Deep Focus

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 

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

When Mitch Goldman invited Roy Campbell to be his guest on Deep Focus, he knew that Roy was a master student of the entire history of the music, but he had no idea that Roy knew Woody Shaw personally.  Stunning tales of Ornette Coleman, Lee Morgan, and others emerge in this remarkable program, recorded not 2 months before Roy Campbell's tragic early passing.  Roy, you are missed!

#WKCR #DeepFocus #RoyCampbell #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast #JazzRadio

When Mitch Goldman invited Roy Campbell to be his guest on Deep Focus, he knew that Roy was a master student of the entire history of the music, but he had no idea that Roy knew Woody Shaw personally.  Stunning tales of Ornette Coleman, Lee Morgan, and others emerge in this remarkable program, recorded not 2 months before Roy Campbell's tragic early passing.  Roy, you are missed!

When Mitch Goldman invited Roy Campbell to be his guest on Deep Focus, he knew that Roy was a master student of the entire history of the music, but he had no idea that Roy knew Woody Shaw personally.  Stunning tales of Ornette Coleman, Lee Morgan, and others emerge in this remarkable program, recorded not 2 months before Roy Campbell's tragic early passing.  Roy, you are missed!