Category Archives: Thoughts

And thus ends the year of the rabbit…

Gordon suggested that, rather than review the year on record with the traditional ranked list, we just cite some records that we dug. I heartily concur; it’s not a race. Besides, I cannot pretend to even come close to having … Continue reading

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2011 in Review

The New Year has come and gone, so it’s a good time to review 2011 resolutions kept or squandered. One vow I had for 2011 was to keep better track of jazz right now. How’d I do? In my mind, … Continue reading

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Happy Anniversary, Us

Last Wednesday, October 5th, marked the one-year anniversary of this blogging project. On that date in 2010, Gordon threw two posts up, one launching what was then entitled “Untitled Jazz”(we’ve always been clever) and one assigning Alan Pasqua’s My New Old Friend … Continue reading

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How I Spent My Summer Vacation, or Baby’s First Jazz Piano

I sit at the piano all the time. My job requires me to accompany, to plunk out parts, to compose, and to demonstrate stuff at the keyboard. I’ve, probably shamefully, played more than my fair share of gigs at the … Continue reading

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The Future of Jazz is Now

I write to you from the future. Or, at least, I write from the future of the ten men that collaborated via email to write the book The Future of Jazz way back in 2002. I got the text because … Continue reading

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Thought for the Day: Top 100 Jazz Songs

Here’s a fun and ultimately pointless one: So, Jazz24.com had listeners vote for the 100 quintessential jazz songs of all time. It’s mostly the list you would expect to see, if you remember that the list is a consensus of … Continue reading

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Erratica: Beer and Tones

A brush with greatness: I was studying with Jonathan Dawe at Juilliard, trying to get a handle on contemporary atonal theory. He invited me to have lunch with Milton Babbit, who spent the time talking about the difficulty of getting … Continue reading

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Erratica: Janey Hates Jazz

[Post needs Youtubes] Some students at the girls school where I teach started up a Music Club this year. Mostly because my office has a nice stereo in it, they meet there once a week. The girls have graciously allowed … Continue reading

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Thought for the day: Chick Corea’s Elektric Power

Over the last few days, a sense of accusation and betrayal in the air. First, the notoriously fair-minded jazz blogger Jon Wertheim campaigns for Chick Corea to be disinvited from JALC. Then, my blogmate Daniel slyly outs me as an … Continue reading

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Thought for the Day: Chick’s Elektric Mayhem

Some jazz online-ists have been burbling today, arguing the merits and demerits of Chick Corea. Jon Wertheim started it, positing why Chick Corea shouldn’t play JALC. His point, to paraphrase, is that Corea’s recent output (recent in, say, glacial terms) … Continue reading

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