Deep Focus

2023.09.04 Craig Harris on Sam Rivers - 3 of 3

 In the sixties, they explained evolution to us with that March of Progress illustration, a lockstep development from the proto-human Dryopithecus to modern man.  That same approach was also used to explain jazz evolution: New Orleans to Chicago to New York, hot jazz to swing to bebop to cool... Contemporary evolutionary biologists will tell you that that sixties view is far too linear and simplistic.  Should the same be said about the received history of the music?  

 

Let's consider saxophonist Sam Rivers.  He played in the bands of Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, curated the most prominent jazz loft in the seventies, and led bleeding edge improvisatory small bands.  But he also composed at least a page a day of large-ensemble music, over 400 discrete compositions.  This is an astonishing volume of work, perhaps even unprecedented.  So where do you put Sam Rivers in your Jazz March of Progress?  

 

This large ensemble work by Sam Rivers is the topic of this Monday's (9/4) edition of Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus.  The guest will be trombonist Craig Harris who played in Rivers's Orchestra and is organizing a tribute performance for Sam Rivers' centennial on September 22, 2023 at Mt. Morris Ascension Presbyterian Church.  If you haven't heard this music, this show will be revealing (and if you have then I didn't even need to tell you all of this!).  

Photo credit: Sam Rivers - flute by Tom Marcello Webster, New York, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

 

#WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #CraigHarris #SamRivers #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast 

2023.09.04 Craig Harris on Sam Rivers - 2 of 3

 In the sixties, they explained evolution to us with that March of Progress illustration, a lockstep development from the proto-human Dryopithecus to modern man.  That same approach was also used to explain jazz evolution: New Orleans to Chicago to New York, hot jazz to swing to bebop to cool... Contemporary evolutionary biologists will tell you that that sixties view is far too linear and simplistic.  Should the same be said about the received history of the music?  

 

Let's consider saxophonist Sam Rivers.  He played in the bands of Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, curated the most prominent jazz loft in the seventies, and led bleeding edge improvisatory small bands.  But he also composed at least a page a day of large-ensemble music, over 400 discrete compositions.  This is an astonishing volume of work, perhaps even unprecedented.  So where do you put Sam Rivers in your Jazz March of Progress?  

 

This large ensemble work by Sam Rivers is the topic of this Monday's (9/4) edition of Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus.  The guest will be trombonist Craig Harris who played in Rivers's Orchestra and is organizing a tribute performance for Sam Rivers' centennial on September 22, 2023 at Mt. Morris Ascension Presbyterian Church.  If you haven't heard this music, this show will be revealing (and if you have then I didn't even need to tell you all of this!).  

Photo credit: Sam Rivers - courtesy of Blue Note Records.

 

#WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #CraigHarris #SamRivers #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast 

2023.09.04 Craig Harris on Sam Rivers - 1 of 3

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In the sixties, they explained evolution to us with that March of Progress illustration, a lockstep development from the proto-human Dryopithecus to modern man.  That same approach was also used to explain jazz evolution: New Orleans to Chicago to New York, hot jazz to swing to bebop to cool... Contemporary evolutionary biologists will tell you that that sixties view is far too linear and simplistic.  Should the same be said about the received history of the music?  

 

Let's consider saxophonist Sam Rivers.  He played in the bands of Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, curated the most prominent jazz loft in the seventies, and led bleeding edge improvisatory small bands.  But he also composed at least a page a day of large-ensemble music, over 400 discrete compositions.  This is an astonishing volume of work, perhaps even unprecedented.  So where do you put Sam Rivers in your Jazz March of Progress?  

 

This large ensemble work by Sam Rivers is the topic of this Monday's (9/4) edition of Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus.  The guest will be trombonist Craig Harris who played in Rivers's Orchestra and is organizing a tribute performance for Sam Rivers' centennial on September 22, 2023 at Mt. Morris Ascension Presbyterian Church.  If you haven't heard this music, this show will be revealing (and if you have then I didn't even need to tell you all of this!).  

