Finding my way to Co-Prosperity Sphere, the headquarters of the local record label on the Southside of Chicago was fated by a number of fortunate incidents that began with my coverage of the 2018 Pitchfork Music Festival. I was able to witness incredible performances by Lauryn Hill, Chaka Khan, Blood Orange, Raphael Saadiq and others,
After seeing Gibrán Andrade lead his band Géiser at El Quinto Piso in Mexico City on December 30, 2017, I managed to sit down with him at the cafe El Chalet on New Years’ Day to talk with him about his music. Andrade is a drummer, saxophonist, composer, and educator active in Mexico City who has toured
In February, I had the opportunity to sit down with Chad Taylor and discuss his recent solo record release and his duo record with saxophonist James Brandon Lewis as well as the many bands and records he has been a part of throughout his prolific career. Cisco Bradley: Chad, it’s wonderful to have you here.
I spoke with trumpeter, Stephanie Richards in April about her album, Fullmoon, which was released on Relative Pitch Records on May 18th. But of course, even more than I wanted to speak about her stunning, enigmatic, creative and expressive album, I wanted to talk about her womanhood. This interview was done before my debut interview
Guest Writer/Interviewer: Nico Bonacquist Transcript from interview on WPIR Pratt Radio. BONACQUIST: Hello, you’re tuning into WPIR Pratt Radio. Today we have Yoni Kretzmer live. KRETZMER: Hello, how’s it going? Happy to be here! BONACQUIST: He’s going to play a little bit and then we are going to talk. [KRETZMER SOLO PERFORMANCE] BONACQUIST: Awesome! KRETZMER:
Interview with violist Liliana Rodriguez Alvarado via email, January 8-February 1, 2018 CB: What were your formative musical experiences growing up in Torreon, Coahuila, Mexico, and other places that you have lived? LRA: In Torreón, I started playing viola at the age of 13 at the Instituto de Arte Integral de la Laguna with my professor
Spoken word artist Samantha Riott has emerged over the past few years as a unique and powerful figure on New York’s experimental music scene. Having developed a reputation as an iconoclast in the poetry world, she turned to fierce experimental music as her medium of self-expression. Her deeply personal, biting lyrics delivered with such raw
Interview with Jacob Wick via Email, January 10-February 20, 2018 This is the third in a series of interviews that I have been conducting with musicians active in Mexico City. I had heard considerable praise of Wick by his contemporaries in New York prior to meeting him for the first time in Mexico City, where I
I took a bit of a sabbatical from this column to think. I needed to take some time to figure out what I wanted to say, and what it is I wanted to portray as time goes on. There are so many women in the world who play jazz. Many of them have passed away,
In December and January, I visited Mexico City and had the pleasure of attending an amazing concert at El Quinto Piso, a venue that inhabits the fifth floor of a parking garage. It is one of the most amazing DIY venues I have ever seen and that night it was teeming with a large crowd
