Jazz
November 11, 2009
- I write many different kinds of poems, but one kind involves poetry about jazz and various jazz musicians. This week (11/11/09) and two of the last three weeks before that some of these poems have been featured on podcasts at a website here in Los Angeles called City of Angels Music, a guide to the local jazz scene. Here is the link: http://www.avantradio.com/cotamusic2/story.shtmlThis ...
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October 23, 2009
- Last night my son and I went to a DC jazz club to hear the band Slumgum, whose pianist is the son of a friend. The musicians on tenor sax (Jon Armstrong), piano (Rory Cowal), bass (David Tranchina) and drums (Trevor Anderies) produced a vital and exciting mix of jazz, improv and contemporary classical music. As I watched and listened to these four young men (they appear to be in their mid-to-late ...
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October 14, 2009
- After considerable time and work, I've managed to convert six of my books from soft to hardcover all available at http://stores.lulu.com/divajc The reason for this is that I'm offering these books to schools and libraries and they prefer hardcover books for long-lasting reasons.So, here's a page I built with the new covers: http://www.fyicomminc.com/books.htmlIf you know a school or library ...
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October 8, 2009
- The question I have is what techniques do you use for REINVENTING YOUR ARTISTRY?I have been challenged in each new decade with reinventing myself.In my twenties, when I began performing for a fee, I utilized my youth and vitality and fulfilled my need to absorb the purpose of musical studies – self-expression.In my thirties, I concentrated more on building a repertoire of pieces I could sing ...
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October 7, 2009
- “A Guide to Selected Essays on African-American Music, Part One.”by Josh Friedberg Not yet having devoted a whole column entry to readings on music, I thought this would be a fantastic place to start. I chose to write about essays rather than books, mostly because essays are more concise but are still tremendously informative for sampling a wide range of perspectives. And I chose to write ...
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September 1, 2009
- MY BROTHER'S COOL JAZZwww.leecronbach.com When my brother, Lee Cronbach, was a teenager he played the piano in a way that haunted me because his improvisations seemed to echo something in my own spirit. He played with a driving rhythm, fusing elements of jazz and Middle Eastern music. Over the years he has lived in Berkeley, Boston, Los Angeles, and for the last seventeen years he has ...
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August 2, 2009
- Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts Round III – This third installment, “Round III” of this spellbinding poetry series takes place at Bird & Beckett (653 Chenery Street, San Francisco, Glen Park District) on August 15 at 7 p.m at one of San Francisco's hot spots for jazz and spoken word. The event is quickly becoming a cult favorite among spoken word/poetry enthusiasts in the Bay Area. Guest ...
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June 11, 2009
- I wish you could hear this oud--the way it winds around, spirals up and flutters the high notes. When Marcel Khalife plays Caress, my heart moves forwards, my fingers fill, my stomach warms. I fall into the string of notes, everything shifts out of my head and into the body. I am located. I am in the state of grace where writing originates. I am free.Music is the geography of my writing, the ...
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May 10, 2009
- I had forgotten that feeling of eating outdoors. The sun of evening time still warm on my back, the appetite heightened by the air and the birdsong and the cuckoo and the pure joy and exhilaration of being alive. Of not wanting the day to end. The food we eat takes on a more animated feel to it when it is served out of doors. After the winter the novelty of this venture is celebrated. No ...
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March 26, 2009
- Last night, I went to an event sponsored by the ACLU, in San Francisco, and I happened to be talking with a gentleman who is a jazz afficionado. The conversation reminded me of this piece I wrote in the summer of 2005 about my last meeting with the musical legend at his home in Newbury Park:My grandfather, Moishe, a part-time cantor, on the lower east side, was bandleader Artie Shaw's ...
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