Deep Focus

As a young Jazz drummer in the Seventies, improvising drummer William Hooker frequently found himself on the bandstand as part of an organ trio. The sonic thunder of a Hammond B3 organ in the hands of a vibrant musician scorched an impression into him that will stay with him to his last days on earth. Although he heard the organ played night after night during that era, no organist that he heard then or since has matched the tumult that Larry Young brought.

 

Larry Young, AKA Khalid Yasin, had a sound and textural approach unlike anyone else who has played the instrument. His early blues-inflected playing yielded to a harmonic concept inspired by John Coltrane wedded to an unequaled rhythmic and sonic range. Although he died under mysterious circumstances in 1978 at the age of 37, his work with everyone from Hank Mobley to Jimi Hendrix, Tony Williams to Miles Davis (That's him on "Bitches Brew") as well as his many exceptional dates as a leader have endeared him to a small coterie of very dedicated fans.

 

In this rebroadcast of a Deep Focus from 2014, William and host Mitch Goldman will explore the WKCR archives for rarities and unreleased gems.

 

#WKCR #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #WilliamHooker #LarryYoung #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #jazzpodcast

 

Photo credits: Larry Young by Francis Wolff/Mosaic Images.

William Hooker photo courtesy of William Hooker.

As a young Jazz drummer in the Seventies, improvising drummer William Hooker frequently found himself on the bandstand as part of an organ trio. The sonic thunder of a Hammond B3 organ in the hands of a vibrant musician scorched an impression into him that will stay with him to his last days on earth. Although he heard the organ played night after night during that era, no organist that he heard then or since has matched the tumult that Larry Young brought.

 

Larry Young, AKA Khalid Yasin, had a sound and textural approach unlike anyone else who has played the instrument. His early blues-inflected playing yielded to a harmonic concept inspired by John Coltrane wedded to an unequaled rhythmic and sonic range. Although he died under mysterious circumstances in 1978 at the age of 37, his work with everyone from Hank Mobley to Jimi Hendrix, Tony Williams to Miles Davis (That's him on "Bitches Brew") as well as his many exceptional dates as a leader have endeared him to a small coterie of very dedicated fans.

 

In this rebroadcast of a Deep Focus from 2014, William and host Mitch Goldman explore the WKCR archives for rarities and unreleased gems.

 

#WKCR #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #WilliamHooker #LarryYoung #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #jazzpodcast

 

Photo credits: Larry Young by Francis Wolff/Mosaic Images.

William Hooker photo courtesy of William Hooker.

Imagine being present at the moment of creation. Now imagine being one of the creators, inventing new sounds and new rhythms that the world has never heard, that people will still be talking about 70 years later. Drummer Roy Haynes played Birdland with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Bud Powell, AND HE’S STILL WITH US! Roy’s son Graham Haynes (a marvelously accomplished and inventive musician in his own right) and I celebrate Roy in this Deep Focus from 2017. 

 

Yum!

 

#WKCR @JazzRadio #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #RoyHaynes #GrahamHaynes #Birdland

 

Photo credit: Roy_Haynes_(6338437993) jose nieto, CC BY 2.0 creativecommons.org-licenses-by-2.0 via Wikimedia Commons 

Imagine being present at the moment of creation. Now imagine being one of the creators, inventing new sounds and new rhythms that the world has never heard, that people will still be talking about 70 years later. Drummer Roy Haynes played Birdland with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Bud Powell, AND HE’S STILL WITH US! Roy’s son Graham Haynes (a marvelously accomplished and inventive musician in his own right) and I celebrate Roy in this Deep Focus from 2017.

Yum!

