Host Mitch Goldman and his musician-guest explore rare archival recordings of one of the guest’s favorite artists.
Episodes
Sunday Apr 26, 2020
Sunday Apr 26, 2020
Many artists are admired but few are elevated to the status of icons. Eric Dolphy's rich yet austere tone, his thorny compositions and especially his daring solos, with their intervalic leaps and note choices so wrong they're perfect, set him apart from the crowd even now, over 50 years after his death. The urgency and absolute sincerity that he conveyed still set a standard that few artists achieve to their own satisfaction.
Jorge Sylvester is one of the great students of Dolphy's (Unlike the case of, say, Miles Davis or Sonny Rollins, I don't know anyone who is inclined to refer to him by his first name). Like Dolphy, he is a bandleader, a composer and a multi-reed master who goes his own way.
Monday Jan 20, 2020
Monday Jan 20, 2020
Monday Jan 20, 2020
Monday Jan 20, 2020
Monday Jan 20, 2020
How many drummers changed the whole conversation, just with their playing? Like, to the point that they became the North Star for the next generation or two? How many of those were also great bandleaders, and maybe even solid composers? It’s a short list by anybody’s count but one name you are probably already thinking of is Jack DeJohnette.
This Monday, Pheeroan akLaff joins Mitch Goldman to put DeJohnette in Deep Focus. Mitch, of course, has some spectacular live music from the archives that you’ve never heard.
Saturday Dec 14, 2019
Saturday Dec 14, 2019
Saturday Dec 14, 2019
Saturday Dec 14, 2019
Throw guitarist Ben Tyree some meat.* He wants to hear a band that will shred the genres and categories, explode expectations, have the spiritual force to avow its zeal and its fury. Who is going to do that? Are you going to do that? Am I going to do that?
Harriet Tubman is going to do that. Brandon Ross, Melvin Gibbs and JT Lewis have all been guests on Deep Focus but now its their band under the lens.
TURN IT UP! STAND BACK!
*(I said “meat,” not “flesh.” You know Ben Tyree ain’t messing with none of that).