[This review was published in the journal Jazz Perspectives (vol. 8, no. 1). Download a copy from my academia.edu webpage. -ML] The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History, and the Challenge of Bebop. By Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013. ISBN: 978-0520243910 (hardcover). 240 pp. $34.95. In The Amazing Bud Powell: Black […]
On Wednesday, August 12, 2015, conguero and composer Samuel Torres premiered his new recording, Forced Displacement (Zoho Records), at Zinc Bar in the West Village. As he explained in his introduction to the audience, the album is just one aspect of an ongoing project in San Juan de Urabá, Colombia, which will include a documentary […]
Improvisation and the Liberal Arts Call for submissions Special issue of Critical Studies in Improvisation / Études critiques en improvisation Guest edited by Jason Robinson, Mark Lomanno, and Sandra Mathern Like improvisation, the liberal arts advance our understanding of how individuals and communities interact with and relate to one another and derive meaning from human […]
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 […]
In 2007 I left the NYC jazz scene to attend a PhD program in ethnomusicology at the University of Texas at Austin. One of the reasons I chose the program was for its reputation as one of the strongest programs in the country for incorporating anthropology and the social sciences into music research. As someone interested […]
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 […]
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 […]
Thanks to my colleagues at Ethnomusicology Review for inviting me to submit a response to a recent article on the Cuban poet Nicolas Guillén and Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas. My article is posted here, but I’m including the text below as well. In her article, “Reimagining the Poetic and Musical Translation of ‘Sensemayá,’” Helga Zambrano presents […]
The Rhythm of Study 