#WKCR @JazzRadio #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #RoyHaynes #GrahamHaynes #Birdland

Photo credit: Roy_Haynes_(6338437993) jose nieto, CC BY 2.0 creativecommons.org-licenses-by-2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
 

Imagine being present at the moment of creation. Now imagine being one of the creators, inventing new sounds and new rhythms that the world has never heard, that people will still be talking about 70 years later. Drummer Roy Haynes played Birdland with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Bud Powell, AND HE’S STILL WITH US! Roy’s son Graham Haynes (a marvelously accomplished and inventive musician in his own right) and I celebrate Roy in this Deep Focus from 2017.

Yum!

#WKCR @JazzRadio #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #RoyHaynes #GrahamHaynes #Birdland

Photo credit: Roy_Haynes_(6338437993) jose nieto, CC BY 2.0 creativecommons.org-licenses-by-2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
 

A band cannot be a great band if it doesn't have its own distinctive sound. The sonorities of the instruments and the writing are part of it but it's really the character of the players and how they blend, how they respond to one another. Ellington had it, of course; Mingus had it; Ornette always had it, no matter how far flung the instrumentation but... What is it exactly?! It's ineffable, yes, but Brandon Ross spreads light in this edition of Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus from 2015 on Keith Jarrett's American Quartet.


#WKCR #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #BrandonRoss #KeithJarrett #KeithJarrettAmericanQuartet
#JazzRadio #JazzInterview #jazzpodcast

 

Photo credit: Enid Farber

A band cannot be a great band if it doesn't have its own distinctive sound. The sonorities of the instruments and the writing are part of it but it's really the character of the players and how they blend, how they respond to one another. Ellington had it, of course; Mingus had it; Ornette always had it, no matter how far flung the instrumentation but... What is it exactly?! It's ineffable, yes, but Brandon Ross spreads light in this edition of Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus from 2015 on Keith Jarrett's American Quartet.


#WKCR #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #BrandonRoss #KeithJarrett #KeithJarrettAmericanQuartet
#JazzRadio #JazzInterview #jazzpodcast

 

Photo credit: Enid Farber

What are the lessons that musicians look to their forebears for?  

How to play the instrument? Certainly. 

Composition? Sure. 

Bandleading? Yes.

What else?

 

What about finding humor in desperation? 

What about embracing life? 

 What about theatricality? 

What about swagger? 

What about making something out of nothing?

What about the things that make people talk about you decades after you have left the planet?  

 

Melvin Gibbs checked out Lester Bowie mighty close and he has something to say about it on this edition of Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus from 2016.  

 

#WKCR #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #MelvinGibbs #LesterBowie #JazzRadio #JazzInterview JazzPodcast

Photo credit: Lester_Bowie,_Jazz_Festival_Zeltweg_1983 - Jodeli, CC BY-SA 4.0 creativecommons.org-licenses-by-sa-4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

What are the lessons that musicians look to their forebears for?  

How to play the instrument? Certainly. 

Composition? Sure. 

Bandleading? Yes.

What else?

 

What about finding humor in desperation? 

What about embracing life? 

 What about theatricality? 

What about swagger? 

What about making something out of nothing?

What about the things that make people talk about you decades after you have left the planet?  

 

Melvin Gibbs checked out Lester Bowie mighty close and he has something to say about it on this edition of Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus from 2016.  

 

#WKCR #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #MelvinGibbs #LesterBowie #JazzRadio #JazzInterview JazzPodcast

Photo credit: Lester_Bowie,_Jazz_Festival_Zeltweg_1983 - Jodeli, CC BY-SA 4.0 creativecommons.org-licenses-by-sa-4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Milford Graves-- percussionist, acupuncturist, herbalist, martial artist, programmer, professor and pioneer of improvised music-- left this world on February 12, 2021. Join me in this celebration of his music and his life in a Deep Focus from July of 2019 with the brilliant Pheeroan Aklaff.  Splendor!

As a special bonus, if I get just one request, I will also post the interview that Andy Rotman and I did with Milford in July of 1987(!).

#WKCR #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #PheeroanakLaff #MilfordGraves #Jazz #JazzRadio #JazzInterview