Deep Focus

What confers greatness?  There are many pathways, the most obvious being distinctive playing.  Are there others?  What about brilliant composing? Or inspiring bandleading?  Or creating your own sound?  How about honoring the tradition while still being blazingly original?  Or just going your own way, whether anyone else is on that path or not?    Achievement in any one of these categories will bring listeners' admiration but few reach the heights in all of them.  Those are the heroes.   This Monday (3/18) cornetist/composer Graham Haynes joins host Mitch Goldman for a Deep Focus on trumpeter Woody Shaw.  Jewels of the WKCR archives shall sparkle.   On WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org. Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.    Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/ or join us on Instagram.     Photo credit: Woody Shaw 1977 by Tom Marcello, courtesy of Creative Commons.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #GrahamHaynes #WoodyShaw #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

What confers greatness?  There are many pathways, the most obvious being distinctive playing.  Are there others?  What about brilliant composing? Or inspiring bandleading?  Or creating your own sound?  How about honoring the tradition while still being blazingly original?  Or just going your own way, whether anyone else is on that path or not?  Achievement in any one of these categories will bring listeners' admiration but few reach the heights in all of them.  Those are the heroes.   This Monday (3/18) cornetist/composer Graham Haynes joins host Mitch Goldman for a Deep Focus on trumpeter Woody Shaw.  Jewels of the WKCR archives shall sparkle.   On WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org. Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.    Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/ or join us on Instagram.     Photo credit: Woody Shaw 1977 by Tom Marcello, courtesy of Creative Commons.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #GrahamHaynes #WoodyShaw #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

We tend to think of the subjects of Deep Focus as conjurers, as master architects, as grand statesmen, as sonic sculptors, as Renaissance men and women.  But what about when they’re the guy down the street? Or the dad of your elementary school friend?  How does that change the perspective?   Cornetist Graham Haynes grew up down the block from the magnificent Jaki Byard, one of the all-time great pianist/arranger/educators and one of the most engaging characters ever on the bandstand.  Stories?  Graham’s got stories!     Join host Mitch Goldman on Deep Focus this Monday (March 3) from 6pm to 9pm NYC-time on WKCR 89.9FM. WKCR HD-1 and wkcr.org

We tend to think of the subjects of Deep Focus as conjurers, as master architects, as grand statesmen, as sonic sculptors, as Renaissance men and women.  But what about when they’re the guy down the street? Or the dad of your elementary school friend?  How does that change the perspective?   Cornetist Graham Haynes grew up down the block from the magnificent Jaki Byard, one of the all-time great pianist/arranger/educators and one of the most engaging characters ever on the bandstand.  Stories?  Graham’s got stories!     Join host Mitch Goldman on Deep Focus this Monday (March 3) from 6pm to 9pm NYC-time on WKCR 89.9FM. WKCR HD-1 and wkcr.org

We tend to think of the subjects of Deep Focus as conjurers, as master architects, as grand statesmen, as sonic sculptors, as Renaissance men and women.  But what about when they’re the guy down the street? Or the dad of your elementary school friend?  How does that change the perspective?   Cornetist Graham Haynes grew up down the block from the magnificent Jaki Byard, one of the all-time great pianist/arranger/educators and one of the most engaging characters ever on the bandstand.  Stories?  Graham’s got stories!     Join host Mitch Goldman on Deep Focus this Monday (March 3) from 6pm to 9pm NYC-time on WKCR 89.9FM. WKCR HD-1 and wkcr.org

Not all of our heroes have streets named after them but this one does.  So, will we be playing recordings of Sonny Sharrock on Deep Focus this Monday night (Feb 5)?   Will they be recordings that you've never heard?   Will we have an insightful listening session with drummer/conceptualist William Hooker?    Find out Monday night from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/   Photo credit: Mitch Goldman October 2, 2010.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #WilliamHooker #SonnySharrock #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

Not all of our heroes have streets named after them but this one does.  So, will we be playing recordings of Sonny Sharrock on Deep Focus this Monday night (Feb 5)?   Will they be recordings that you've never heard?   Will we have an insightful listening session with drummer/conceptualist William Hooker?    Find out Monday night from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/   Photo credit: Mitch Goldman October 2, 2010.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #WilliamHooker #SonnySharrock #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

Not all of our heroes have streets named after them but this one does.  So, will we be playing recordings of Sonny Sharrock on Deep Focus this Monday night (Feb 5)?   Will they be recordings that you've never heard?   Will we have an insightful listening session with drummer/conceptualist William Hooker?    Find out Monday night from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/   Photo credit: Mitch Goldman October 2, 2010.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #WilliamHooker #SonnySharrock #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

