Compiling a list of the greatest works of the last ten years is an inherently difficult proposition. The first complication lies in the fact that so many of my musical memories from the last decade are tied to recordings released prior to the period. Some of my best memories include the Charlie Parker song from 1950 that played at my wedding, the New Year’s Eve I first stumbled … [Read more...]
Smells Like Teen Spirit: A Critical Analysis of Covers
Bringing outside influences into jazz and bringing jazz to other genres has been going on probably since there was a concept of jazz as a genre. Witness hip-hop and electronic producers sampling from jazz records and Robert Glasper playing J Dilla tunes. Witness David Bowie backed by a group of incredible jazz musicians, DJ Logic joining Medeski, Martin, and Wood, Miles Davis … [Read more...]
The Best Jazz Albums of 2012: #10-1
By the circumstances of our calendar, we culturally use the transition into the new year as a time to reflect. We reflect on how we have grown as people, about the ties to our friends new and old, about how we have conducted ourselves, of what we have liked and didn't like. We as people periodically reflect, and as people who love music, we periodically reflect on what moved … [Read more...]
Relevant to His Time: An Interview with Robert Glasper
Some conversations bore me. Some don’t. But few are interesting enough that I’ll sit hunched over a cell phone for fifteen minutes, holding a microphone up to the earpiece, and then spend half an hour trying to decipher the grainy voice on the tape for just a few pages of type. This one was. We could have just written a review of Robert Glasper’s new album, Black Radio, … [Read more...]