I had intended for this essay to start out something like this: OK, I’ll come right out and say it. I used to hate John Mellencamp. Back then he was known as John Cougar. All of my friends had their copies of American Fool, and I had to put upRead More

By Mark Saleski Many years ago, while stuck in traffic during the evening commute, I heard a radio segment on microtonal composer Easely Blackwood. I had read about things like microtones, 24-note equal tunings, and the like, but somehow none of the music had ever made it’s way into myRead More

by S. Victor Aaron There’s been a quiet trend of the last fifteen or so years that seems to be picking up steam lately. That is, to approach jazz from the dreamy and sometimes rough textures of alt rock and electronics. There’s even a name for this: post-rock. Tortoise wasRead More

Mother Nature just staged a terrorist act on our ass! — Warren Smith, “Dyes And Lyes” About five years ago, woodwinds and flute specialist Andrew Lamb convened a recording session with his longtime musical partner Warren Smith (drums, percussion) and the bass/cello master Tom Abbs for some free form musicalRead More

by Pico It used to be, all good jazz originated out of New Orleans, then Chicago, then New York. And a lot of it still does these days. Eventually, Western Europe became the place of origin for a lot of great jazz for several generations, now, and even Eastern EuropeRead More

Before there was Sonic Youth, before there was Radiohead, Material, The Flaming Lips or the Animal Collective, there was Curlew. Founded by saxophonist/composer George Cartwright in 1979, Curlew soon became an incubator for just about every important name in the the New York downtown experimental music scene that thrived inRead More

by Pico Like the proverbial fine wine, James Moody only gets mellower and better with age. A seasoned saxophone and flute veteran who was in Dizzy Gillespie’s original big band of the later 1940’s and most famously the author of everyone’s favorite vocalese jazz tune “Moody’s Mood For Love,” (withRead More

Earlier this week, Erik Friedlander released his 12th album, in his fiftieth year on earth. Those facts may not be so important to you, but the music that marks both events just might. Especially if you like the army of sounds, both familiar and strange, that Friedlander wrests from aRead More

In the late 1970s, Chanel, Inc. took a bold step in advertising for their flagship fragrance, Chanel No. 5. Employing a cool bland of arthouse elan and surreal literary images, the campaign set a new standard for advertising creativity. The Ridley Scott-directed “Share the Fantasy” ad — “I am madeRead More

“Come Down in Time” works as a perfect metaphor, and a sad rebuke, for what later happened to Elton John and his songs.