You might have to go back as far as John Coltrane’s Stellar Regions (1967) to find an album with as vast a concept as Stefon Harris’ TheGrand Unification Theory. Then again, Harris is not what you’d call a one-dimensional musician. Having placed second to vibes legend Bobby Hutcherson (and first in the Rising Star category) […]
Ron Netsky
Posted inMusic
The joyous side of jazz
Jane Monheit has good reason to be smiling from the cover of last month’s Down Beat. She recently left the world of indie labels behind to release her latest album on Sony. At a time when jazz is not exactly flying off the shelves at music stores and record labels are dropping veteran players, there’s […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Fascism in America?
The last place you might expect to find a progressive would be the executive offices at Allied Chemical, Mobil, or Xerox Corp. But, throughout a business career that spanned four decades, Laurence Britt never stopped challenging the status quo. And at the age of 64, he has become a leading voice on the left. Britt, […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Lincoln’s epiphany
It’s one thing to read about history; it’s quite another to be staring down at a letter written by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862. In the letter, addressed to Senator James A. McDougal, Lincoln makes a bold suggestion: the Civil War could be ended if slave owners were compensated monetarily. In other words, instead of […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Mixed-up media
You may not recognize his name, but chances are you’ve seen Robert J. Thompson on television and read his comments in newspapers. One day last week I saw him discuss the Presidential debate on CNN and, a few hours later, read his insights on Howard Stern in the New York Times. Thompson is the founding […]
Posted inMusic
Back to the future
The four members of the Atomic Swindlers who gathered on a recent evening to talk about their new album are no strangers to CD releases. Different combinations of them have played in New Math in the early 1980s, Jet Black Berries in the mid 1980s, and the Raw MaGillys in the 1990s. “If we’d made […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Paranoia strikes deep
Have you ever been at a party, taking part in a lively discussion about politics and world affairs when, suddenly, someone seems to have it all figured out? He or she proceeds to unravel a huge plot involving the Trilateral Commission, the Masons and the New World Order. And, by the way, it’s no coincidence […]
Posted inMusic
Take four
With the Rochester International Jazz Festival concluding a successful third year, a 24-hour jazz radio station (WGMC 90.1 FM), and world-class jazz educators at area colleges, few can doubt Rochester’s prowess when it comes to jazz. But if further proof is needed, consider this fact: over the past few months four excellent jazz CDs have […]
Posted inMusic
Get the funk in your face
At the age of two, George Johnson was weaned on the spiritual music of Mahalia Jackson at his grandmother’s Los Angeles home, but it wasn’t long before he got all shook up. “My first major influence was seeing Elvis Presley on television when I was five,” says Johnson, who just turned 51. “During a […]
Posted inMusic
All that jazz: RIJF in review
With the third annual Rochester International Jazz Festival fresh in our minds, let’s state the obvious: this is not just a jazz festival; this is the best thing to happen in Rochester in decades. It took an outsider, producer John Nugent, to see the potential of a city with rich musical resources and a […]
Posted inMusic
Trumpeting new ideas
The leading trumpet players of the last several decades coaxed no shortage of distinctive sounds out of the instrument. Miles Davis was known for evoking extraordinary pathos. Wynton Marsalis can make it sing with astounding clarity. And Jon Faddis can play in an upper register so high that you might wonder if the notes are […]
Posted inMusic
Too much jazz
When Oscar Peterson walked out on the Eastman Theatre stage Saturday evening, the Rochester International Jazz Festival audience responded with a tremendous ovation. Peterson appeared frail as he walked to the piano, but as soon as he began to play, all concern disappeared. Although the stroke that befell him a decade ago has slowed […]
