Unscripted - William Kennedy - 'Chango's Beads and Two-Tone Shoes'

11/25/11

PN 176 - Big Savings

From 2006, it's a Passing Notes classic -- clipping coupons, searching for discounts, and memories of the Island of Misfit Toys.

Reader's Notes - Black Friday Myths

Not that the mad genius-types at Cracked need the extra traffic, but if you haven't seen this week's piece about Black Friday myths, you really should give it a read before heading out to the stores. Me, I have Christmas lights to put up. Thousands and thousands of lights. Shiny!

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11/22/11

PN Unscripted - John Hogan - Graphic Novel Reporter

11/21/11

PN Unscripted - Chuck Palahniuk - 'Damned'

11/19/11

Miami Book Fair - Talking and Tweeting

It's the time of year once again for the Miami Book Fair, which brings to down hundreds of writers, editors, booksellers, and publishers -- as well as thousands of readers and, most importantly, book-buyers. If you're not in South Florida this weekend, you can usually check out coverage of Book Fair highlights on C-SPAN. I have a full schedule of interviews to do, and will be stopping by the WDNA table from time to time. I'm very pleased on Sunday to introduce a panel by the name of "Remembering Harvey Pekar," and I look forward to an interview with Pekar's widow Joyce Brabner.

I'll do my best to tweet whatever seems interesting from the fair, so if you'd like to know what's up from the world of Passing Notes, you can follow all the details on Twitter, @markehayes.

Hope to see you there!

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11/18/11

PN 175 - Chuck Palahniuk - 'Damned'

The author of 'Fight Club,' 'Choke," and 'Lullaby' talks about sending a little girl to hell in his new novel.

Listen to PN 175 on iTunes
(leave a review. . .)
Listen to PN 175 on Feedburner

Join Palahniuk's website, The Cult.
See the author at the Miami Book Fair.

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11/17/11

PN Podcast - Stick It In Your Head

Passing Notes has been podcasting in one form or another since 2006, when I contributed each week to Flak Magazine's audio content -- now available as FlakRadio. After my infant-and-toddler-induced hiatus, I made the decision to return to work on the radio, on the web, and as a podcaster, leaving my previous life as a print freelancer behind.

At this point, I've got the technical dimensions of podcasting pretty much figured out, and I'm very pleased to announce that Passing Notes is now available through the excellent Stitcher platform. With Stitcher, you can just download the app to your device of choice and listen. For those of you still using iTunes for your podcasting needs, Passing Notes is there as well.

I'm planning to make much more audio available in the Passing Notes Unscripted format, which is a "lightly edited" version of the long interviews I have as part of producing the Friday radio show. So, most weeks, you should be able to download the 5-minute radio feature, as well as a 20-40 minute extended interview a few days later. Thanks for reading -- and listening!

If you want to support Passing Notes, as always, the most useful step you can take is to leave a review, provide a rating, or otherwise create some form of feedback for the podcast. Much appreciated.

For a taste of things to come, here's a list of guests from past episodes, linked directly to the audio files. . .

Writer Salman Rushdie
Singer Cassandra Wilson
Cultural critic Greil Marcus
Writer James Ellroy
Comics artist Joe Sacco
Singer Diane Schuur
Science writer Dava Sobel
Novelist Tim Dorsey
Singer and activist Judy Collins
Jazz historian Alyn Shipton
Music critic Alex Ross
Comics artist Jaime Hernandez
Novelist Karen Russell

11/16/11

PN Unscripted - James Gleick - 'The Information'

Regrettably -- and perhaps ironically -- the interview I did with James Gleick, that is, the digital recording of the interview, has had its file structure corrupted to the point where I am unable to salvage it. Trust me -- nobody is more frustrated than I am. As a replacement for the interview, please accept my humble review of The Information, posted earlier in the year on Passing Notes. Do not miss Gleick's appearance at the Book Fair this Saturday.

Listen to Gleick with Tom Ashbrook's On Point.
Visit Gleick's website, Bits in the Ether.
See Gleick at the Miami Book Fair.

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11/15/11

PN Unscripted - Karen Russell - 'Swamplandia!'

11/14/11

PN Unscripted - Dava Sobel - 'A More Perfect Heaven'

Award-winning science writer Dava Sobel discusses her new book exploring the life and work of Copernicus -- as well as her earlier works Longitude and Galileo's Daughter.

