Very, Very Simple
I had the pleasure of seeing Carla Bley and Steve Swallow play live a number of years ago at Emory University’s Cannon Chapel. Here they are doing her cla...
Category: music
A Trip to Mannenberg
The wonderful South African jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim tells about the origin of his beautiful, meditative composition “Mannenberg” in the BBC vi...
Small as a Pin or as Big as the World
Happy Friday the Thirteenth! I’ve long considered Friday the 13th to be a lucky day — among other things, my youngest son was born on a Friday the 1...
The Theory of Peg
Donald Fagen explains how his tune “Peg” works, with Warren Bernhardt. A plagal cadence never sounded so good. Wow, great stuff — I agree with...
R.I.P. George Duke
I was sorry to learn that the prolific pianist George Duke died this past week. I had the pleasure of seeing him live with Frank Zappa in the early ’70s. ...