Tonight's Deep Focus (Jan. 22) is on Don Cherry, a wonderful and deeply missed friend of WKCR.  Back in the Eighties, Don was a frequent guest on Mitch Goldman's show.  Don would guest DJ, talk to the audience, bring guests... It was an ongoing Eighties NYC Don Cherry party.  And if there was a blank cassette handy, Mitch would make a recording.  The tapes got tossed in a box and ended up deep in storage.     Tonight Mitch and his guest, the bandleader, slide trumpeter and bon vivant, Steven Bernstein are blowing the dust off of those tapes.   Will they play?  What's on them?   What was Don Cherry's voice like? What kind of music will he play? What sort of stories will these tapes tell?   Does he have additional guests?   Slow down!  All will be revealed tonight on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/   Photo credit: Mitch Goldman 2024.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #StevenBernstein #DonCherry #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

Tonight's Deep Focus (Jan. 22) is on Don Cherry, a wonderful and deeply missed friend of WKCR.  Back in the Eighties, Don was a frequent guest on Mitch Goldman's show.  Don would guest DJ, talk to the audience, bring guests... It was an ongoing Eighties NYC Don Cherry party.  And if there was a blank cassette handy, Mitch would make a recording.  The tapes got tossed in a box and ended up deep in storage.     Tonight Mitch and his guest, the bandleader, slide trumpeter and bon vivant, Steven Bernstein are blowing the dust off of those tapes.   Will they play?  What's on them?   What was Don Cherry's voice like? What kind of music will he play? What sort of stories will these tapes tell?   Does he have additional guests?   Slow down!  All will be revealed tonight on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/   Photo credit: Don Cherry - by jazzenthusiast, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #StevenBernstein #DonCherry #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

Tonight's Deep Focus (Jan. 22) is on Don Cherry, a wonderful and deeply missed friend of WKCR.  Back in the Eighties, Don was a frequent guest on Mitch Goldman's show.  Don would guest DJ, talk to the audience, bring guests... It was an ongoing Eighties-NYC-Don Cherry party.  And if there was a blank cassette handy, Mitch would make a recording.  The tapes got tossed in a box and ended up deep in storage.     Tonight Mitch and his guest, the bandleader, slide trumpeter and bon vivant, Steven Bernstein are blowing the dust off of those tapes.   Will they play?  What's on them?   What was Don Cherry's voice like? What kind of music will he play? What sort of stories will these tapes tell?   Does he have additional guests?   Slow down!  All will be revealed tonight on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/   Photo credit: Mitch Goldman 2024.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #StevenBernstein #DonCherry #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

This music is at its best when the artist is telling you exactly who they are.  Pianist Andrew Hill always seemed able to take us inside his internal mindscape of thoughts, puzzles and emotions.  Whether alone or in an ensemble, in both his playing and his writing, he did so with an articulateness that could seem offhand but betrayed a distinct precision.  It was just... him.   Multi-instrumentalist Peter Apfelbaum knew Andrew Hill and draws inspiration from him to this day.  Host Mitch Goldman is going to ask him if he really was the way he seemed in his music.  Did he talk the way he played?  Once again, the WKCR archives come through with gobsmacking rarities from both the early Seventies and the early 2000s.   This Monday Jan. 8 on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/   Photo credit: Hampton Hawes - cover of Raise Up Off Me.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #PeterApfelbaum #AndrewHill #AndrewHillJazz #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

This music is at its best when the artist is telling you exactly who they are.  Pianist Andrew Hill always seemed able to take us inside his internal mindscape of thoughts, puzzles and emotions.  Whether alone or in an ensemble, in both his playing and his writing, he did so with an articulateness that could seem offhand but betrayed a distinct precision.  It was just... him.   Multi-instrumentalist Peter Apfelbaum knew Andrew Hill and draws inspiration from him to this day.  Host Mitch Goldman is going to ask him if he really was the way he seemed in his music.  Did he talk the way he played?  Once again, the WKCR archives come through with gobsmacking rarities from both the early Seventies and the early 2000s.   This Monday Jan. 8 on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/   Photo credit: Andrew Hill by Francis Wolff from AndrewHillJazz.com.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #PeterApfelbaum #AndrewHill #AndrewHillJazz #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

This music is at its best when the artist is showing you exactly who they are.  Pianist Andrew Hill always seemed able to take us inside his internal mindscape of thoughts, puzzles and emotions.  Whether alone or in an ensemble, in both his playing and his writing, he did so with an articulateness that could seem offhand but betrayed a distinct precision.  It was just... him.   Multi-instrumentalist Peter Apfelbaum knew Andrew Hill and draws inspiration from him to this day.  Host Mitch Goldman is going to ask him if he really was the way he seemed in his music.  Did he talk the way he played?  Once again, the WKCR archives come through with gobsmacking rarities from both the early Seventies and the early 2000s.   This Monday Jan. 8 on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/   Photo credit: Andrew Hill by Francis Wolff from AndrewHillJazz.com.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #PeterApfelbaum #AndrewHill #AndrewHillJazz #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

