Deep Focus

William Parker has perhaps done more than any musician alive to spread understanding and support for open improvised music.  More than that, he is a bassist, bandleader, and conceptualist of the highest order.  The sheer volume of projects (including the upcoming Vision Festival) that he commits energy to is simply daunting and the list of noted improvisers he has played with is practically a who'...

William Parker has perhaps done more than any musician alive to spread understanding and support for open improvised music.  More than that, he is a bassist, bandleader, and conceptualist of the highest order.  The sheer volume of projects (including the upcoming Vision Festival) that he commits energy to is simply daunting and the list of noted improvisers he has played with is practically a who'...

When the centennial of an artist as singular and inventive and influential and expressive as Wes Montgomery passes, one Deep Focus is not enough.  Several weeks ago, Rodney Jones brought us a whole new appreciation for Wes.  Can Mark Whitfield do it again?        This Monday (5/8), Mark takes a deep dive into the WKCR archives on Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus.  Not only are we going to play some neve...

When the centennial of an artist as singular and inventive and influential and expressive as Wes Montgomery passes, one Deep Focus is not enough.  Several weeks ago, Rodney Jones brought us a whole new appreciation for Wes.  Can Mark Whitfield do it again?        This Monday (5/8), Mark takes a deep dive into the WKCR archives on Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus.  Not only are we going to play some neve...

When the centennial of an artist as singular and inventive and influential and expressive as Wes Montgomery passes, one Deep Focus is not enough.  Several weeks ago, Rodney Jones brought us a whole new appreciation for Wes.  Can Mark Whitfield do it again?        This Monday (5/8), Mark takes a deep dive into the WKCR archives on Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus.  Not only are we going to play some neve...

This Monday  (5/1) Jazz Alternatives presents Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus on Andrew Cyrille with guest Daniel Sadownick.   Take a stroll through Andrew Cyrille's discography.   The range of his work across the last 60+ years is practically gasp-inducing.  Admire How many of the hundreds of sessions that he has anchored in that time represent the leader's best works.  Weigh the sense of anticipation...

This Monday  (5/1) Jazz Alternatives presents Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus on Andrew Cyrille with guest Daniel Sadownick.   Take a stroll through Andrew Cyrille's discography.   The range of his work across the last 60+ years is practically gasp-inducing.  Admire How many of the hundreds of sessions that he has anchored in that time represent the leader's best works.  Weigh the sense of anticipation...

This Monday  (5/1) Jazz Alternatives presents Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus on Andrew Cyrille with guest Daniel Sadownick.   Take a stroll through Andrew Cyrille's discography.   The range of his work across the last 60+ years is practically gasp-inducing.  Admire How many of the hundreds of sessions that he has anchored in that time represent the leader's best works.  Weigh the sense of anticipation...

The streets of NYC are vibrantly alive with the spirits of the originators and the thrust and tumult of what they created.  If, that is, you know how to summon them, and few do as our guest for this Deep Focus, Ras Moshe.  He and host Mitch Goldman bring us to the legendary Tin Palace for an exploration by Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre at the height of his creative powers in the mid-Seventies.  He...

The streets of NYC are vibrantly alive with the spirits of the originators and the thrust and tumult of what they created.  If, that is, you know how to summon them, and few do as our guest for this Deep Focus, Ras Moshe.  He and host Mitch Goldman bring us to the legendary Tin Palace for an exploration by Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre at the height of his creative powers in the mid-Seventies.  He...

The streets of NYC are vibrantly alive with the spirits of the originators and the thrust and tumult of what they created.  If, that is, you know how to summon them, and few do as our guest for this Deep Focus, Ras Moshe.  He and host Mitch Goldman bring us to the legendary Tin Palace for an exploration by Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre at the height of his creative powers in the mid-Seventies.  He...

It's 1965.  Wes Montgomery has been on the scene for more than 2 decades but he is just emerging as a major pop star.  He has hit singles on the charts and he is touring major European concert venues.  But in New York, he plays a series of shows at a small club on Spring Street called the Half Note.  It's the spot downtown where all the cats check each other out.   For this episode, recorded on th...

It's 1965.  Wes Montgomery has been on the scene for more than 2 decades but he is just emerging as a major pop star.  He has hit singles on the charts and he is touring major European concert venues.  But in New York, he plays a series of shows at a small club on Spring Street called the Half Note.  It's the spot downtown where all the cats check each other out.   For this episode, recorded on th...

