Deep Focus

2024.10.14 Kenny Wessel on Badal Roy - 3 of 3

Here's another Ph.D. topic for you: Miles Davis vs. Ornette Coleman. Both blazingly original innovators lived most of their lives in Manhattan and they were roughly contemporaries (Miles was 4 years older) so they drew from the same talent pool to make up their bands.  But across 30+ years of simultaneous bandleading and the hiring of dozens and dozens of sidemen, how many can you think of who toured and recorded extensively with both?  We've got one for you: tabla player Badal Roy.  

 

And Badal Roy did so much more than play with those two giants!  His bubbling groove and enormous sonic textures can be heard on albums by everyone from Yoko Ono to Richie Havens, John McLaughlin to Pharoah Sanders, not to mention half a dozen albums under his own leadership.  He died in 2022.

 

But if you talk to those who knew him, they all speak of a singular warmth, humanity, and unabashed joy.  Maybe that, more than the pure musicianship, is what caught the ear of Miles and Ornette in the first place.  

 

Few know this better than guitarist Ken Wessel. Wessel toured and recorded with Badal Roy in Ornette's band for 13 years, and the two worked on a number of their own projects together.  Wessel will be celebrating Badal Roy in this week's Ragas Live Festival in Brooklyn.  

 

Deep Focus host Mitch Goldman is delighted to welcome Ken Wessel to the WKCR studios this Monday (10/14) from 6pm to 9pm NYC time.  It's on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.  Or join us next week when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.  Subscribe right now to get notifications when new episodes are posted.  It's ad-free, all free, totally non-commercial.  

Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/ or join us on
Instagram at deep_focus_podcast.  

Photo credit: source unknown.

 

#WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #KenWessel #BadalRoy  #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast #JazzRadio #OrnetteColeman #MilesDavis

2024.10.14 Kenny Wessel on Badal Roy - 2 of 3

Here's another Ph.D. topic for you: Miles Davis vs. Ornette Coleman. Both blazingly original innovators lived most of their lives in Manhattan and they were roughly contemporaries (Miles was 4 years older) so they drew from the same talent pool to make up their bands.  But across 30+ years of simultaneous bandleading and the hiring of dozens and dozens of sidemen, how many can you think of who toured and recorded extensively with both?  We've got one for you: tabla player Badal Roy.  

 

And Badal Roy did so much more than play with those two giants!  His bubbling groove and enormous sonic textures can be heard on albums by everyone from Yoko Ono to Richie Havens, John McLaughlin to Pharoah Sanders, not to mention half a dozen albums under his own leadership.  He died in 2022.

 

But if you talk to those who knew him, they all speak of a singular warmth, humanity, and unabashed joy.  Maybe that, more than the pure musicianship, is what caught the ear of Miles and Ornette in the first place.  

 

Few know this better than guitarist Ken Wessel. Wessel toured and recorded with Badal Roy in Ornette's band for 13 years, and the two worked on a number of their own projects together.  Wessel will be celebrating Badal Roy in this week's Ragas Live Festival in Brooklyn.  

 

Deep Focus host Mitch Goldman is delighted to welcome Ken Wessel to the WKCR studios this Monday (10/14) from 6pm to 9pm NYC time.  It's on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.  Or join us next week when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.  Subscribe right now to get notifications when new episodes are posted.  It's ad-free, all free, totally non-commercial.  

Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/ or join us on
Instagram at deep_focus_podcast.  

Photo credit: source unknown.

 

#WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #KenWessel #BadalRoy  #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast #JazzRadio #OrnetteColeman 

2024.10.14 Kenny Wessel on Badal Roy - 1 of 3

Here's another Ph.D. topic for you: Miles Davis vs. Ornette Coleman. Both blazingly original innovators lived most of their lives in Manhattan and they were roughly contemporaries (Miles was 4 years older) so they drew from the same talent pool to make up their bands.  But across 30+ years of simultaneous bandleading and the hiring of dozens and dozens of sidemen, how many can you think of who toured and recorded extensively with both?  We've got one for you: tabla player Badal Roy.  

 

And Badal Roy did so much more than play with those two giants!  His bubbling groove and enormous sonic textures can be heard on albums by everyone from Yoko Ono to Richie Havens, John McLaughlin to Pharoah Sanders, not to mention half a dozen albums under his own leadership.  He died in 2022.

 

But if you talk to those who knew him, they all speak of a singular warmth, humanity, and unabashed joy.  Maybe that, more than the pure musicianship, is what caught the ear of Miles and Ornette in the first place.  

 

Few know this better than guitarist Ken Wessel. Wessel toured and recorded with Badal Roy in Ornette's band for 13 years, and the two worked on a number of their own projects together.  Wessel will be celebrating Badal Roy in this week's Ragas Live Festival in Brooklyn.  

 

Deep Focus host Mitch Goldman is delighted to welcome Ken Wessel to the WKCR studios this Monday (10/14) from 6pm to 9pm NYC time.  It's on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.  Or join us next week when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.  Subscribe right now to get notifications when new episodes are posted.  It's ad-free, all free, totally non-commercial.  

Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/ or join us on
Instagram at deep_focus_podcast.  

Photo credit: source unknown.

 

#WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #KenWessel #BadalRoy  #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast #JazzRadio

2024.09.16 Lewis Flip Barnes on William Parker - 3 of 3

Let's present an award: who would you say has been the most prolific artist on NYC's forward-looking music scene and who has contributed the most to its community?  Deep Focus host Mitch Goldman's nominee: bassist William Parker.  This Monday, Mitch and trumpeter Lewis "Flip" Barnes will put William Parker's music in Deep Focus.  Will there be live, unreleased recordings from the WKCR archives?  What do you think!  