"Rock." "Jazz." "Classical." "Blues."  We rarely question the value of categorizing music.  These words are handy buckets to drop songs into: "I like this but I don't like that."  Occasionally, an artist will come along and smudge the lines between them and these are often the artists we celebrate on Deep Focus.     Tru Born (a.k.a. Anthony Michael Peterson) takes this line of exploration quite a bit further.  He wants to know what was the human experience and the creative response to it that created that sort of music in the first place.  Looked at this way, why and how it became codified as a genre less interesting than getting to the point of origin.  "Finding the thread," as Tru might say.  Tru Born joins host Mitch Goldman on Deep Focus this Monday (11/27) from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org on the web.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   Photo credit: John Lee Hooker with diagram of the evolution of the blues, 1951 by Clemens Kalischer - fair use under Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act.    #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #TruBorn #AnthonyMichaelPeterson #JohnLeeHooker #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman

"Rock." "Jazz." "Classical." "Blues."  We rarely question the value of categorizing music.  These words are handy buckets to drop songs into: "I like this but I don't like that."  Occasionally, an artist will come along and smudge the lines between them and these are often the artists we celebrate on Deep Focus.     Tru Born (a.k.a. Anthony Michael Peterson) takes this line of exploration quite a bit further.  He wants to know what was the human experience and the creative response to it that created that sort of music in the first place.  Looked at this way, why and how it became codified as a genre less interesting than getting to the point of origin.  "Finding the thread," as Tru might say.  Tru Born joins host Mitch Goldman on Deep Focus this Monday (11/27) from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org on the web.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   Photo credit: John Lee Hooker with diagram of the evolution of the blues, 1951 by Clemens Kalischer - fair use under Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act.    #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #TruBorn #AnthonyMichaelPeterson #JohnLeeHooker #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman

"Rock." "Jazz." "Classical." "Blues."  We rarely question the value of categorizing music.  These words are handy buckets to drop songs into: "I like this but I don't like that."  Occasionally, an artist will come along and smudge the lines between them and these are often the artists we celebrate on Deep Focus.     Tru Born (a.k.a. Anthony Michael Peterson) takes this line of exploration quite a bit further.  He wants to know what was the human experience and the creative response to it that created that sort of music in the first place.  Looked at this way, why and how it became codified as a genre are less interesting than getting to the point of origin.  "Finding the thread," as Tru might say.  Tru Born joins host Mitch Goldman on Deep Focus this Monday (11/27) from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org on the web.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   Photo credit: John Lee Hooker with diagram of the evolution of the blues, 1951 by Clemens Kalischer - fair use under Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act.    #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #TruBorn #AnthonyMichaelPeterson #JohnLeeHooker #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman

Bassist Mark Peterson joins me tonight from 6pm to 9pm on WKCR (89.9FM and wkcr.org) in a Deep Focus on German bassist/bandleader Eberhard Weber. Weber is a wholly distinctive musical thinker. Hmmmm… what ELSE do he and Mark have in common? This one is going to be fun! #WKCR #MarkPeterson #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #JazzPodcast #JamesBloodUlmer #StanleyClarke #JohnnieJohnson

Bassist Mark Peterson joins me tonight from 6pm to 9pm on WKCR (89.9FM and wkcr.org) in a Deep Focus on German bassist/bandleader Eberhard Weber. Weber is a wholly distinctive musical thinker. Hmmmm… what ELSE do he and Mark have in common? This one is going to be fun!   #WKCR #MarkPeterson #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #JazzPodcast #JamesBloodUlmer #StanleyClarke #JohnnieJohnson

Bassist Mark Peterson joins me tonight from 6pm to 9pm on WKCR (89.9FM and wkcr.org) in a Deep Focus on German bassist/bandleader Eberhard Weber. Weber is a wholly distinctive musical thinker. Hmmmm… what ELSE do he and Mark have in common? This one is going to be fun!   #WKCR #MarkPeterson #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #JazzPodcast #JamesBloodUlmer #StanleyClarke #JohnnieJohnson

There is a point at which the usefulness of language ends.  You are simply not going to be able to express in words the sense of awe that you feel when creation overwhelms you but you always know when someone else is feeling it, too.  In this moment you will find pianist Matthew Shipp and others who admire saxophonist Albert Ayler.   Albert Ayler died at age 34 in 1970 and to this day his life feels more like an ellipsis or a question mark than a complete sentence.  So much undone.  And yet, just months before he died, he threw down an exclamation point.  There were 2 performances at a glorious shrine to Modernism, La Fondation Maeght in the south of France, that stated who Albert Ayler was and how he believed music could convey the ineffable.  Do we have recordings of this performance?  It’s Deep Focus; of course we do!   Matthew Shipp joins Mitch Goldman this Monday (10/9) from 6 pm to 9 pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org on the web.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/ Photo credit: no publishing information available.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #AlbertAyler #MatthewShipp #MattShipp #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

