In April, I spoke with Anele Selekwa, one of the key figures behind the anarchist hip hop collective Soundz of the South (SoS), based in Cape Town, South Africa. SoS have performed internationally, but have especially been involved in organizing within the continent as a driving force behind Afrikan Hiphop Caravan. Check out Soundz of
At Jazz Right Now, we have resisted issuing an official statement since the murder of George Floyd in support of Black artists only because that has been central to our mission since we were founded and will continue to be as long as we are in existence. We are not compelled by a hashtag or
Drummer, writer, and scholar Asher Gamedze is a growing force on the music scene in Cape Town, South Africa. I have had the pleasure of getting to know him through a couple of extended Skype conversations over the past seven months. Not only is he deeply committed to his craft as an artist, he has
1049 Records: Surviving in the Vanguard We are all stuck on existence, we are all arranged to survive. Nothing has been said or determined, things just are around us. There is no symbol, no predetermined concept. There is no necessity, and we ultimately don’t have to do anything. Still, the continuity of history has constructed
With members rooted in Chicago and New York’s underground music scenes, Je’Raf is a wildly diverse and idiosyncratic ensemble fusing Hip Hop, Punk and improvisational sounds. With Brianna Tong on vocals, PT Bell on vocals and bass, Wills McKenna and David Fletcher on tenor saxophone and trombone respectively, the band is rounded out by Ishmael
In March, 2020 along with businesses in many sectors around the world, music venues in New York City—all of them—shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This triggered immediate mass unemployment and a scramble of musicians into the online realm where they are now exploring new possibilities for making and distributing their work from home.
At its best, improvised music is in the moment, created out of necessity, reflecting the times in which it was created. I’ve found that there are particularly delectable moments with this music when you are in a room where you feel that the music itself is being born right out of the collective feeling in
This is an interview I conducted with Eli Wallace and Drew Wesely about the series they have been co-curating in Brooklyn. The next show is tonight at Mirror Woods at 8 pm! 1) What are the artistic elements that you are attempting to draw together with the Invocation series? DW: The idea for Invocation came
Winter Jazzfest Marathon finally comes to Brooklyn, as we all knew it eventually would. Not unlike the “Half-Marathon” added to last year’s schedule, this extended marathon date, a week after the melee of Jazzfest’s Manhattan-below-14th-street weekend, gives 8 hours of creative music options throughout several venues around North Brooklyn. The pared down number of venues
Hugh Masekela’s Live in Lesotho is a great album of celebratory music intertwined with a beautiful story of homecomings of Miriam Makeba and himself. The region of southern Africa has deep meaning to me, so while I won’t go into super detail about the history of the record, I will talk about my relationship with
