On The Corner @ 50
I’ve been obsessed with Miles Davis’s On the Corner, which was originally released on October 11, 1972, for over 30 years. I first heard it, on vinyl, in about 1989. Since then, I’ve owned an early...
View ArticleDave Liebman
Below are some excerpts from an interview with saxophonist Dave Liebman. I had planned to include him in the “fusion season” of the BA podcast last year, but the recording wasn’t good enough, and...
View ArticleMatthew Shipp In 2003
I’ve been friends with Matthew Shipp for almost 25 years. I’d already been listening to his music for a year or two before we met for the first time at the Vision Festival in 1998, where I saw him...
View ArticleRichard Davis
Richard Davis turned 93 last week. He was born in Chicago on April 15, 1930, and studied under the legendary Captain Walter Dyett at DuSable High School. He got his first big professional break...
View ArticleWillie Jones III
In the introduction to his 1985 book Rhythm-a-Ning, Gary Giddins writes, “When we talk about a renaissance in jazz, we are talking about a wealth of interesting music, not a broad-scaled awakening of...
View ArticleEmergency Group
I am not a fan of “jam bands.” I love a whole lot of improvised music, obviously, but there’s a big difference between improvisation and jamming. Emergency Group are an improvising ensemble composed...
View ArticleObscure Records
In the mid-1970s, Brian Eno — who had left the band Roxy Music in 1973 and almost immediately released two solo albums, Here Come the Warm Jets and Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, and a...
View ArticlePhilip Glass Solo
Philip Glass turned 87 this week; he was born January 31, 1937. He’s indisputably one of the most important composers of the 20th century. I mean, the sheer volume of his output alone, never mind the...
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Louis Armstrong
Ah, the tweet prompt. One of the best features of Twitter in its glory days. Someone would ask a question related to music and/or pop culture, and people would quote the tweet while answering the...
View ArticleBA Podcast 82: Kenny Garrett
At this point there have been four episodes of the Burning Ambulance podcast in 2024, so to quote Keanu Reeves in John Wick, “Yeah, I’m thinkin’ I’m back.” The first episode of this current “season”...
View ArticleCannonball Adderley
Alto saxophonist Julian “Cannonball” Adderley was the kind of musician who never stopped surprising audiences — in the best possible way. Born in Florida in 1928, he and his cornet-playing brother Nat...
View ArticleMiles Davis In 1984
This summer marks the 40th anniversary of one of Miles Davis’s most under-appreciated albums. Decoy was released in 1984; I’m not certain of the exact date. It was a mix of studio recordings and...
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