There is a point at which the usefulness of language ends.  You are simply not going to be able to express in words the sense of awe that you feel when creation overwhelms you but you always know when someone else is feeling it, too.  In this moment you will find pianist Matthew Shipp and others who admire saxophonist Albert Ayler.   Albert Ayler died at age 34 in 1970 and to this day his life feels more like an ellipsis or a question mark than a complete sentence.  So much undone.  And yet, just months before he died, he threw down an exclamation point.  There were 2 performances at a glorious shrine to Modernism, La Fondation Maeght in the south of France, that stated who Albert Ayler was and how he believed music could convey the ineffable.  Do we have recordings of this performance?  It’s Deep Focus; of course we do!   Matthew Shipp joins Mitch Goldman this Monday (10/9) from 6 pm to 9 pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org on the web.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/ Photo credit: no publishing information available.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #AlbertAyler #MatthewShipp #MattShipp #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

There is a point at which the usefulness of language ends.  You are simply not going to be able to express in words the sense of awe that you feel when creation overwhelms you but you always know when someone else is feeling it, too.  In this moment you will find pianist Matthew Shipp and others who admire saxophonist Albert Ayler.   Albert Ayler died at age 34 in 1970 and to this day his life feels more like an ellipsis or a question mark than a complete sentence.  So much undone.  And yet, just months before he died, he threw down an exclamation point.  There were 2 performances at a glorious shrine to Modernism, La Fondation Maeght in the south of France, that stated who Albert Ayler was and how he believed music could convey the ineffable.  Do we have recordings of this performance?  It’s Deep Focus; of course we do!   Matthew Shipp joins Mitch Goldman this Monday (10/9) from 6 pm to 9 pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org on the web.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/ Photo credit: no publishing information available.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #AlbertAyler #MatthewShipp #MattShipp #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

"Easily Slip Into Another World," Henry Threadgill's recent memoir, is required reading for a full appreciation of tonight's Deep Focus.  It reveals the roots, the rich harvest, and the hidden, dark corners of a vibrant, creative life.  The prose is plainspoken and forthright but the content is absolutely mind-expanding.  No one of Threadgill's explosively expressive generation has laid bare the inspirations for his art as Threadgill does here.   - What was it like to talk with John Coltrane? (surprising answer!).   - And what about Duke Ellington? (astonishing answer!). - What experiences, musical and other, shaped you as a creative person? (kaleidoscopic answers!). - What really happened to you guys in Viet Nam? (hideous, bewildering answers). - How distinctive was the music scene in Chicago as you were coming up?    This last question brings us to tonight's Deep Focus.  Henry Threadgill joins host Mitch Goldman for an exploration of two of his great inspirations: saxophonists John Gilmore and Von Freeman.  And will the WKCR archives yield unheard wonders?  Only one way to find out!   This Monday (9/25) on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   Photo credit: no publishing information available.    #WKCR  #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #HenryThreadgill #MitchGoldman #VonFreeman #JohnGilmore #SunRa #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

"Easily Slip Into Another World," Henry Threadgill's recent memoir, is required reading for a full appreciation of tonight's Deep Focus.  It reveals the roots, the rich harvest, and the hidden, dark corners of a vibrant, creative life.  The prose is plainspoken and forthright but the content is absolutely mind-expanding.  No one of Threadgill's explosively expressive generation has laid bare the inspirations for his art as Threadgill does here.   - What was it like to talk with John Coltrane? (surprising answer!).   - And what about Duke Ellington? (astonishing answer!). - What experiences, musical and other, shaped you as a creative person? (kaleidoscopic answers!). - What really happened to you guys in Viet Nam? (hideous, bewildering answers). - How distinctive was the music scene in Chicago as you were coming up?    This last question brings us to tonight's Deep Focus.  Henry Threadgill joins host Mitch Goldman for an exploration of two of his great inspirations: saxophonists John Gilmore and Von Freeman.  And will the WKCR archives yield unheard wonders?  Only one way to find out!   This Monday (9/25) on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   Photo credit: no publishing info available.   #WKCR  #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #HenryThreadgill #MitchGoldman #VonFreeman #JohnGilmore #SunRa #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