Listen to PN Unscripted - Dava Sobel on iTunes
(leave a review. . .)
Listen to PN Unscripted - Dava Sobel on Feedburner

Visit Sobel's website.
See the author at the Miami Book Fair.

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11/13/11

Playlist - Jazz Cafe 11/13

Here's a list (and covers) of the books I mentioned on this morning's broadcast.

Norman Granz: The Man Who Used Jazz for Justice, Tad Hershorn

Clark: The Autobiography of Clark Terry, Clark Terry with Gwen Terry

Nica's Dream: The Life and Legend of the Jazz Baroness, David Kastin

Willie Dixon: Preacher of the Blues, Mitsutoshi Inaba

Preachin' the Blues: The Life and Times of Son House, Daniel Beaumont

Mississippi John Hurt: His Life, His Times, His Blues, Philip R. Ratcliffe

And below is a full list of the music played this morning, as well. Thanks to those who tuned in!

Song, Artist, Album

Our Love Is Here To Stay, Kayla Taylor, You'd Be Surprised
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, Alex Lopez, We Can Take This Boat
Pretty Ugly, Axel's Axiom, Uncommon Sense
Ghost Riders in the Sky, Ryan Davidson Trio, Ryan Davidson Trio
Booker's Waltz, Carol Morgan Quartet, Blue Glass Music
Mood Indigo, Matt Baker, Underground
Just Desserts, Emmet Cohen, In The Element
La Mulata Rumbera, Mark Weinstein, El Cumbanchero
Nica's Dream, Stan Getz, Voices
Panonnica, Thelonious Monk, Thelonious Alone in San Francisco
Frankie, Mississippi John Hurt, Martin Scorcese Presents the Blues
Death Letter Blues, Son House, Martin Scorcese Presents the Blues
Built for Comfort, Howlin' Wolf, His Best
Makin' Whoopie, Ben Webster, Soulville
I Get a Kick Out of You, Ella Fitzgerald, The Cole Porter Songbook
Mumbles, Oscar Peterson Trio with Clark Terry, Oscar Peterson Trio Plus One
Donna Lee, Clark Terry Quintet, Serenade to a Bus Seat

11/12/11

Guest Host - Jazz Cafe 11/13

It's time for my usual monthly guest hosting of the Jazz Cafe (thanks as always to Ed Blanco) on WDNA, and tomorrow's show is all about new books and new music. Early birds, we start at 7:00 am and go until 9:00. In the first hour, I'll be playing music and talking about new books on Panonnica de Koenigswarter (the Jazz Baroness), Norman Granz, Clark Terry, Willie Dixon, Mississippi John Hurt, and Son House. In the second hour, I've got a great mix of jazz from all of the fall releases that have come to the home office. I'll also talk a little about the coming week's slate of literary guests in advance of the Miami Book Fair. I'll be podcasting interviews with Dava Sobel (A More Perfect Heaven), Karen Russell (Swamplandia!), and James Gleick (The Information), and Friday's Passing Notes broadcast features Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk on his new novel, Damned.

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11/11/11

WDNA Event - Maria Bethania

PN 174 - John Connolly - 'The Infernals' and "The Burning Soul'

The prolific Irish author talks about his latest books -- 'The Infernals,' and sequel to 'The Gates,' and the 10th Charlie Parker novel, 'The Burning Soul.' Connolly will be appearing at the 2011 Miami Book Fair.

Listen to PN 174 on iTunes
(Leave a review. . .)
Listen to PN 174 on Feedburner

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10/2/11

Mort-Vivant Walks Alone!

With my fall break over and done with, I've been hard at work listening, watching, reading, and lining up interviews for Passing Notes. Rather than jinx any developing pieces, I'll let them appear as they will week-by-week, although you're free to sign up for the Passing Notes weekly newsletter to get a hint of things to come. There's links of all sorts to the right and below if you want to follow the Notes regularly.

Today, I'm officially spinning off the zombie blog, Mort-Vivant, with a review of George Romero's 1985 movie Day of the Dead, to be followed tomorrow by a piece on Return of the Living Dead. After that, I'll be reviewing in quick succession each episode of Season One of AMC's series The Walking Dead, all in preparation for the Season Two premiere on October 16.

I'll continue to write about books and music several times a week here at Passing Notes, and the Friday radio feature will continue as always. Be well!

