Jazz Alternatives
2023.09.25 Henry Threadgill on John Gilmore and Von Freeman
"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 [...]
2023.09.04 Craig Harris on Sam Rivers
In the sixties, they explained evolution to us with that March of Progress illustration, a lockstep development from the proto-human Dryopithecus to modern [...]
2023.08.21 Roy Nathanson on Eric Dolphy
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 [...]
2023.08.07 Steven Bernstein and Scotty Hard on Miles Davis 1970
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 [...]
2023.07.24 Ahmed Abdullah and Monique Ngozi Nri on Sun Ra, Abbey Lincoln
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 [...]
2023.07.10 William Hooker on Joseph Jarman
Who was Joseph Jarman? A shaman? A conjurer? A Buddhist priest? A poet? An Aikido sensei? In the words of his fellow [...]
2023.05.29 William Parker on Don Cherry
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 [...]
2023.05.08 Mark Whitfield on Wes Montgomery
When the centennial of an artist as singular and inventive and influential and expressive as Wes Montgomery passes, one Deep Focus is not enough. [...]
2023.05.01 Daniel Sadownick on Andrew Cyrille
This Monday (5/1) Jazz Alternatives presents Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus on Andrew Cyrille with guest Daniel Sadownick.
Take a stroll [...]
2022.10.31 Eric Person on Lester Bowie
"Lester Bowie": instead of thinking of that sound as a person's name, maybe we should start thinking of it as a verb. Here's one definition: to [...]