"Easily Slip Into Another World," Henry Threadgill's recent memoir, is required reading for a full appreciation of tonight's Deep Focus.  It reveals the roots, the rich harvest, and the hidden, dark corners of a vibrant, creative life.  The prose is plainspoken and forthright but the content is absolutely mind-expanding.  No one of Threadgill's explosively expressive generation has laid bare the inspirations for his art as Threadgill does here.   - What was it like to talk with John Coltrane? (surprising answer!).   - And what about Duke Ellington? (astonishing answer!). - What experiences, musical and other, shaped you as a creative person? (kaleidoscopic answers!). - What really happened to you guys in Viet Nam? (hideous, bewildering answers). - How distinctive was the music scene in Chicago as you were coming up?    This last question brings us to tonight's Deep Focus.  Henry Threadgill joins host Mitch Goldman for an exploration of two of his great inspirations: saxophonists John Gilmore and Von Freeman.  And will the WKCR archives yield unheard wonders?  Only one way to find out!   This Monday (9/25) on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR  #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #HenryThreadgill #MitchGoldman #VonFreeman #JohnGilmore #SunRa #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

In the sixties, they explained evolution to us with that March of Progress illustration, a lockstep development from the proto-human Dryopithecus to modern man.  That same approach was also used to explain jazz evolution: New Orleans to Chicago to New York, hot jazz to swing to bebop to cool... Contemporary evolutionary biologists will tell you that that sixties view is far too linear and simplistic.  Should the same be said about the received history of the music?     Let's consider saxophonist Sam Rivers.  He played in the bands of Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, curated the most prominent jazz loft in the seventies, and led bleeding edge improvisatory small bands.  But he also composed at least a page a day of large-ensemble music, over 400 discrete compositions.  This is an astonishing volume of work, perhaps even unprecedented.  So where do you put Sam Rivers in your Jazz March of Progress?     This large ensemble work by Sam Rivers is the topic of this Monday's (9/4) edition of Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus.  The guest will be trombonist Craig Harris who played in Rivers's Orchestra and is organizing a tribute performance for Sam Rivers' centennial on September 22, 2023 at Mt. Morris Ascension Presbyterian Church.  If you haven't heard this music, this show will be revealing (and if you have then I didn't even need to tell you all of this!).   Photo credit: Sam Rivers - flute by Tom Marcello Webster, New York, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #CraigHarris #SamRivers #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

In the sixties, they explained evolution to us with that March of Progress illustration, a lockstep development from the proto-human Dryopithecus to modern man.  That same approach was also used to explain jazz evolution: New Orleans to Chicago to New York, hot jazz to swing to bebop to cool... Contemporary evolutionary biologists will tell you that that sixties view is far too linear and simplistic.  Should the same be said about the received history of the music?     Let's consider saxophonist Sam Rivers.  He played in the bands of Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, curated the most prominent jazz loft in the seventies, and led bleeding edge improvisatory small bands.  But he also composed at least a page a day of large-ensemble music, over 400 discrete compositions.  This is an astonishing volume of work, perhaps even unprecedented.  So where do you put Sam Rivers in your Jazz March of Progress?     This large ensemble work by Sam Rivers is the topic of this Monday's (9/4) edition of Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus.  The guest will be trombonist Craig Harris who played in Rivers's Orchestra and is organizing a tribute performance for Sam Rivers' centennial on September 22, 2023 at Mt. Morris Ascension Presbyterian Church.  If you haven't heard this music, this show will be revealing (and if you have then I didn't even need to tell you all of this!).   Photo credit: Sam Rivers - courtesy of Blue Note Records.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #CraigHarris #SamRivers #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

------ In the sixties, they explained evolution to us with that March of Progress illustration, a lockstep development from the proto-human Dryopithecus to modern man.  That same approach was also used to explain jazz evolution: New Orleans to Chicago to New York, hot jazz to swing to bebop to cool... Contemporary evolutionary biologists will tell you that that sixties view is far too linear and simplistic.  Should the same be said about the received history of the music?     Let's consider saxophonist Sam Rivers.  He played in the bands of Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, curated the most prominent jazz loft in the seventies, and led bleeding edge improvisatory small bands.  But he also composed at least a page a day of large-ensemble music, over 400 discrete compositions.  This is an astonishing volume of work, perhaps even unprecedented.  So where do you put Sam Rivers in your Jazz March of Progress?     This large ensemble work by Sam Rivers is the topic of this Monday's (9/4) edition of Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus.  The guest will be trombonist Craig Harris who played in Rivers's Orchestra and is organizing a tribute performance for Sam Rivers' centennial on September 22, 2023 at Mt. Morris Ascension Presbyterian Church.  If you haven't heard this music, this show will be revealing (and if you have then I didn't even need to tell you all of this!).     Photo credit: Sam Rivers - flute by Tom Marcello Webster, New York, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #CraigHarris #SamRivers #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

