Deep Focus

There is a point at which the usefulness of language ends.  You are simply not going to be able to express in words the sense of awe that you feel when creation overwhelms you but you always know when someone else is feeling it, too.  In this moment you will find pianist Matthew Shipp and others who admire saxophonist Albert Ayler.  

Albert Ayler died at age 34 in 1970 and to this day his life feels more like an ellipsis or a question mark than a complete sentence.  So much undone.  And yet, just months before he died, he threw down an exclamation point.  There were 2 performances at a glorious shrine to Modernism, La Fondation Maeght in the south of France, that stated who Albert Ayler was and how he believed music could convey the ineffable.  Do we have recordings of this performance?  It’s Deep Focus; of course we do!  

Matthew Shipp joins Mitch Goldman this Monday (10/9) from 6 pm to 9 pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org on the web.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/

Photo credit: no publishing information available.  

#WKCR #JazzAlternatives #AlbertAyler #MatthewShipp #MattShipp #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast 

 

There is a point at which the usefulness of language ends.  You are simply not going to be able to express in words the sense of awe that you feel when creation overwhelms you but you always know when someone else is feeling it, too.  In this moment you will find pianist Matthew Shipp and others who admire saxophonist Albert Ayler.  

Albert Ayler died at age 34 in 1970 and to this day his life feels more like an ellipsis or a question mark than a complete sentence.  So much undone.  And yet, just months before he died, he threw down an exclamation point.  There were 2 performances at a glorious shrine to Modernism, La Fondation Maeght in the south of France, that stated who Albert Ayler was and how he believed music could convey the ineffable.  Do we have recordings of this performance?  It’s Deep Focus; of course we do!  

Matthew Shipp joins Mitch Goldman this Monday (10/9) from 6 pm to 9 pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org on the web.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/

Photo credit: no publishing information available.  

#WKCR #JazzAlternatives #AlbertAyler #MatthewShipp #MattShipp #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast 

 

There is a point at which the usefulness of language ends.  You are simply not going to be able to express in words the sense of awe that you feel when creation overwhelms you but you always know when someone else is feeling it, too.  In this moment you will find pianist Matthew Shipp and others who admire saxophonist Albert Ayler.  

Albert Ayler died at age 34 in 1970 and to this day his life feels more like an ellipsis or a question mark than a complete sentence.  So much undone.  And yet, just months before he died, he threw down an exclamation point.  There were 2 performances at a glorious shrine to Modernism, La Fondation Maeght in the south of France, that stated who Albert Ayler was and how he believed music could convey the ineffable.  Do we have recordings of this performance?  It’s Deep Focus; of course we do!  

Matthew Shipp joins Mitch Goldman this Monday (10/9) from 6 pm to 9 pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org on the web.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/

Photo credit: no publishing information available.  

#WKCR #JazzAlternatives #AlbertAyler #MatthewShipp #MattShipp #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast 

"Easily Slip Into Another World," Henry Threadgill's recent memoir, is required reading for a full appreciation of tonight's Deep Focus.  It reveals the roots, the rich harvest, and the hidden, dark corners of a vibrant, creative life.  The prose is plainspoken and forthright but the content is absolutely mind-expanding.  No one of Threadgill's explosively expressive generation has laid bare the inspirations for his art as Threadgill does here.  

- What was it like to talk with John Coltrane? (surprising answer!).  

- And what about Duke Ellington? (astonishing answer!).

- What experiences, musical and other, shaped you as a creative person? (kaleidoscopic answers!).

- What really happened to you guys in Viet Nam? (hideous, bewildering answers).

- How distinctive was the music scene in Chicago as you were coming up? 

 

This last question brings us to tonight's Deep Focus.  Henry Threadgill joins host Mitch Goldman for an exploration of two of his great inspirations: saxophonists John Gilmore and Von Freeman.  And will the WKCR archives yield unheard wonders?  Only one way to find out!

 

This Monday (9/25) on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/

 

Photo credit: no publishing information available. 

 

#WKCR  #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #HenryThreadgill #MitchGoldman #VonFreeman #JohnGilmore #SunRa #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast 

 

"Easily Slip Into Another World," Henry Threadgill's recent memoir, is required reading for a full appreciation of tonight's Deep Focus.  It reveals the roots, the rich harvest, and the hidden, dark corners of a vibrant, creative life.  The prose is plainspoken and forthright but the content is absolutely mind-expanding.  No one of Threadgill's explosively expressive generation has laid bare the inspirations for his art as Threadgill does here.  

- What was it like to talk with John Coltrane? (surprising answer!).  

- And what about Duke Ellington? (astonishing answer!).

- What experiences, musical and other, shaped you as a creative person? (kaleidoscopic answers!).

- What really happened to you guys in Viet Nam? (hideous, bewildering answers).

- How distinctive was the music scene in Chicago as you were coming up? 

 

This last question brings us to tonight's Deep Focus.  Henry Threadgill joins host Mitch Goldman for an exploration of two of his great inspirations: saxophonists John Gilmore and Von Freeman.  And will the WKCR archives yield unheard wonders?  Only one way to find out!

 

This Monday (9/25) on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/

 

Photo credit: no publishing info available.

 

#WKCR  #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #HenryThreadgill #MitchGoldman #VonFreeman #JohnGilmore #SunRa #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast 

 

"Easily Slip Into Another World," Henry Threadgill's recent memoir, is required reading for a full appreciation of tonight's Deep Focus.  It reveals the roots, the rich harvest, and the hidden, dark corners of a vibrant, creative life.  The prose is plainspoken and forthright but the content is absolutely mind-expanding.  No one of Threadgill's explosively expressive generation has laid bare the inspirations for his art as Threadgill does here.  

