Deep Focus

In the early 1980s, when saxophonist Eric Person was coming up, one big question that was being addressed was how to combine the free-swinging improv of the Loft scene with the beauty and power of a large ensemble.  Many fascinating strategies would arrive (Henry Threadgill, Butch Morris, we're looking at you!).  One of the first and most thrilling came from saxophonist David Murray.  Murray was t...

Arturo O'Farrill: "Without Carla (Bley)’s influence, I wouldn’t be where I am today; there would be no Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, no Belongó, no Arturo O'Farrill. She is in everything that I do..."  Don't you want to hear what happens when WKCR's Mitch Goldman welcomes Arturo into the WKCR archives for a Deep Focus on Carla Bley?  We know we do!   Game on this Monday (12/23) from 6p to 9p NYC time...

Arturo O'Farrill: "Without Carla (Bley)’s influence, I wouldn’t be where I am today; there would be no Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, no Belongó, no Arturo O'Farrill. She is in everything that I do..."  Don't you want to hear what happens when WKCR's Mitch Goldman welcomes Arturo into the WKCR archives for a Deep Focus on Carla Bley?  We know we do!   Game on this Monday (12/23) from 6p to 9p NYC time...

Arturo O'Farrill: "Without Carla (Bley)’s influence, I wouldn’t be where I am today; there would be no Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, no Belongó, no Arturo O'Farrill. She is in everything that I do..."  Don't you want to hear what happens when WKCR's Mitch Goldman welcomes Arturo into the WKCR archives for a Deep Focus on Carla Bley?  We know we do!   Game on this Monday (12/23) from 6p to 9p NYC time...

Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber is renowned for "never playing anything the same way once." Drawing inspiration from Duke Ellington, Sun Ra, Parliament Funkadelic, and The Art Ensemble of Chicago, in the words of founder Greg Tate, "Our player-ranks  include known Irish fiddlers, AACM refugees, Afro-punk rejects, unrepentant beboppers, feminist rappers, jitterbugging doowoppers, frankly loud funk...

Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber is renowned for "never playing anything the same way once." Drawing inspiration from Duke Ellington, Sun Ra, Parliament Funkadelic, and The Art Ensemble of Chicago, in the words of founder Greg Tate, "Our player-ranks  include known Irish fiddlers, AACM refugees, Afro-punk rejects, unrepentant beboppers, feminist rappers, jitterbugging doowoppers, frankly loud funk...

Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber is renowned for "never playing anything the same way once." Drawing inspiration from Duke Ellington, Sun Ra, Parliament Funkadelic, and The Art Ensemble of Chicago, in the words of founder Greg Tate, "Our player-ranks  include known Irish fiddlers, AACM refugees, Afro-punk rejects, unrepentant beboppers, feminist rappers, jitterbugging doowoppers, frankly loud funk...

The previous time Graham Haynes was the guest on Deep Focus, it was to celebrate his father Roy Haynes’s stunning contributions to Charlie Parker’s performances at Birdland.   That alone would have been enough to earn Roy a place in the history books.  Now, how about Roy with another wildly different innovator making Jazz history at another musical landmark?  So who was the drummer with Thelonious...

The previous time Graham Haynes was the guest on Deep Focus, it was to celebrate his father Roy Haynes’s stunning contributions to Charlie Parker’s performances at Birdland.   That alone would have been enough to earn Roy a place in the history books.  Now, how about Roy with another wildly different innovator making Jazz history at another musical landmark?  So who was the drummer with Thelonious...

What a treat!  Listening to live recordings of Charles Mingus through the ears of the great trombonist and musical thinker Craig Harris.  When Craig was coming up in the seventies, he was enthralled with what Mingus was doing; the daring and imagination were unmatched anywhere.  This was a man in his moment.  It's easy to see how this would have a bearing on who Craig Harris was to become.   Find...

What a treat!  Listening to live recordings of Charles Mingus through the ears of the great trombonist and musical thinker Craig Harris.  When Craig was coming up in the seventies, he was enthralled with what Mingus was doing; the daring and imagination were unmatched anywhere.  This was a man in his moment.  It's easy to see how this would have a bearing on who Craig Harris was to become.   Find...

Here's another Ph. D. topic for you: Miles Davis vs. Ornette Coleman. Both blazingly original innovators lived most of their lives in Manhattan and they were roughly contemporaries (Miles was 4 years older) so they drew from the same talent pool to make up their bands.  But across 30+ years of simultaneous bandleading and the hiring of dozens and dozens of sidemen, how many can you think of who to...

Here's another Ph. D. topic for you: Miles Davis vs. Ornette Coleman. Both blazingly original innovators lived most of their lives in Manhattan and they were roughly contemporaries (Miles was 4 years older) so they drew from the same talent pool to make up their bands.  But across 30+ years of simultaneous bandleading and the hiring of dozens and dozens of sidemen, how many can you think of who to...

Here's another Ph. D. topic for you: Miles Davis vs. Ornette Coleman. Both blazingly original innovators lived most of their lives in Manhattan and they were roughly contemporaries (Miles was 4 years older) so they drew from the same talent pool to make up their bands.  But across 30+ years of simultaneous bandleading and the hiring of dozens and dozens of sidemen, how many can you think of who to...

Let's present an award: who would you say has been the most prolific artist on NYC's forward-looking music scene and who has contributed the most to its community?  Deep Focus host Mitch Goldman's nominee: bassist William Parker.  This Monday, Mitch and trumpeter Lewis "Flip" Barnes will put William Parker's music in Deep Focus.  Will there be live, unreleased recordings from the WKCR archives?  W...

Let's present an award: who would you say has been the most prolific artist on NYC's forward-looking music scene and who has contributed the most to its community?  Deep Focus host Mitch Goldman's nominee: bassist William Parker.  This Monday, Mitch and trumpeter Lewis "Flip" Barnes will put William Parker's music in Deep Focus.  Will there be live, unreleased recordings from the WKCR archives?  W...

Let's present an award: who would you say has been the most prolific artist on NYC's forward-looking music scene and who has contributed the most to its community?  Deep Focus host Mitch Goldman's nominee: bassist William Parker.  This Monday, Mitch and trumpeter Lewis "Flip" Barnes will put William Parker's music in Deep Focus.  Will there be live, unreleased recordings from the WKCR archives?  W...

Tonight (8/19) bassist/composer Melvin Gibbs joins host Mitch Goldman for a Deep Focus on Sun Ra with unheard rarities from the WKCR archives.  Here's a serious question, Melvin: what's the Sun Ra/Brooklyn connection?  This I have to hear.   It's on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or  wkcr.org  Monday from 6pm to 9pm NYC time.  Or join us next week when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite p...

Tonight (8/19) bassist/composer Melvin Gibbs joins host Mitch Goldman for a Deep Focus on Sun Ra with unheard rarities from the WKCR archives.  Here's a serious question, Melvin: what's the Sun Ra/Brooklyn connection?  This I have to hear.   It's on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or  wkcr.org  Monday from 6pm to 9pm NYC time.  Or join us next week when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite p...

Tonight (8/19) bassist/composer Melvin Gibbs joins host Mitch Goldman for a Deep Focus on Sun Ra with unheard rarities from the WKCR archives.  Here's a serious question, Melvin: what's the Sun Ra/Brooklyn connection?  This I have to hear.   It's on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or  wkcr.org  Monday from 6pm to 9pm NYC time.  Or join us next week when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite p...

I love it when I go to a gig and I see that Micah Gaugh is going to be playing. It means it is certain that something unexpected is going to happen. And Micah surprised me with his selection of a subject for Deep Focus: Ronald Shannon Jackson. I was 19 years old and already a die hard music fan but I had no idea what music could do until I heard Shannon’s band, The Decoding Society. Now you’re goi...

I love it when I go to a gig and I see that Micah Gaugh is going to be playing. It means it is certain that something unexpected is going to happen. And Micah surprised me with his selection of a subject for Deep Focus: Ronald Shannon Jackson. I was 19 years old and already a die-hard music fan but I had no idea what music could do until I heard Shannon’s band, The Decoding Society. Now you’re goi...

I love it when I go to a gig and I see that Micah Gaugh is going to be playing. It means it is certain that something unexpected is going to happen. And Micah surprised me with his selection of a subject for Deep Focus: Ronald Shannon Jackson. I was 19 years old and already a die hard music fan but I had no idea what music could do until I heard Shannon’s band, The Decoding Society. Now you’re goi...

People love to talk about Miles Davis reinventing himself and reinventing the music.  They talk about the First Great Quintet in the fifties, the Second Great Quintet in the sixties, the Lost Quintet of 1969, maybe of the electric bands that followed (although often not).  What do they almost never talk about? In 1981, Miles hadn't performed in public, hadn't released a new album, and had barely t...

People love to talk about Miles Davis reinventing himself and reinventing the music.  They talk about the First Great Quintet in the fifties, the Second Great Quintet in the sixties, the Lost Quintet of 1969, maybe of the electric bands that followed (although often not).  What do they almost never talk about? In 1981, Miles hadn't performed in public, hadn't released a new album, and had barely t...