Deep Focus

This music is at its best when the artist is telling you exactly who they are.  Pianist Andrew Hill always seemed able to take us inside his internal mindscape of thoughts, puzzles and emotions.  Whether alone or in an ensemble, in both his playing and his writing, he did so with an articulateness that could seem offhand but betrayed a distinct precision.  It was just... him.   Multi-instrumentali...

This music is at its best when the artist is telling you exactly who they are.  Pianist Andrew Hill always seemed able to take us inside his internal mindscape of thoughts, puzzles and emotions.  Whether alone or in an ensemble, in both his playing and his writing, he did so with an articulateness that could seem offhand but betrayed a distinct precision.  It was just... him.   Multi-instrumentali...

This music is at its best when the artist is showing you exactly who they are.  Pianist Andrew Hill always seemed able to take us inside his internal mindscape of thoughts, puzzles and emotions.  Whether alone or in an ensemble, in both his playing and his writing, he did so with an articulateness that could seem offhand but betrayed a distinct precision.  It was just... him.   Multi-instrumentali...

"Rock." "Jazz." "Classical." "Blues."  We rarely question the value of categorizing music.  These words are handy buckets to drop songs into: "I like this but I don't like that."  Occasionally, an artist will come along and smudge the lines between them and these are often the artists we celebrate on Deep Focus.     Tru Born (a.k.a. Anthony Michael Peterson) takes this line of exploration quite a...

"Rock." "Jazz." "Classical." "Blues."  We rarely question the value of categorizing music.  These words are handy buckets to drop songs into: "I like this but I don't like that."  Occasionally, an artist will come along and smudge the lines between them and these are often the artists we celebrate on Deep Focus.     Tru Born (a.k.a. Anthony Michael Peterson) takes this line of exploration quite a...

"Rock." "Jazz." "Classical." "Blues."  We rarely question the value of categorizing music.  These words are handy buckets to drop songs into: "I like this but I don't like that."  Occasionally, an artist will come along and smudge the lines between them and these are often the artists we celebrate on Deep Focus.     Tru Born (a.k.a. Anthony Michael Peterson) takes this line of exploration quite a...

Bassist Mark Peterson joins me tonight from 6pm to 9pm on WKCR (89.9FM and wkcr.org) in a Deep Focus on German bassist/bandleader Eberhard Weber. Weber is a wholly distinctive musical thinker. Hmmmm… what ELSE do he and Mark have in common? This one is going to be fun! #WKCR #MarkPeterson #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #JazzPodcast #JamesBloodUlmer #StanleyClarke #JohnnieJohnson

Bassist Mark Peterson joins me tonight from 6pm to 9pm on WKCR (89.9FM and wkcr.org) in a Deep Focus on German bassist/bandleader Eberhard Weber. Weber is a wholly distinctive musical thinker. Hmmmm… what ELSE do he and Mark have in common? This one is going to be fun!   #WKCR #MarkPeterson #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #JazzPodcast #JamesBloodUlmer #StanleyClarke #JohnnieJohnson

Bassist Mark Peterson joins me tonight from 6pm to 9pm on WKCR (89.9FM and wkcr.org) in a Deep Focus on German bassist/bandleader Eberhard Weber. Weber is a wholly distinctive musical thinker. Hmmmm… what ELSE do he and Mark have in common? This one is going to be fun!   #WKCR #MarkPeterson #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #JazzPodcast #JamesBloodUlmer #StanleyClarke #JohnnieJohnson

There is a point at which the usefulness of language ends.  You are simply not going to be able to express in words the sense of awe that you feel when creation overwhelms you but you always know when someone else is feeling it, too.  In this moment you will find pianist Matthew Shipp and others who admire saxophonist Albert Ayler.   Albert Ayler died at age 34 in 1970 and to this day his life fee...

There is a point at which the usefulness of language ends.  You are simply not going to be able to express in words the sense of awe that you feel when creation overwhelms you but you always know when someone else is feeling it, too.  In this moment you will find pianist Matthew Shipp and others who admire saxophonist Albert Ayler.   Albert Ayler died at age 34 in 1970 and to this day his life fee...

There is a point at which the usefulness of language ends.  You are simply not going to be able to express in words the sense of awe that you feel when creation overwhelms you but you always know when someone else is feeling it, too.  In this moment you will find pianist Matthew Shipp and others who admire saxophonist Albert Ayler.   Albert Ayler died at age 34 in 1970 and to this day his life fee...