- What was it like to talk with John Coltrane? (surprising answer!).  

- And what about Duke Ellington? (astonishing answer!).

- What experiences, musical and other, shaped you as a creative person? (kaleidoscopic answers!).

- What really happened to you guys in Viet Nam? (hideous, bewildering answers).

- How distinctive was the music scene in Chicago as you were coming up? 

 

This last question brings us to tonight's Deep Focus.  Henry Threadgill joins host Mitch Goldman for an exploration of two of his great inspirations: saxophonists John Gilmore and Von Freeman.  And will the WKCR archives yield unheard wonders?  Only one way to find out!

 

This Monday (9/25) on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/

 

#WKCR  #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #HenryThreadgill #MitchGoldman #VonFreeman #JohnGilmore #SunRa #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast 

 

 In the sixties, they explained evolution to us with that March of Progress illustration, a lockstep development from the proto-human Dryopithecus to modern man.  That same approach was also used to explain jazz evolution: New Orleans to Chicago to New York, hot jazz to swing to bebop to cool... Contemporary evolutionary biologists will tell you that that sixties view is far too linear and simplistic.  Should the same be said about the received history of the music?  

 

Let's consider saxophonist Sam Rivers.  He played in the bands of Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, curated the most prominent jazz loft in the seventies, and led bleeding edge improvisatory small bands.  But he also composed at least a page a day of large-ensemble music, over 400 discrete compositions.  This is an astonishing volume of work, perhaps even unprecedented.  So where do you put Sam Rivers in your Jazz March of Progress?  

 

This large ensemble work by Sam Rivers is the topic of this Monday's (9/4) edition of Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus.  The guest will be trombonist Craig Harris who played in Rivers's Orchestra and is organizing a tribute performance for Sam Rivers' centennial on September 22, 2023 at Mt. Morris Ascension Presbyterian Church.  If you haven't heard this music, this show will be revealing (and if you have then I didn't even need to tell you all of this!).  

Photo credit: Sam Rivers - flute by Tom Marcello Webster, New York, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

 

#WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #CraigHarris #SamRivers #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast 

 In the sixties, they explained evolution to us with that March of Progress illustration, a lockstep development from the proto-human Dryopithecus to modern man.  That same approach was also used to explain jazz evolution: New Orleans to Chicago to New York, hot jazz to swing to bebop to cool... Contemporary evolutionary biologists will tell you that that sixties view is far too linear and simplistic.  Should the same be said about the received history of the music?  

 

Let's consider saxophonist Sam Rivers.  He played in the bands of Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, curated the most prominent jazz loft in the seventies, and led bleeding edge improvisatory small bands.  But he also composed at least a page a day of large-ensemble music, over 400 discrete compositions.  This is an astonishing volume of work, perhaps even unprecedented.  So where do you put Sam Rivers in your Jazz March of Progress?  

 

This large ensemble work by Sam Rivers is the topic of this Monday's (9/4) edition of Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus.  The guest will be trombonist Craig Harris who played in Rivers's Orchestra and is organizing a tribute performance for Sam Rivers' centennial on September 22, 2023 at Mt. Morris Ascension Presbyterian Church.  If you haven't heard this music, this show will be revealing (and if you have then I didn't even need to tell you all of this!).  

Photo credit: Sam Rivers - courtesy of Blue Note Records.

 

#WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #CraigHarris #SamRivers #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast 

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In the sixties, they explained evolution to us with that March of Progress illustration, a lockstep development from the proto-human Dryopithecus to modern man.  That same approach was also used to explain jazz evolution: New Orleans to Chicago to New York, hot jazz to swing to bebop to cool... Contemporary evolutionary biologists will tell you that that sixties view is far too linear and simplistic.  Should the same be said about the received history of the music?  

 

Let's consider saxophonist Sam Rivers.  He played in the bands of Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, curated the most prominent jazz loft in the seventies, and led bleeding edge improvisatory small bands.  But he also composed at least a page a day of large-ensemble music, over 400 discrete compositions.  This is an astonishing volume of work, perhaps even unprecedented.  So where do you put Sam Rivers in your Jazz March of Progress?  

 

This large ensemble work by Sam Rivers is the topic of this Monday's (9/4) edition of Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus.  The guest will be trombonist Craig Harris who played in Rivers's Orchestra and is organizing a tribute performance for Sam Rivers' centennial on September 22, 2023 at Mt. Morris Ascension Presbyterian Church.  If you haven't heard this music, this show will be revealing (and if you have then I didn't even need to tell you all of this!).  

 

Photo credit: Sam Rivers - flute by Tom Marcello Webster, New York, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

 

#WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #CraigHarris #SamRivers #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast 

 

 

 

If Eric Dolphy's music were a school of painting it would be analytical cubism: planar and angular, multi-directional and austere,  But it's not abstract.  It's showing us something we know; we are simply experiencing it in a completely new way.  His work, in its frame, becomes an entire reality unto itself.  It's endless. 

 

So what happens when you place this masterly museum piece in a sweaty nightclub?  Does it shine?  Does it wilt?  Does Dolphy change his approach?  Few have examined Dolphy more closely than saxophonist/bandleader/poet/professor Roy Nathanson but we don't know if even Roy has heard the recordings from the WKCR archives that we'll play on Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus this Monday (8/21) from 6pm to 9pm NYC time.  It's on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.  

 

Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/

 

Did you know that you can find out more about Deep Focus and research past episodes here? https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/

 

Photo credit: fair use.

 

#WKCR #DeepFocus #JazzAlternatives #RoyNathanson #EricDolphy #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast