Deep Focus

2025.09.01 Ben Tyree on Spectrum road - 1 of 3

Who came up with the idea that the middle of the road is the right place to be?  Regular listeners to Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus know that it's those shadowy corners, those Edge Cities, where new things start to happen. And who embodied this idea more than drummer Tony Williams' late sixties supergroup, Lifetime?  

 

Lifetime inspired another supergroup in 2008 when guitarist Vernon Reid and bassist Jack Bruce (himself a member of Lifetime) formed Spectrum Road with drummer Cindy Blackman and keyboard conjurer John Medeski.  Did these 4 masters of many musical disciplines present faithful recreations of Lifetime's original recordings?  Or did their live shows start where Lifetime ended, and end up in the highest towers of their own Edge City?  

 

Mitch's guest, guitarist Ben Tyree, knows the answer.  Ben has shared stages with and drawn inspiration from at least 2 of these 4 innovators.  He credits John Medeski with inspiring his life-changing move to New York City.  

 

And will the WKCR archives yield live, unreleased recordings that will bear him out?  We don't know ourselves, and the suspense is just killing us!

 

Find out Monday (9/1) when Mitch Goldman and Ben Tyree plunge into the vast WKCR archive.  Deep Focus airs Mondays from 6p to 9p NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD, or wkcr.org.  

Or join us 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.  We won't even ask for your contact info.  

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

Photo credit: no publishing information available.

#WKCR #DeepFocus #TonyWilliamsLifetime #SpectrumRoad #JohnMedeski #VernonReid #CindyBlackman #CindyBlackmanSantana #JackBruce #/BenTyree #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview #MitchGoldman #TonyWilliams #JazzRockFusion

2025.08.18 Bob Dee on Jef Lee Johnson - 3 of 3

How is it possible that you have never heard guitarist Jef Lee Johnson?  He was as incendiary and as nakedly original as any soloist you have ever heard (absolutely any!).  But his greater distinction might have been his songwriting.  You don’t learn to write songs that are that revealing, that insightful, that cleverly put-together, and that hilariously funny, just by working at it.  First, you have to have the wisdom, and Jef had it pouring out of him.  It seemed as if he couldn’t make it stop if he wanted to.  

Jef toured and recorded for decades, but, for whatever reason, he never broke through the way many of us thought he should have. One person who got to witness the artistry up close was fellow guitarist Bob Dee.  The two shared the front line in Ronald Shannon Jackson’s Decoding Society, and Bob has never forgotten a moment of what he saw and heard.  Bob joins host Mitch Goldman for a Deep Focus that continues the WKCR Lost Masters tradition.

Join us Monday (8/18) when Mitch Goldman and Bob Dee unearth live, unreleased recordings.  Deep Focus airs Mondays from 6p to 9p NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.  

Or join us 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.  We won't even ask for your contact info.  

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

Photo credit: no publishing information available.

#WKCR #DeepFocus #JefLeeJohnson #/BobDee #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview #MitchGoldman 

2025.08.18 Bob Dee on Jef Lee Johnson - 2 of 3

How is it possible that you have never heard guitarist Jef Lee Johnson?  He was as incendiary and as nakedly original as any soloist you have ever heard (absolutely any!).  But his greater distinction might have been his songwriting.  You don’t learn to write songs that are that revealing, that insightful, that cleverly put-together, and that hilariously funny, just by working at it.  First, you have to have the wisdom, and Jef had it pouring out of him.  It seemed as if he couldn’t make it stop if he wanted to.  

Jef toured and recorded for decades, but, for whatever reason, he never broke through the way many of us thought he should have. One person who got to witness the artistry up close was fellow guitarist Bob Dee.  The two shared the front line in Ronald Shannon Jackson’s Decoding Society, and Bob has never forgotten a moment of what he saw and heard.  Bob joins host Mitch Goldman for a Deep Focus that continues the WKCR Lost Masters tradition.

Join us Monday (8/18) when Mitch Goldman and Bob Dee unearth live, unreleased recordings.  Deep Focus airs Mondays from 6p to 9p NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.  

Or join us 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.  We won't even ask for your contact info.  

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

Photo credit: no publishing information available.

#WKCR #DeepFocus #JefLeeJohnson #/BobDee #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview #MitchGoldman 

2025.08.18 Bob Dee on Jef Lee Johnson - 1 of 3

How is it possible that you have never heard guitarist Jef Lee Johnson?  He was as incendiary and as nakedly original as any soloist you have ever heard (absolutely any!).  But his greater distinction might have been his songwriting.  You don’t learn to write songs that are that revealing, that insightful, that cleverly put-together, and that hilariously funny, just by working at it.  First, you have to have the wisdom, and Jef had it pouring out of him.  It seemed as if he couldn’t make it stop if he wanted to.  
Jef toured and recorded for decades, but, for whatever reason, he never broke through the way many of us thought he should have. One person who got to witness the artistry up close was fellow guitarist Bob Dee.  The two shared the front line in Ronald Shannon Jackson’s Decoding Society, and Bob has never forgotten a moment of what he saw and heard.  Bob joins host Mitch Goldman for a Deep Focus that continues the WKCR Lost Masters tradition.

Join us Monday (8/18) when Mitch Goldman and Bob Dee unearth live, unreleased recordings.  Deep Focus airs Mondays from 6p to 9p NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.  

Or join us 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.  We won't even ask for your contact info.  

