This is Happening
Sean MurphyReady or not, this baby is coming into the world. Soon. Details forthcoming. Stay tuned...
ALL HAIL THE KING: Happy Birthday, Chazz!
Today would have been (and, still is) Charles Mingus’s 94th birthday. I’ve written about him often and I’ll continue to write about him, not only because he is one of…
Musings from Martha’s Vineyard: Talking Trees
I think that I shall never see... Just kidding. Kilmer was wrong, anyway. Trees are not poems; they are stories. Not short stories, not novels, but tales, epics, the story of…
Musings from Martha’s Vineyard: Introductory Notes
I've allowed myself a week to settle in and readjust to life outside a cube, outside the beltway, outside any previous experience. It's surreal, but it's real. It's happening. I'm…
Ten Songs From 1967 That Shaped Prog-Rock (Revisited)
1. "Heroes and Villains", The Beach Boys What has tended to get lost or forgotten in the shuffle of sensationalistic trivia (of the infamously aborted SMiLE sessions) is that Wilson…
Orrin Keepnews: Hero for America’s Music (Revisited)
Orrin Keepnews frequently talked about jazz the way war veterans will talk about experiences on the front lines. There were at least two reasons for this. One, it was never…
None More Black: Reassessing Black Sabbath’s First Three Albums (or, The Unholy Trinity)
In the classic movie Chinatown, the villainous Noah Cross offers a sardonic take on his longevity. “I’m old,” he laughs, adding the immortal line, “Politicians, ugly buildings and whores all…
Straight, No Chaser (Revisited)
This Sunday's New York Times magazine features a lengthy, but worthwhile appraisal of John Cheever by Charles McGrath. The piece reassesses Cheever's current status (McGrath correctly concedes that Cheever, who…
Don Drummond: Music Was His Occupation (Revisited)
Check out this elevator pitch: Impoverished youth becomes a mostly self-taught musician. This reticent, eccentric musical genius scraps together an existence in an environment where squalor, violence and indifference are…
Where the Hell is Shafi Hadi?: A Poem (Revisited)
(*Saxophone player Shafi Hadi, born Curtis Porter, is best-known for his association with jazz legend Charles Mingus, and played on the seminal recording Mingus Ah Um, from 1959. He dropped…