THE GIG

Actionspeak (Louder?)

Tomas Fujiwara and the Hook Up

Jazz Gallery, April 29

Further Explorations

Jazz Listings

April 30 to May 6

Shark in the Water

  

V.V. Brown

Bowery Ballroom, April 28

Verse in Your Purse

Today is national Poem in Your Pocket Day, in case you hadn’t noticed. It’s late in the day now, but not too late to take part. Check the website for suggestions, or (if you really want to get serious) hoof it to your local brick-and-mortar retailer for a copy of the official anthology, edited by my dear friend Elaine Bleakney. (It’s really great.)

Related note: Lanie doubles as the art editor for At Length, an online literary journal. I recently contributed an essay about Neil Young and Miles Davis at the Fillmore East. Today there’s also a quick hit about my own checkered history with poetry, loosely speaking. (It went out as an email newsletter, but that link works too.) 

Push Back

The Ear Regulars

Ear Inn, April 25

Critics’ Choice: New CDs

Jacky Terrasson, “Push”

Blue Bell

Pee Wee Ellis

Iridium, April 22

 

Jazz Listings

April 23 to April 29

 

Yesterdays and Tomorrows

 

 Christian Scott said a lot of things when we met for dinner, in preparation for a new feature in the current JazzTimes. (That preview is free but incomplete; for the full piece, buy the issue.) Some of those things were ballsy, or just forceful: when I filed, I warned my editor that this piece would contain more casual profanity than the previous year’s haul in the magazine. This wasn’t a matter of sensationalism. It’s how the dude speaks, and to edit would be to lose a measure of truth.

The Christian Scott media barrage has been covered elsewhere, and it’s an ongoing story. (Surely there’s a Treme follow-up here?) I won’t add much kindling to the campfire, except to post a bit of audio from the interview, which took place at Great Jones Café. (I thought it would be fun to chow down on some ersatz New Orleans cuisine. Scott was polite about the gumbo there, though he clearly wasn’t terribly impressed. I like Great Jones -- a decent hang, and a good place to get Abita on tap -- but I understand his assessment.)

Deep Inhale

Critics’ Choice: New CDs

Trombone Shorty, “Backatown”

EMP Metheny

 

I’m in Seattle this week for the EMP Pop Conference, presenting under the banner of music and technology. My jam will be Pat Metheny’s Orchestrion project, which reached American shores last week. Tour dates can be found here; I last wrote about the project right here. After the jump, a mess of stuff I’ll be using in the presentation. 

Dark Eyes, Full Hearts

Tomasz Stanko Quintet

Birdland, April 13