There’s a Mingus in My Life

The year was 1994. I’d already been collecting records for several years and making beats since the late 1980s. I was pretty fortunate as a 14-year-old to have had so much rich musical exposure at that point. This was before Hip-Hop had gotten terrible and early enough that you could still find relatively rare Jazz

Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool Documentary Retrospective

According to the Center for Disease Control, somewhere between the years of 1988 and 1990, the rate of HIV-AIDs infection among African Americans first exceeded those of whites and would remain so until today. At the dawn of the 1990s, Black america would find itself in the midst of a full blown health crisis with

While We Still Have Bodies at Two Concerts in Sep 2018

While We Still Have Bodies is one of the most developed freely improvised ensembles to emerge in Brooklyn over the past decade. This band is comprised of Michael Foster (saxophones), Ben Gerstein (trombone), Sean Ali (bass), and Flin van Hemmen (drums). As stated, their music is entirely improvised and each time I have seen them

Review: Aquiles Navarro-Tcheser Holmes Duo at In Gardens Series, Sep 8, 2018

I have been familiar with trumpeter Aquiles Navarro and Tcheser Holmes for several years now. Their work in Irreversible Entanglements, a quintet featuring Moor Mother, Keir Neuringer, and Luke Stewart, has seen them touring internationally since 2016 and releasing one of the foremost records of 2017. Navarro and Holmes have been working on their duo

Review: Cataclysmic Commentary

Hit ‘play’ and the first track on Audience Participation is consistent with its name. Cataclysmic Commentary’s debut record was released in March. The band is comprised of Ben Cohen on saxophones, Eli Wallace on keyboards, and Dave Miller on drums. “Surprise Kitten Explosion 5000” draws us into a space of free sound, wild and vibrant.

Review: Giannouli/Thorne/Garden – Rewa (Rattle Records, 2018)

Less than a day after Tania Giannouli (piano) and Rob Thorne (taonga puoro) first met, they recorded the eleven tracks that make up their album, Rewa. Along with Steve Garden’s sound manipulations, treatments, and mixing, the three create an expressive flow of music informed by the ancient cultures of Greece and Aotearoa (the Maori name

Review: Ensemble Fanaa’s Self-titled Debut Record

Slow, quiet breaths fill the room. Our breather is alone, deep in his own process. There are times when he himself has to check in . . . with himself. “Am I breathing ok?” he might ask, introspectively at the moment. After a few minutes, he is joined by another. The pounding of the companion’s

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