 

Photo credit: Sam Rivers - flute by Tom Marcello Webster, New York, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

 

#WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #CraigHarris #SamRivers #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast 

 

 

 

2023.08.21 Roy Nathanson on Eric Dolphy - 3 of 3

If Eric Dolphy's music were a school of painting it would be analytical cubism: planar and angular, multi-directional and austere,  But it's not abstract.  It's showing us something we know; we are simply experiencing it in a completely new way.  His work, in its frame, becomes an entire reality unto itself.  It's endless. 

 

So what happens when you place this masterly museum piece in a sweaty nightclub?  Does it shine?  Does it wilt?  Does Dolphy change his approach?  Few have examined Dolphy more closely than saxophonist/bandleader/poet/professor Roy Nathanson but we don't know if even Roy has heard the recordings from the WKCR archives that we'll play on Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus this Monday (8/21) from 6pm to 9pm NYC time.  It's on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.  

 

Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/

 

Did you know that you can find out more about Deep Focus and research past episodes here? https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/

 

Photo credit: fair use.

 

#WKCR #DeepFocus #JazzAlternatives #RoyNathanson #EricDolphy #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast 

 

2023.08.21 Roy Nathanson on Eric Dolphy - 2 of 3

If Eric Dolphy's music were a school of painting it would be analytical cubism: planar and angular, multi-directional and austere,  But it's not abstract.  It's showing us something we know; we are simply experiencing it in a completely new way.  His work, in its frame, becomes an entire reality unto itself.  It's endless. 

 

So what happens when you place this masterly museum piece in a sweaty nightclub?  Does it shine?  Does it wilt?  Does Dolphy change his approach?  Few have examined Dolphy more closely than saxophonist/bandleader/poet/professor Roy Nathanson but we don't know if even Roy has heard the recordings from the WKCR archives that we'll play on Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus this Monday (8/21) from 6pm to 9pm NYC time.  It's on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.  

 

Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/

 

Did you know that you can find out more about Deep Focus and research past episodes here? https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/

 

Photo credit: photographer unknown.

 

#WKCR #DeepFocus #JazzAlternatives #RoyNathanson #EricDolphy #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast 

 

2023.08.21 Roy Nathanson on Eric Dolphy - 1 of 3

If Eric Dolphy's music were a school of painting it would be analytical cubism: planar and angular, multi-directional and austere,  But it's not abstract.  It's showing us something we know; we are simply experiencing it in a completely new way.  His work, in its frame, becomes an entire reality unto itself.  It's endless. 

 

So what happens when you place this masterly museum piece in a sweaty nightclub?  Does it shine?  Does it wilt?  Does Dolphy change his approach?  Few have examined Dolphy more closely than saxophonist/bandleader/poet/professor Roy Nathanson but we don't know if even Roy has heard the recordings from the WKCR archives that we'll play on Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus this Monday (8/21) from 6pm to 9pm NYC time.  It's on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.  

 

Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/

 

Did you know that you can find out more about Deep Focus and research past episodes here? https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/

 

Photo credit: Eric Dolphy courtesy of Prestige Records.

 

#WKCR #DeepFocus #JazzAlternatives #RoyNathanson #EricDolphy #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast 

2023.08.07 Steven Bernstein and Scotty Hard on Miles Davis - 3 of 3

You're Miles Davis.  It's March of 1970 and you're about to release Bitches Brew, your most incendiary album yet.  You have an electric band of young assassins (each of whom will go on to become a legendary bandleader in his own right) and they don't sound like any band anyone has ever heard.  You know you've got the goods.  You're looking for a new audience for this new sound and you get invited to share a bill with a major rock band at the Fillmore East, THE place where the Woodstock Generation is finding its music.  Can you win them over?  What do you hit them with?  

 

Slide trumpeter Steven Bernstein and producer/beatmaster Scotty Hard have both been both relentless shatterers of audience expectations and dedicated fans of Miles Davis, particularly in this phase of his career.   What happens if we put them in the audience for Miles's first night at the legendary Fillmore East?  (and did we mention that it's Wayne Shorter's last gig with Miles?).  

