Solo
10/13/10 By Jacob Kushner
Johnbern Thomas: Jazz in Exile
Haitian drummer, displaced by the earthquake, makes his way across the border
10/04/10 By Jacob Kushner
Jazz in Post-Earthquake Haiti
Jacob Kushner on efforts to keep jazz (and hope) alive in Haiti
January/February 2010 By Vijay Iyer
Thelonious Monk: Ode To A Sphere
Pianist Vijay Iyer examines the modern-day legacy of Thelonious Monk
March 2009 By Ethan Iverson
Crossing Streams
The Bad Plus’ pianist examines the classical-jazz paradox
December 2008 By K. Leander Williams
Real Genius?
A few decades ago, when jazz started becoming known as “America’s classical music,” the theory ran that a shift in the public’s perception of the music would help put the idiom on the road to the kind of legitimization signified by institutional awareness...
August 2008 By David R. Adler
Playing Changes for Change
Saxophonist Tim Ries has a song called “What Happened to Ya?” with lyrics that cite a lack of political resolve among the aging ’60s generation. Some would extend this critique to the jazz community itself, arguing that protest jazz—what Archie Shepp once...
January/February 2008 By Bill Strickland
Moment by Moment
I’m convinced that no genuine success occurs except as a natural expression of the human heart’s search for meaning. Yes, there are plenty of “successful” people who make a lot of money or have achieved high corporate positions, who run organizations or...
November 2007 By Josef Woodard
Westward Expansion: Monterey at 50
When it comes to jazz legacy, that oft-used and misused l-word, the Monterey Jazz Festival has an unusually bountiful supply. That fact rang clearly in the cool late-night air of the Monterey Fairgrounds arena on the closing Sunday night of its 50th annual...
October 2007 By David R. Adler
Jazzing Iraq
Hard to believe, but Iraq was once seen as “an island in a sea of instability.” In Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War, Penny M. Von Eschen discusses how Iraq changed, and how American jazz musicians practically witnessed it. Dave...
April 2007 By Bill Milkowski
On Belonging and Grieving
One of the functions of the annual conference held every January by the International Association for Jazz Education is that it effectively unites a community. For that hectic three-day schmooze-athon, 8,000 or so people from all over the globe gather to...
