Two of my greatest musical idols were born on April 29. Duke Ellington, in 1899 and the doyen of the tabla, Ustad Alla Rakha in 1919. As the world celebrates the 100th anniversary of the birth of this musical colossus, … Continue reading
For Black History Month, the gar spot will focus on a handful of the many gifted and talented black women instrumentalist who play jazz. Many can easily rattle off a list of some of the biggest names from the Swing … Continue reading
I had my MAGA kid moment many years ago, also while playing drums. One summer day, long ago, I sat on the lawn near Morrison Hall, home of the Music Department at UC Berkeley, and played tabla. Back in the … Continue reading
Crawl on over to San Francisco this coming Saturday, October 20 and check out Lit Crawl 2018. Lots of folks will be reading at various venues, including yours truly. I will read in the session Musical Muses: BARtab’s Tenth Lit Crawl … Continue reading
I created a Spotify playlist of the music associated with my novel Sin Against the Race. As I’ve written previously, and as those who have read the novel can attest, I reference a lot of music. It became, in effect, a … Continue reading
[Part of a series of posts previewing the novel Sin Against the Race.] Sin Against the Race did not start life as a “jazz novel.” When I first started this journey, I listened mostly to classical. Dvořák, Chopin, Mozart, Brahms, the … Continue reading
My favorite section of Hajdu’s Strayhorn biography Lush Life, the part with the strongest storytelling, is where he talks about Billy Strayhorn’s cancer diagnosis. For this chapter, he relied on the vivid memories of Marian Logan, Harlem socialite and wife … Continue reading
I first noticed the music of Mocean Worker when NPR’s All Things Considered used his tune “Tickle It” to introduce their feature “All Tech Considered.” It tickled my ear, so I bought the album it came from, Cinco de Mowo!. I’ve … Continue reading
Until this year, I’ve never been to the Monterey Jazz Festival. One of the premiere events on the jazz calendar, one would think I’d have been all up inside it by now. Sadly, such is not the case. This year, … Continue reading
Duke Ellington’s Famous Orchestra had many great soloists. Indeed, it was a band of great soloists. But one stood a notch above them all, alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges. Jazz writer Scott Yanow states that Hodges possessed “the most beautiful tone … Continue reading