If Eric Dolphy's music were a school of painting it would be analytical cubism: planar and angular, multi-directional and austere,  But it's not abstract.  It's showing us something we know; we are simply experiencing it in a completely new way.  His work, in its frame, becomes an entire reality unto itself.  It's endless.    So what happens when you place this masterly museum piece in a sweaty nightclub?  Does it shine?  Does it wilt?  Does Dolphy change his approach?  Few have examined Dolphy more closely than saxophonist/bandleader/poet/professor Roy Nathanson but we don't know if even Roy has heard the recordings from the WKCR archives that we'll play on Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus this Monday (8/21) from 6pm to 9pm NYC time.  It's on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.     Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   Did you know that you can find out more about Deep Focus and research past episodes here? https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/   Photo credit: fair use.   #WKCR #DeepFocus #JazzAlternatives #RoyNathanson #EricDolphy #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast

If Eric Dolphy's music were a school of painting it would be analytical cubism: planar and angular, multi-directional and austere,  But it's not abstract.  It's showing us something we know; we are simply experiencing it in a completely new way.  His work, in its frame, becomes an entire reality unto itself.  It's endless.    So what happens when you place this masterly museum piece in a sweaty nightclub?  Does it shine?  Does it wilt?  Does Dolphy change his approach?  Few have examined Dolphy more closely than saxophonist/bandleader/poet/professor Roy Nathanson but we don't know if even Roy has heard the recordings from the WKCR archives that we'll play on Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus this Monday (8/21) from 6pm to 9pm NYC time.  It's on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.     Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   Did you know that you can find out more about Deep Focus and research past episodes here? https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/   Photo credit: photographer unknown.   #WKCR #DeepFocus #JazzAlternatives #RoyNathanson #EricDolphy #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast

If Eric Dolphy's music were a school of painting it would be analytical cubism: planar and angular, multi-directional and austere,  But it's not abstract.  It's showing us something we know; we are simply experiencing it in a completely new way.  His work, in its frame, becomes an entire reality unto itself.  It's endless.    So what happens when you place this masterly museum piece in a sweaty nightclub?  Does it shine?  Does it wilt?  Does Dolphy change his approach?  Few have examined Dolphy more closely than saxophonist/bandleader/poet/professor Roy Nathanson but we don't know if even Roy has heard the recordings from the WKCR archives that we'll play on Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus this Monday (8/21) from 6pm to 9pm NYC time.  It's on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.     Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   Did you know that you can find out more about Deep Focus and research past episodes here? https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/   Photo credit: Eric Dolphy courtesy of Prestige Records.   #WKCR #DeepFocus #JazzAlternatives #RoyNathanson #EricDolphy #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast

You're Miles Davis.  It's March of 1970 and you're about to release Bitches Brew, your most incendiary album yet.  You have an electric band of young assassins (each of whom will go on to become a legendary bandleader in his own right) and they don't sound like any band anyone has ever heard.  You know you've got the goods.  You're looking for a new audience for this new sound and you get invited to share a bill with a major rock band at the Fillmore East, THE place where the Woodstock Generation is finding its music.  Can you win them over?  What do you hit them with?     Slide trumpeter Steven Bernstein and producer/beatmaster Scotty Hard have both been both relentless shatterers of audience expectations and dedicated fans of Miles Davis, particularly in this phase of his career.   What happens if we put them in the audience for Miles's first night at the legendary Fillmore East?  (and did we mention that it's Wayne Shorter's last gig with Miles?).     Find out Monday (8/7) from 6p to 9p NYC time on Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/    Photo credit: publishing info not available.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #ScottyHard #StevenBernstein #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #MilesDavis #JazzRockFusion #FillmoreEast #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast #BitchesBrew

You're Miles Davis.  It's March of 1970 and you're about to release Bitches Brew, your most incendiary album yet.  You have an electric band of young assassins (each of whom will go on to become a legendary bandleader in his own right) and they don't sound like any band anyone has ever heard.  You know you've got the goods.  You're looking for a new audience for this new sound and you get invited to share a bill with a major rock band at the Fillmore East, THE place where the Woodstock Generation is finding its music.  Can you win them over?  What do you hit them with?     Slide trumpeter Steven Bernstein and producer/beatmaster Scotty Hard have both been both relentless shatterers of audience expectations and dedicated fans of Miles Davis, particularly in this phase of his career.   What happens if we put them in the audience for Miles's first night at the legendary Fillmore East?  (and did we mention that it's Wayne Shorter's last gig with Miles?).     Find out Monday (8/7) from 6p to 9p NYC time on Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/    Photo credit: Miles Davis - Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. - 1970 by Robert Houston - Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Robert and Greta Houston.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #ScottyHard #StevenBernstein #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #MilesDavis #JazzRockFusion #FillmoreEast #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast #BitchesBrew