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Monty Alexander - Harlem-Kingston Express Live!

Monty Alexander – Harlem-Kingston Express Live! (Motema 2011)

Monty Alexander is one of the elder statesmen of jazz who, coming to the forefront of pianists in the 1970s, seems to have been around forever and, at times, may be taken for granted. Ever since leaving his native Jamaica while still in his teens to pursue a jazz career in the United States, Alexander has steadily turned out album after album, most of them excellent, all the while balancing his bop chops with the influences of his Caribbean roots.

It seems though that Alexander has never forgot his apprenticeship back in Kingston, playing on endless recording sessions in Studio One. While Alexander has in the past has touched on a broader, island sensibility in his “ivory and steel” projects, it’s clear that over the years he’s been increasingly drawn to a blend of jazz and reggae – if the two styles can be said to go together. Alexander, at least, makes it work on albums like Yard Movement (1996), Stir It Up (1999), Monty Meets Sly and Robbie (2000), and Rocksteady (2004) – often in collaboration with the legendary guitarist Ernest Ranglin, his buddy from the old island days.

Alexander’s latest album, Harlem-Kingston Express Live!, continues to find common ground between jazz and reggae, with Alexander personifying the bridge. His role as a link is made clear in a featured photo in the CD booklet, which shows Alexander and his two rhythm sections set up at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola. To his left is the jazz group: Obed Calvaire on drums, Hassan Shakur on bass, and Yotam Silberstein on guitar. To his right, the reggae ensemble: Karl Wright on drums, Hoova Simpson on electric bass, Andy Bassford on electric skank guitar and Robert "Bobby T" Thomas on hand drums.

As the set progresses, Alexander’s arrangements take a couple of basic approaches to the mixing of jazz and reggae – the switch and the mix. The first two songs set up the switch, beginning with a lovely, dreaming reggae version of “Strawberry Hill,” with Alexander laying out some very rich chords; the second track is an upbeat, boogie-woogie rendition of “Hi Heel Sneakers” which features some excellent swinging from the jazz group. The mood is light, playful, and open to possibilities, with Alexander fully presiding.

The next tune, “King Tubby Meets The Rockers Uptown,” switches as well between the mellow, stripped down dub style – King Tubby’s domain – and a brief but energetic latin jazz passage, but is memorable for Alexander’s work on the melodica. Following this, a floating Alexander original, “Eleuthera” mixes the two rhythm sections most effectively, and it’s one of the tunes where the two bands play more as a single unit than two separate ones.

The standard “Sweet Georgia Brown” gives the jazz guys a chance to really open up, and they attack the tune with a real ferocity, spurred on in part by the percussionist Bobby T from the reggae side. A most interesting blend happens on “Freddie Freeloader Riddim,” taken at a faster tempo than the Kind of Blue original, but it is so brief that there’s almost no room to explore the possibilities of the arrangement.

Bob Marley’s “The Heathen” moves through its mostly reggae paces but offers a few brief but wide open “free jazz breaks. The ballad “Compassion” finds the reggae unit out front on a tune that features Alexander at his virtuoso best on both the piano and melodica. Marley’s “Running Away” makes for one of the most dramatic and, at times, effective settings for the two groups to work together, but it highlights the difficulty that Alexander’s entire ensemble must face in trying to find space for two drummers, two bassists, and two guitarists – too many great musicians have to lay back too often. The old mentotune “Day-O,” made famous by Harry Belafonte, is a fun closer, loose and an informal occasion for Alexander to call to the audience to sing along.

All the minor unevenness is forgotten on the album’s spectacular closer, an almost perfect version of Marley’s “No Woman No Cry,” which, although it clocks in at over seven minutes, has not a dull moment. Alexander’s playing at the start is sparse and almost formal, but both groups build the dynamics as the song goes from stately, to bluesy, to driving, and finally to its spiritual resolution. It is an epic take on a simple song that is devastatingly effective.

Taken as a whole, Harlem-Kingston Express Live! finds Monty Alexander at home in two genres, surrounded by the best of musicians, working hard to find common ground – both in the careful arrangement of material and in the spontaneous moment of playing. Rarely failing and most often succeeding (like the best jazz), Alexander is at the peak of his powers on this recording, ready to delight and surprise from moment to moment. Regardless of how one might try to classify the music, it is jazz in the purest sense – a music that is open to possibility and all the more exciting because of it.