Author Archives: The Independent Ear

If you’ve been keeping up you know that one of the upcoming (June 10-16) DC Jazz Festival highlight evenings is certain to be Saturday, June 13. On that evening, at the beautiful riverfront park known as the Yards, in the … Continue reading →

A Grand Night for Mastery The annual National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters awards concert is always a grand night on the annual jazz calendar. Peculiar to this art form, jazz remains both nostalgic and forever questing in forward … Continue reading →

So what is it about playing the bass and developing a keen eye for photography? Remember those three superb coffee table photography books by one of the great jazz bass pioneers, Milt Hinton (“Bass Line”, “Over Time”, and “Playing the … Continue reading →

My WPFW colleague, scholar, educator and all-around jazz stalwart around town, Rusty Hassan recently posted an interesting post-concert observation in Facebook that struck a chord. Anyone who has read the Independent Ear knows that as a frequent jazz performance audience … Continue reading →

JAZZ TAKES A STAND By Ron Scott Regardless of America’s ever-changing situation black music has always been its soundtrack depicting the mood of the times from war to peace, lynchings to chain gangs, segregation, civil disobedience, integration, to police brutality, … Continue reading →