"Easily Slip Into Another World," Henry Threadgill's recent memoir, is required reading for a full appreciation of tonight's Deep Focus.  It reveals the roots, the rich harvest, and the hidden, dark corners of a vibrant, creative life.  The prose is plainspoken and forthright but the content is absolutely mind-expanding.  No one of Threadgill's explosively expressive generation has laid bare the i...

"Easily Slip Into Another World," Henry Threadgill's recent memoir, is required reading for a full appreciation of tonight's Deep Focus.  It reveals the roots, the rich harvest, and the hidden, dark corners of a vibrant, creative life.  The prose is plainspoken and forthright but the content is absolutely mind-expanding.  No one of Threadgill's explosively expressive generation has laid bare the i...

"Easily Slip Into Another World," Henry Threadgill's recent memoir, is required reading for a full appreciation of tonight's Deep Focus.  It reveals the roots, the rich harvest, and the hidden, dark corners of a vibrant, creative life.  The prose is plainspoken and forthright but the content is absolutely mind-expanding.  No one of Threadgill's explosively expressive generation has laid bare the i...

 In the sixties, they explained evolution to us with that March of Progress illustration, a lockstep development from the proto-human Dryopithecus to modern man.  That same approach was also used to explain jazz evolution: New Orleans to Chicago to New York, hot jazz to swing to bebop to cool... Contemporary evolutionary biologists will tell you that that sixties view is far too linear and simplis...

 In the sixties, they explained evolution to us with that March of Progress illustration, a lockstep development from the proto-human Dryopithecus to modern man.  That same approach was also used to explain jazz evolution: New Orleans to Chicago to New York, hot jazz to swing to bebop to cool... Contemporary evolutionary biologists will tell you that that sixties view is far too linear and simplis...

------ In the sixties, they explained evolution to us with that March of Progress illustration, a lockstep development from the proto-human Dryopithecus to modern man.  That same approach was also used to explain jazz evolution: New Orleans to Chicago to New York, hot jazz to swing to bebop to cool... Contemporary evolutionary biologists will tell you that that sixties view is far too linear and s...

If Eric Dolphy's music were a school of painting it would be analytical cubism: planar and angular, multi-directional and austere,  But it's not abstract.  It's showing us something we know; we are simply experiencing it in a completely new way.  His work, in its frame, becomes an entire reality unto itself.  It's endless.    So what happens when you place this masterly museum piece in a sweaty ni...

If Eric Dolphy's music were a school of painting it would be analytical cubism: planar and angular, multi-directional and austere,  But it's not abstract.  It's showing us something we know; we are simply experiencing it in a completely new way.  His work, in its frame, becomes an entire reality unto itself.  It's endless.    So what happens when you place this masterly museum piece in a sweaty ni...

If Eric Dolphy's music were a school of painting it would be analytical cubism: planar and angular, multi-directional and austere,  But it's not abstract.  It's showing us something we know; we are simply experiencing it in a completely new way.  His work, in its frame, becomes an entire reality unto itself.  It's endless.    So what happens when you place this masterly museum piece in a sweaty ni...

You're Miles Davis.  It's March of 1970 and you're about to release Bitches Brew, your most incendiary album yet.  You have an electric band of young assassins (each of whom will go on to become a legendary bandleader in his own right) and they don't sound like any band anyone has ever heard.  You know you've got the goods.  You're looking for a new audience for this new sound and you get invited...

You're Miles Davis.  It's March of 1970 and you're about to release Bitches Brew, your most incendiary album yet.  You have an electric band of young assassins (each of whom will go on to become a legendary bandleader in his own right) and they don't sound like any band anyone has ever heard.  You know you've got the goods.  You're looking for a new audience for this new sound and you get invited...

You're Miles Davis.  It's March of 1970 and you're about to release Bitches Brew, your most incendiary album yet.  You have an electric band of young assassins (each of whom will go on to become a legendary bandleader in his own right) and they don't sound like any band anyone has ever heard.  You know you've got the goods.  You're looking for a new audience for this new sound and you get invited...

The future that Sun Ra sang of has arrived in so many ways.  No one knows this better than the musicians who made the music with him.  Ahmed Abdullah was part of Sun Ra's Arkestra for more than 20 years and his insights about that time could fill a book.  In fact, they have.  "A Strange Celestial Road" is newly released and Ahmed joins host Mitch Goldman to discuss it on this week's Deep Focus.   ...