You're Miles Davis.  It's March of 1970 and you're about to release Bitches Brew, your most incendiary album yet.  You have an electric band of young assassins (each of whom will go on to become a legendary bandleader in his own right) and they don't sound like any band anyone has ever heard.  You know you've got the goods.  You're looking for a new audience for this new sound and you get invited to share a bill with a major rock band at the Fillmore East, THE place where the Woodstock Generation is finding its music.  Can you win them over?  What do you hit them with?     Slide trumpeter Steven Bernstein and producer/beatmaster Scotty Hard have both been both relentless shatterers of audience expectations and dedicated fans of Miles Davis, particularly in this phase of his career.   What happens if we put them in the audience for Miles's first night at the legendary Fillmore East?  (and did we mention that it's Wayne Shorter's last gig with Miles?).     Find out Monday (8/7) from 6p to 9p NYC time on Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/    Photo credit: Miles Davis - Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. - 1970 by Robert Houston - Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Robert and Greta Houston.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #ScottyHard #StevenBernstein #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #MilesDavis #JazzRockFusion #FillmoreEast #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast #BitchesBrew

The future that Sun Ra sang of has arrived in so many ways.  No one knows this better than the musicians who made the music with him.  Ahmed Abdullah was part of Sun Ra's Arkestra for more than 20 years and his insights about that time could fill a book.  In fact, they have.  "A Strange Celestial Road" is newly released and Ahmed joins host Mitch Goldman to discuss it on this week's Deep Focus.    Monday night 6p to 9p NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/ Special bonus: Tuesday 7/25 at 7pm Mitch Goldman interviews Ahmed Abdullah about "A Strange Celestial Road" at Strand Books at 828 Broadway in Greenwich Village.  The event is free and open to all.  Photo credit: Sun Ra - Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture -  Gift of David D. Spitzer   #WKCR #SunRa #AhmedAbdullah #JazzAlternatives #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #SunRaArkestra #AStrangeCelestialRoad #BlankForms #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast #LoftJazz #FreeJazz

The future that Sun Ra sang of has arrived in so many ways.  No one knows this better than the musicians who made the music with him.  Ahmed Abdullah was part of Sun Ra's Arkestra for more than 20 years and his insights about that time could fill a book.  In fact, they have.  "A Strange Celestial Road" is newly released and Ahmed joins host Mitch Goldman to discuss it on this week's Deep Focus.    Monday night 6p to 9p NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/ Special bonus: Tuesday 7/25 at 7pm Mitch Goldman interviews Ahmed Abdullah about "A Strange Celestial Road" at Strand Books at 828 Broadway in Greenwich Village.  The event is free and open to all.  Photo credit: Sun Ra and Mitch Goldman by Andy Hill   #WKCR #SunRa #AhmedAbdullah #JazzAlternatives #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #SunRaArkestra #AStrangeCelestialRoad #BlankForms #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast #LoftJazz #FreeJazz

The future that Sun Ra sang of has arrived in so many ways.  No one knows this better than the musicians who made the music with him.  Ahmed Abdullah was part of Sun Ra's Arkestra for more than 20 years and his insights about that time could fill a book.  In fact, they have.  "A Strange Celestial Road" is newly released and Ahmed joins host Mitch Goldman to discuss it on this week's Deep Focus.    Monday night 6p to 9p NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/ Special bonus: Tuesday 7/25 at 7pm Mitch Goldman interviews Ahmed Abdullah about "A Strange Celestial Road" at Strand Books at 828 Broadway in Greenwich Village.  The event is free and open to all.  Photo credit: Sun Ra - Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture -  Gift of David D. Spitzer   #WKCR #SunRa #AhmedAbdullah #JazzAlternatives #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #SunRaArkestra #AStrangeCelestialRoad #BlankForms #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast #LoftJazz #FreeJazz

Who was Joseph Jarman?  A shaman?  A conjurer?  A Buddhist priest?  A poet?  An Aikido sensei?  In the words of his fellow member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Lester Bowie, "Well, I guess that all depends on, ah, what you know."  We know that in the universe of this music, which thrives on original thinking, few ranged as far and as free as Jarman.  He brought us songs and stories, large-scale compositions, movement, theatricality, costumes and confrontation, along with collaborations and improvisations on every member of the woodwind family (as well as those "little instruments").  With Jarman, walls turned into windows, windows into doors, and those doors flew off their hinges.   So what's out there on the other side?   Is it any surprise that William Hooker is summoning Jarman for this week's Deep Focus? An improvising drummer who puts all his food on the same plate, composing spontaneously for silent films, collaborating with DJs and rockers, exploring architecture and futurism and tribal traditions... hungry for the world.  No, this one is gonna fly like hot lava from a volcano.     This Monday (7/10) from 6p to 9p on WKCR 89.9FM and WKCR-HD in NYC, wkcr.org on the web.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #WilliamHooker #JosephJarman #AEC #AECo #ArtEnsembleofChicago #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast   Photo credit: fair use.