 

Find out Monday (8/7) from 6p to 9p NYC time on Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/ 

 

Photo credit: publishing info not available.

 

#WKCR #JazzAlternatives #ScottyHard #StevenBernstein #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #MilesDavis #JazzRockFusion #FillmoreEast #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast #BitchesBrew

 

2023.08.07 Steven Bernstein and Scotty Hard on Miles Davis - 2 of 3

You're Miles Davis.  It's March of 1970 and you're about to release Bitches Brew, your most incendiary album yet.  You have an electric band of young assassins (each of whom will go on to become a legendary bandleader in his own right) and they don't sound like any band anyone has ever heard.  You know you've got the goods.  You're looking for a new audience for this new sound and you get invited to share a bill with a major rock band at the Fillmore East, THE place where the Woodstock Generation is finding its music.  Can you win them over?  What do you hit them with?  

 

Slide trumpeter Steven Bernstein and producer/beatmaster Scotty Hard have both been both relentless shatterers of audience expectations and dedicated fans of Miles Davis, particularly in this phase of his career.   What happens if we put them in the audience for Miles's first night at the legendary Fillmore East?  (and did we mention that it's Wayne Shorter's last gig with Miles?).  

 

Find out Monday (8/7) from 6p to 9p NYC time on Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/ 

 

Photo credit: Miles Davis - Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. - 1970 by Robert Houston - Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Robert and Greta Houston.

 

#WKCR #JazzAlternatives #ScottyHard #StevenBernstein #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #MilesDavis #JazzRockFusion #FillmoreEast #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast #BitchesBrew

 

2023.08.07 Steven Bernstein and Scotty Hard on Miles Davis - 1 of 3

You're Miles Davis.  It's March of 1970 and you're about to release Bitches Brew, your most incendiary album yet.  You have an electric band of young assassins (each of whom will go on to become a legendary bandleader in his own right) and they don't sound like any band anyone has ever heard.  You know you've got the goods.  You're looking for a new audience for this new sound and you get invited to share a bill with a major rock band at the Fillmore East, THE place where the Woodstock Generation is finding its music.  Can you win them over?  What do you hit them with?  

 

Slide trumpeter Steven Bernstein and producer/beatmaster Scotty Hard have both been both relentless shatterers of audience expectations and dedicated fans of Miles Davis, particularly in this phase of his career.   What happens if we put them in the audience for Miles's first night at the legendary Fillmore East?  (and did we mention that it's Wayne Shorter's last gig with Miles?).  

 

Find out Monday (8/7) from 6p to 9p NYC time on Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/ 

 

Photo credit: Miles Davis - Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. - 1970 by Robert Houston - Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Robert and Greta Houston.

 

#WKCR #JazzAlternatives #ScottyHard #StevenBernstein #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #MilesDavis #JazzRockFusion #FillmoreEast #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast #BitchesBrew

 

2023.07.24 Ahmed Abdullah on Sun Ra, Abbey Lincoln - 3 of 3

The future that Sun Ra sang of has arrived in so many ways.  No one knows this better than the musicians who made the music with him.  Ahmed Abdullah was part of Sun Ra's Arkestra for more than 20 years and his insights about that time could fill a book.  In fact, they have.  "A Strange Celestial Road" is newly released and Ahmed joins host Mitch Goldman to discuss it on this week's Deep Focus. 

 

Monday night 6p to 9p NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/

Special bonus: Tuesday 7/25 at 7pm Mitch Goldman interviews Ahmed Abdullah about "A Strange Celestial Road" at Strand Books at 828 Broadway in Greenwich Village.  The event is free and open to all.  

Photo credit: Sun Ra - Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture -  Gift of David D. Spitzer

 

#WKCR #SunRa #AhmedAbdullah #JazzAlternatives #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #SunRaArkestra #AStrangeCelestialRoad #BlankForms #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast #LoftJazz #FreeJazz