 

(And a bonus question: what are we going to call the award that the winner gets?)

 

It's on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org Monday from 6pm to 9pm NYC time.  Or join us next week when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.  Subscribe right now to get notifications when new episodes are posted.  It's ad-free, all free, totally non-commercial.  

Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/ or join us on
Instagram at deep_focus_podcast.  

Photo credit: William Parker by Tore Sætre, Wikimedia Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0

 

#WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #LewisFlipBarnes #WilliamParker  #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast #JazzRadio

 

2024.09.16 Lewis Flip Barnes on William Parker - 2 of 3

Let's present an award: who would you say has been the most prolific artist on NYC's forward-looking music scene and who has contributed the most to its community?  Deep Focus host Mitch Goldman's nominee: bassist William Parker.  This Monday, Mitch and trumpeter Lewis "Flip" Barnes will put William Parker's music in Deep Focus.  Will there be live, unreleased recordings from the WKCR archives?  What do you think!  

 

(And a bonus question: what are we going to call the award that the winner gets?)

 

It's on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org Monday from 6pm to 9pm NYC time.  Or join us next week when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.  Subscribe right now to get notifications when new episodes are posted.  It's ad-free, all free, totally non-commercial.  

Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/ or join us on
Instagram at deep_focus_podcast.  

William Parker - CC0 @ Schwules Museum Berlin, photo by Petra Gall

 

#WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #LewisFlipBarnes #WilliamParker  #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast #JazzRadio

 

2024.09.16 Lewis Flip Barnes on William Parker - 1 of 3

Let's present an award: who would you say has been the most prolific artist on NYC's forward-looking music scene and who has contributed the most to its community?  Deep Focus host Mitch Goldman's nominee: bassist William Parker.  This Monday, Mitch and trumpeter Lewis "Flip" Barnes will put William Parker's music in Deep Focus.  Will there be live, unreleased recordings from the WKCR archives?  What do you think!  

 

(And a bonus question: what are we going to call the award that the winner gets?)

 

It's on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org Monday from 6pm to 9pm NYC time.  Or join us next week when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.  Subscribe right now to get notifications when new episodes are posted.  It's ad-free, all free, totally non-commercial.  

Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/ or join us on
Instagram at deep_focus_podcast.  

Photo credit: William Parker by Tore Sætre, Wikimedia Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0

 

#WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #LewisFlipBarnes #WilliamParker  #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast #JazzRadio

 

2024.08.19 Melvin Gibbs on Sun Ra - 3 of 3

Tonight (8/19) bassist/composer Melvin Gibbs joins host Mitch Goldman for a Deep Focus on Sun Ra with unheard rarities from the WKCR archives.  Here's a serious question, Melvin: what's the Sun Ra/Brooklyn connection?  This I have to hear.

 

It's on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org Monday from 6pm to 9pm NYC time.  Or join us next week when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.  Either way, it's ad-free, all free, totally non-commercial.  

Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/ or join us on
Instagram at deep_focus_podcast.  

Photo credit: Sun Ra - Impulse!, ABC/Dunhill Records - Photographer uncredited most likely Francis Ing who is credited on Astro Black ., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

 

#WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #MelvinGibbs #SunRa  #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast #JazzRadio #SpaceIsThePlace #SunRaArkestra

2024.08.19 Melvin Gibbs on Sun Ra - 2 of 3

Tonight (8/19) bassist/composer Melvin Gibbs joins host Mitch Goldman for a Deep Focus on Sun Ra with unheard rarities from the WKCR archives.  Here's a serious question, Melvin: what's the Sun Ra/Brooklyn connection?  This I have to hear.

 

It's on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org Monday from 6pm to 9pm NYC time.  Or join us next week when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.  Either way, it's ad-free, all free, totally non-commercial.  

Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/ or join us on
Instagram at deep_focus_podcast.  

Photo credit: Sun Ra - Impulse!, ABC/Dunhill Records - Photographer uncredited most likely Francis Ing who is credited on Astro Black ., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

 

#WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #MelvinGibbs #SunRa  #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast #JazzRadio #SpaceIsThePlace #SunRaArkestra

2024.08.19 Melvin Gibbs on Sun Ra - 1 of 3

Tonight (8/19) bassist/composer Melvin Gibbs joins host Mitch Goldman for a Deep Focus on Sun Ra with unheard rarities from the WKCR archives.  Here's a serious question, Melvin: what's the Sun Ra/Brooklyn connection?  This I have to hear.

 

It's on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org Monday from 6pm to 9pm NYC time.  Or join us next week when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.  Either way, it's ad-free, all free, totally non-commercial.  

Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/ or join us on
Instagram at deep_focus_podcast.  

Photo credit: Sun Ra - Impulse!, ABC/Dunhill Records - Photographer uncredited most likely Francis Ing who is credited on Astro Black ., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

 

#WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #MelvinGibbs #SunRa  #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast #JazzRadio #SpaceIsThePlace #SunRaArkestra

2018.04.02 Micah Gaugh on Ronald Shannon Jackson - 3 of 3

I love it when I go to a gig and I see that Micah Gaugh is going to be playing. It means it is certain that something unexpected is going to happen. And Micah surprised me with his selection of a subject for Deep Focus: Ronald Shannon Jackson. I was 19 years old and already a die hard music fan but I had no idea what music could do until I heard Shannon’s band, The Decoding Society. Now you’re going to hear what I heard then. Caution: severe tire damage!

Monday April 2 from 6pm to 9pm on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD-1 and wkcr.org.