It's 1965.  Wes Montgomery has been on the scene for more than 2 decades but he is just emerging as a major pop star.  He has hit singles on the charts and he is touring major European concert venues.  But in New York, he plays a series of shows at a small club on Spring Street called the Half Note.  It's the spot downtown where all the cats check each other out.   For this episode, recorded on th...

Celebrating the glorious music of Dexter Gordon on the centenary of his birth, February 27, 2023, with the brilliant Eric Person.     Photo credit: Dexter Gordon at Mountain Winery Jazz Festival, Saratoga CA_1981 Brianmcmillen, CC BY-SA 4.0 creativecommons.org-licenses-by-sa-4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Celebrating the magnificent Dexter Gordon on the centenary of his birth, February 27, 2023, with the brilliant Eric Person.     Photo credit: Dexter_Gordon at Mountain Winery Jazz Festival, Saratoga CA_1981 Brianmcmillen, CC BY-SA 4.0 creativecommons.org-licenses-by-sa-4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Celebrating the incomparable Dexter Gordon on the centenary of his birth, February 27, 2023, with the brilliant Eric Person.     Photo credit: Dexter Gordon at Mountain Winery Jazz Festival, Saratoga CA_1981 Brianmcmillen, CC BY-SA 4.0 creativecommons.org-licenses-by-sa-4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Jeff Beck arrived at a time when all the rules were being questioned.  Unlike many of his contemporaries (and many in his audience), he never lost the sense of discovery in his music.  Put an instrumental band together and get it played on the radio?  Sure, why not?  Collaborate with Stevie Wonder and Tina Turner?  I'll try that!  Introduce a whole new audience to the music of Charles Mingus? That...

Jeff Beck arrived at a time when all the rules were being questioned.  Unlike many of his contemporaries (and many in his audience), he never lost the sense of discovery in his music.  Put an instrumental band together and get it played on the radio?  Sure, why not?  Collaborate with Stevie Wonder and Tina Turner?  I'll try that!  Introduce a whole new audience to the music of Charles Mingus? That...

Jeff Beck arrived at a time when all the rules were being questioned.  Unlike many of his contemporaries (and many in his audience), he never lost the sense of discovery in his music.  Put an instrumental band together and get it played on the radio?  Sure, why not?  Collaborate with Stevie Wonder and Tina Turner?  I'll try that!  Introduce a whole new audience to the music of Charles Mingus? That...

Meet Karl Berger and Ingrid Sertso.  In 1965, they traveled from West Germany to Le Chat Qui Pêche in Paris and found Don Cherry there.  What flowed from that encounter is a tale of discovery and evolution that is still unfolding, still reaching new ears and new minds.  Let's hear about it from them firsthand.  Hey, have you got any music we've never heard, Mitch?  Do I?  Do I! #WKCR #DeepFocus #D...

Meet Karl Berger and Ingrid Sertso.  In 1965, they traveled from West Germany to Le Chat Qui Pêche in Paris and found Don Cherry there.  What flowed from that encounter is a tale of discovery and evolution that is still unfolding, still reaching new ears and new minds.  Let's hear about it from them firsthand.  Hey, have you got any music we've never heard, Mitch?  Do I?  Do I! #WKCR #DeepFocus #D...

Jimmy Smith didn't invent the electric organ but, for several decades at least, you wouldn't know it.  The response to his Blue Note and Verve LPs in the Fifties and Sixties made him a festival headliner and earned him the nickname "The Incredible Jimmy Smith."  To this day, no one in the Jazz idiom can sit down at a Hammond B3 without contending with his influence or his very life force, even 17...

Jimmy Smith didn't invent the electric organ but, for several decades at least, you wouldn't know it.  The response to his Blue Note and Verve LPs in the Fifties and Sixties made him a festival headliner and earned him the nickname "The Incredible Jimmy Smith."  To this day, no one in the Jazz idiom can sit down at a Hammond B3 without contending with his influence or his very life force, even 17...

Jimmy Smith didn't invent the electric organ but, for several decades at least, you wouldn't know it.  The response to his Blue Note and Verve LPs in the Fifties and Sixties made him a festival headliner and earned him the nickname "The Incredible Jimmy Smith."  To this day, no one in the Jazz idiom can sit down at a Hammond B3 without contending with his influence or his very life force, even 17...