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

Photo credit: no publishing information available.

#WKCR #DeepFocus #JefLeeJohnson #/BobDee #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview #MitchGoldman 

2015.08.03 Eric Person on Ornette Coleman - 3 of 3

Ornette Coleman, one of our brightest lights, died in June of 2015.  Here is a Deep Focus from August of that year, with Eric Person as my guest, remembering Ornette.  This show features a beautiful live recording from 1978.  Officially, his band is listed as the Ornette Coleman Sextet, but his fans know them as Prime Time.

2015.08.03 Eric Person on Ornette Coleman - 2 of 3

Ornette Coleman, one of our brightest lights, died in June of 2015.  Here is a Deep Focus from August of that year, with Eric Person as my guest, remembering Ornette.  This show features a beautiful live recording from 1978.  Officially, his band is listed as the Ornette Coleman Sextet, but his fans know them as Prime Time.

2015.08.03 Eric Person on Ornette Coleman - 1 of 3

Ornette Coleman, one of our brightest lights, died in June of 2015.  Here is a Deep Focus from August of that year with Eric Person as my guest, remembering Ornette.  This show features a beautiful live recording from 1978.  Officially, his band is listed as the Ornette Coleman Sextet, but his fans know them as Prime Time.

2025.07.21 Jean-Paul Bourelly on Arthur Blythe, S. Sharrock + P. Sanders, JB Ulmer - 3 of 3

This is a rare treat: a former subject of Deep Focus becomes the guest.  In 2016, drummer Will Calhoun was our guest for a Deep Focus on one of his heroes, Elvin Jones.  Will brought a cassette of a set of music that he had heard as a teenager at the Village Vanguard.  At the time, Elvin had an emerging guitarist with a sound entirely unlike that of anyone else who had ever picked up the instrument.  For the audience and for this young man, every note that he played brought an amazed sense of wonder and discovery.  

 

Little did Will know that, in the years to come, the world would discover Jean-Paul Bourelly's talent, and that he would become a lifelong friend and collaborator.  Jean-Paul's music, informed by his Haitian and Chicago Blues roots, as well as hip-hop, West African traditions, and his own unbridled creative imagination, is still immediately recognizable and entirely beyond category.  What a privilege to have him on Deep Focus.

 

Join us Monday (7/21) when Mitch Goldman hosts Jean-Paul Bourelly on Deep Focus and unearths live, unreleased recordings.  Deep Focus airs Mondays from 6p to 9p NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.  

 

Or join us 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.  We won't even ask for your contact info.  

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

 

Photo credit: no publishing information available.

 

#WKCR #DeepFocus #/Jean-PaulBourelly #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview #MitchGoldman

2025.07.21 Jean-Paul Bourelly on Arthur Blythe, S. Sharrock + P. Sanders - 2 of 3

This is a rare treat: a former subject of Deep Focus becomes the guest.  In 2016, drummer Will Calhoun was our guest for a Deep Focus on one of his heroes, Elvin Jones.  Will brought a cassette of a set of music that he had heard as a teenager at the Village Vanguard.  At the time, Elvin had an emerging guitarist with a sound entirely unlike that of anyone else who had ever picked up the instrument.  For the audience and for this young man, every note that he played brought an amazed sense of wonder and discovery.  

 

Little did Will know that, in the years to come, the world would discover Jean-Paul Bourelly's talent, and that he would become a lifelong friend and collaborator.  Jean-Paul's music, informed by his Haitian and Chicago Blues roots, as well as hip-hop, West African traditions, and his own unbridled creative imagination, is still immediately recognizable and entirely beyond category.  What a privilege to have him on Deep Focus.

 

Join us Monday (7/21) when Mitch Goldman hosts Jean-Paul Bourelly on Deep Focus and unearths live, unreleased recordings.  Deep Focus airs Mondays from 6p to 9p NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.  

 

Or join us 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.  We won't even ask for your contact info.  

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

 

Photo credit: no publishing information available.

 

#WKCR #DeepFocus #/Jean-PaulBourelly #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview #MitchGoldman

2025.07.21 Jean-Paul Bourelly on Arthur Blythe, S. Sharrock + P. Sanders - 1 of 3

This is a rare treat: a former subject of Deep Focus becomes the guest.  In 2016, drummer Will Calhoun was our guest for a Deep Focus on one of his heroes, Elvin Jones.  Will brought a cassette of a set of music that he had heard as a teenager at the Village Vanguard.  At the time, Elvin had an emerging guitarist with a sound entirely unlike that of anyone else who had ever picked up the instrument.  For the audience and for this young man, every note that he played brought an amazed sense of wonder and discovery.  

 

Little did Will know that, in the years to come, the world would discover Jean-Paul Bourelly's talent, and that he would become a lifelong friend and collaborator.  Jean-Paul's music, informed by his Haitian and Chicago Blues roots, as well as hip-hop, West African traditions, and his own unbridled creative imagination, is still immediately recognizable and entirely beyond category.  What a privilege to have him on Deep Focus.

 

Join us Monday (7/21) when Mitch Goldman hosts Jean-Paul Bourelly on Deep Focus and unearths live, unreleased recordings.  Deep Focus airs Mondays from 6p to 9p NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.  

 

Or join us 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.  We won't even ask for your contact info.  

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

 

Photo credit: no publishing information available.

 

#WKCR #DeepFocus #/Jean-PaulBourelly #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview #MitchGoldman