Category Archives: Artist’s P.O.V.

The following is the fifth in our series of periodic anecdotes from African Rhythms, the forthcoming as-told-to autobiography of NEA Jazz Master Randy Weston by Willard Jenkins.  (For a related piece on the upcoming Festival Gnaoua (Gnawa) scroll down to "Hu-Ta-Nay" and … Continue reading →

Members of The Bad Plus.  The suit is Ethan Iverson   The Bad Plus is one of the more unique acoustic trios working within the boundaries of what we call jazz; certainly controversial in some quarters, and just as certainly … Continue reading →

Members of Imani Winds backstage. That’s Toyin Spellman-Diaz in between John Patitucci and Joe Lovano.  Flautist Valerie Coleman next to Patitucci, bassoonist Monica Ellis next to Lovano.  (Not shown: Mariam Adam, clarinet; Jeff Scott, French horn.)   One of the most … Continue reading →

Jazz… oops Creative Music Book-Of-The-Year:   A Power Stronger Than Itself   By George Lewis ( University of Chicago Press)     As trombonist-composer and now author George Lewis, Director of the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University, describes … Continue reading →

What’s Up with Sumi Tonooka? Pianist-composer Sumi Tonooka, a native of Philadelphia, has always been a very thoughtful artist with an exceptional touch at the keyboard and an uncommon cultural sensitivity based in equal parts on her diverse background and growing up in … Continue reading →