Deep Focus

Since Sun Ra left the planet in 1993, his star just seems to continue to brighten. Not only do his musical ideas grow in relevance but his Afro-Futuristic vision and even his DIY business ethos gain currency. If only we knew someone who was an active participant in his bands in the Seventies and Eighties, maybe even someone who traveled to FESTAC 1977 in Nigeria with Sun Ra and has first-hand stories of Fela Kuti and the truth of the Space Chord. Imagine what we might discover! Hmmm...

Yes, trombonist/bandleader Craig Harris joins Mitch Goldman for a Deep Focus on Sun Ra from 2015, featuring previously unheard live solar flares from the WKCR archives. 

#WKCR #JazzAlternatives #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #craigharris #SunRa #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast #spaceistheplace

Photo credit: Mundi-Joe Tilburg, The Netherlands, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

What do you need to make great music? Chops? Theory? Encyclopedic knowledge of the music? Yeah, that too, but if you don’t have curiosity, a willingness to engage with people, a giving heart, who is going to want to hear what you have to say? Through sixty years of fusing traditions with experimentation, that was always the message from Roswell Rudd and his trombone. Roswell passed away in December 2017 at the age of 82. Trumpeter Steven Bernstein, who was one of Roswell’s musical partners, takes this message to heart.

 

 

We’ve got music like you’ve never heard (because I promise you’ve never heard this!).

 

#WKCR #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #RoswellRudd #StevenBernstein #SexMob #MTO #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

 

Photo credit: Christian Sahm Aschaffenburg, Deutschland, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

What do you need to make great music? Chops? Theory? Encyclopedic knowledge of the music? Yeah, that too, but if you don’t have curiosity, a willingness to engage with people, a giving heart, who is going to want to hear what you have to say? Through sixty years of fusing traditions with experimentation, that was always the message from Roswell Rudd and his trombone. Roswell passed away in December 2017 at the age of 82. Trumpeter Steven Bernstein, who was one of Roswell’s musical partners, takes this message to heart.

 

We’ve got music like you’ve never heard (because I promise you’ve never heard this!).

 

#WKCR #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #RoswellRudd #StevenBernstein #SexMob #MTO #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

 

Photo credit: Christian Sahm Aschaffenburg, Deutschland, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

What do you need to make great music? Chops? Theory? Encyclopedic knowledge of the music? Yeah, that too, but if you don’t have curiosity, a willingness to engage with people, a giving heart, who is going to want to hear what you have to say? Through sixty years of fusing traditions with experimentation, that was always the message from Roswell Rudd and his trombone. Roswell passed away in December 2017 at the age of 82. Trumpeter Steven Bernstein, who was one of Roswell’s musical partners, takes this message to heart.

 

We’ve got music like you’ve never heard (because I promise you’ve never heard this!).

 

#WKCR #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #RoswellRudd #StevenBernstein #SexMob #MTO #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

 

Photo credit: Christian Sahm Aschaffenburg, Deutschland, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Sometimes you have to take all the furniture out of the room to see what it really looks like and to decide what belongs in there. Pianist Andrew Hill did that for our music (most memorably on a series of outstanding Blue Note recordings in the 1960's) and then he put it back together in a whole new way. It's still the same room but it feels fresh and vibrant; the angles are better, you can move around in it more easily. He also opened many new doors leading out of that room and entire generations of younger musicians have enthusiastically moved through them.

 

Vijay Iyer is certainly one of them. He could never be called a Hill clone but he learned many lessons from this imaginative bandleader. It's readily apparent today in the many ensembles that he leads and his even more numerous collaborations and multimedia work. He talks about it with clarity and zeal with host Mitch Goldman in this Deep Focus from 2013.

 

#WKCR #JazzAlternatives #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #AndrewHill #VijayIyer #JazzRadio #jazzpodcast

 

Photo credit: fair use.

Sometimes you have to take all the furniture out of the room to see what it really looks like and to decide what belongs in there. Pianist Andrew Hill did that for our music (most memorably on a series of outstanding Blue Note recordings in the 1960's) and then he put it back together in a whole new way. It's still the same room but it feels fresh and vibrant; the angles are better, you can move around in it more easily. He also opened many new doors leading out of that room and entire generations of younger musicians have enthusiastically moved through them.

 

Vijay Iyer is certainly one of them. He could never be called a Hill clone but he learned many lessons from this imaginative bandleader. It's readily apparent today in the many ensembles that he leads and his even more numerous collaborations and multimedia work. He talks about it with clarity and zeal with host Mitch Goldman in this Deep Focus from 2013.

 

#WKCR #JazzAlternatives #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #AndrewHill #VijayIyer #JazzRadio #jazzpodcast

 

Photo credit: fair use.

Sometimes you have to take all the furniture out of the room to see what it really looks like and to decide what belongs in there. Pianist Andrew Hill did that for our music (most memorably on a series of outstanding Blue Note recordings in the 1960's) and then he put it back together in a whole new way. It's still the same room but it feels fresh and vibrant; the angles are better, you can move around in it more easily. He also opened many new doors leading out of that room and entire generations of younger musicians have enthusiastically moved through them.

 

Vijay Iyer is certainly one of them. He could never be called a Hill clone but he learned many lessons from this imaginative bandleader. It's readily apparent today in the many ensembles that he leads and his even more numerous collaborations and multimedia work. He talks about it with clarity and zeal with host Mitch Goldman in this Deep Focus from 2013.

 

#WKCR #JazzAlternatives #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #AndrewHill #VijayIyer #JazzRadio #jazzpodcast

 

Photo credit: fair use.

Sometimes there’s a fantastic narrative behind these Deep Focus programs and sometimes we are simply reveling in glorious, never-before-heard recordings of history’s greatest musicians with a brilliant scholar of the music to lead us through it. And, by golly, that’s good enough.

Join host Mitch Goldman and his guest, bandleader Eric Anthony Person for a Deep Focus on John Coltrane and Rahsaan Roland Kirk with music from the WKCR archives. Mitch says, “If you have heard any of these recordings before, I’ll eat my hat!”

#WKCR #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #EricPerson #RahsaanRolandKirk #JohnColtrane #ArtEnsembleOfChicago #jazzinterview #jazzradio #jazzpodcast

Photo credit: fair use.

Sometimes there’s a fantastic narrative behind these Deep Focus programs and sometimes we are simply reveling in glorious, never-before-heard recordings of history’s greatest musicians with a brilliant scholar of the music to lead us through it. And, by golly, that’s good enough.

Join host Mitch Goldman and his guest, bandleader Eric Anthony Person for a Deep Focus on the Art Ensemble of Chicago with music from the WKCR archives. Mitch says, “If you have heard any of these recordings before, I’ll eat my hat!”

#WKCR #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #EricPerson #RahsaanRolandKirk #JohnColtrane #ArtEnsembleOfChicago #jazzinterview #jazzradio #jazzpodcast

Photo credit: fair use.

Sometimes there’s a fantastic narrative behind these Deep Focus programs and sometimes we are simply reveling in glorious, never-before-heard recordings of history’s greatest musicians with a brilliant scholar of the music to lead us through it. And, by golly, that’s good enough.

Join host Mitch Goldman and his guest, bandleader Eric Anthony Person for a Deep Focus on the Art Ensemble of Chicago with music from the WKCR archives. Mitch says, “If you have heard any of these recordings before, I’ll eat my hat!”

#WKCR #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #EricPerson #RahsaanRolandKirk #JohnColtrane #ArtEnsembleOfChicago #jazzinterview #jazzradio #jazzpodcast

Photo credit: fair use.