Category Living…
One More Once: Echoes of Past Futures and Inaugurating Redress in the New Term(s)
“When children grow up, where does the hope go? Is it outgrown like a pair of shoes or has it gone to sleep? Or is it lost somewhere inside of us?” – William Parker Because of an early start to the Spring 2017 semester, I missed the superb Winter Jazz Fest this year, following from […]
To Rush Would Be A Crime: After Shirley Horn’s Riffs on Albert Murray
Last Tuesday I joined Greg Thomas, Clifford Thompson, and Robert O’Meally on a panel celebrating Albert Murray’s writing and scholarship at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem on the occasion of Murray’s 100th birthday. Given the depth of their personal and studied familiarities with Murray, I’ll admit to being both honored and a bit daunted by the […]
Brute Blows for Garner: Improvising Agency and Celebrating 20 Years of Change at the Vision Festival
Monday, July 6th, 2015, marked the six-day anniversary of my third move to New York City. By then I had had enough time to rest up after the busy move, stock my fridge from the neighborhood Fairway, and hit up a few of those “only in NYC” spots that I’d missed so much. I spent the 4th […]
Jazz in the Hollywood Machine: ‘Whiplash’, Insider Anxiety, and Riffing Violence
So the other day I finally watched Whiplash, in part because of the attention the film garnered on the Oscars. And I didn’t hate it. I mean, as a jazz musician, educator, and an empathetic person, there’s a lot to dislike and revile about the plot and particularly about the lightning rod bandleader Terence Fletcher, the […]
Previewing…Winter Jazz Fest 2015
I’ll be in New York City this week for the JazzConnect conference and Winter Jazz Fest. Tickets for the marathon of concerts on Friday and Saturday are only $55 each, which is less than the price of two sets by some of these artists. But WJF is also a unique opportunity to listen to some of […]
Considering the Approach before the Aesthetics: Vijay Iyer’s Research and Writings on Jazz
As a recently announced recipient of both the MacArthur Foundation’s “Genius Grant” and a professorship at Harvard University, pianist Vijay Iyer is commanding a level of public attention seldom witnessed among those in the jazz world. The attention has drawn praise and ire, with opinions ranging from extolling his virtues to questioning not just his […]
Sense, Feeling, and the Rhythm of Study: A Conversation with Jean-Michel Pilc
[The following transcript is excerpted from a conversation with pianist Jean-Michel Pilc recorded on January 15, 2013, at the Kitano Hotel in New York City.] Mark Lomanno (for “The Rhythm of Study”): The blog is brand new, but the work is not. This is one place where I can include my academic writing, my teaching, […]
The Rhythm of Study 