Who was Joseph Jarman?  A shaman?  A conjurer?  A Buddhist priest?  A poet?  An Aikido sensei?  In the words of his fellow member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Lester Bowie, "Well, I guess that all depends on, ah, what you know."  We know that in the universe of this music, which thrives on original thinking, few ranged as far and as free as Jarman.  He brought us songs and stories, large-scale compositions, movement, theatricality, costumes and confrontation, along with collaborations and improvisations on every member of the woodwind family (as well as those "little instruments").  With Jarman, walls turned into windows, windows into doors, and those doors flew off their hinges.   So what's out there on the other side?   Is it any surprise that William Hooker is summoning Jarman for this week's Deep Focus? An improvising drummer who puts all his food on the same plate, composing spontaneously for silent films, collaborating with DJs and rockers, exploring architecture and futurism and tribal traditions... hungry for the world.  No, this one is gonna fly like hot lava from a volcano.     This Monday (7/10) from 6p to 9p on WKCR 89.9FM and WKCR-HD in NYC, wkcr.org on the web.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #WilliamHooker #JosephJarman #AEC #AECo #ArtEnsembleofChicago #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast   Photo credit: fair use.

Who was Joseph Jarman?  A shaman?  A conjurer?  A Buddhist priest?  A poet?  An Aikido sensei?  In the words of his fellow member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Lester Bowie, "Well, I guess that all depends on, ah, what you know."  We know that in the universe of this music, which thrives on original thinking, few ranged as far and as free as Jarman.  He brought us songs and stories, large-scale compositions, movement, theatricality, costumes and confrontation, along with collaborations and improvisations on every member of the woodwind family (as well as those "little instruments").  With Jarman, walls turned into windows, windows into doors, and those doors flew off their hinges.   So what's out there on the other side?   Is it any surprise that William Hooker is summoning Jarman for this week's Deep Focus? An improvising drummer who puts all his food on the same plate, composing spontaneously for silent films, collaborating with DJs and rockers, exploring architecture and futurism and tribal traditions... hungry for the world.  No, this one is gonna fly like hot lava from a volcano.     This Monday (7/10) from 6p to 9p on WKCR 89.9FM and WKCR-HD in NYC, wkcr.org on the web.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #WilliamHooker #JosephJarman #AEC #AECo #ArtEnsembleofChicago #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast   Photo credit: fair use.

Yes, I am starting to see the pattern!  Vijay Iyer has joined Mitch Goldman for Deep Focus programs on Andrew Hill, Thelonious Monk, and Geri Allen.  This Monday the lens turns to McCoy Tyner.  Do you see what I see?     You will this Monday night from 6p to 9p NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org.   Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   Photo credit: Mccoy Tyner 1973_gh Copyright 1973 Gisle Hannemyr - licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #VijayIyer #McCoyTyner #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

Yes, I am starting to see the pattern!  Vijay Iyer has joined Mitch Goldman for Deep Focus programs on Andrew Hill, Thelonious Monk, and Geri Allen.  This Monday the lens turns to McCoy Tyner.  Do you see what I see?     You will this Monday night from 6p to 9p NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org.   Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   Photo credit: McCoy Tyner - Keystone Korner 1981 - Photo by Brian McMillen - This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #VijayIyer #McCoyTyner #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

Yes, I am starting to see the pattern!  Vijay Iyer has joined Mitch Goldman for Deep Focus programs on Andrew Hill, Thelonious Monk, and Geri Allen.  This Monday the lens turns to McCoy Tyner.  Do you see what I see?     You will this Monday night from 6p to 9p NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org.   Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   Photo credit: Mccoy Tyner 1973_gh Copyright 1973 Gisle Hannemyr - licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #VijayIyer #McCoyTyner #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

William Parker has perhaps done more than any musician alive to spread understanding and support for open improvised music.  More than that, he is a bassist, bandleader, and conceptualist of the highest order.  The sheer volume of projects (including the upcoming Vision Festival) that he commits energy to is simply daunting and the list of noted improvisers he has played with is practically a who's who of the idiom.   So which of them are we going to focus on?  You'll have to tune in to find out but trust me: you are going to be a fly on the wall with William and me for some heavy, heavy business!   This Monday 6p to 9p NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   Photo credit: William Parker by Jimmy Katz, used by permission of William Parker, williamparker.net.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #WilliamParker #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast #FreeJazz #JazzImprov #VisionFest

William Parker has perhaps done more than any musician alive to spread understanding and support for open improvised music.  More than that, he is a bassist, bandleader, and conceptualist of the highest order.  The sheer volume of projects (including the upcoming Vision Festival) that he commits energy to is simply daunting and the list of noted improvisers he has played with is practically a who's who of the idiom.   So which of them are we going to focus on?  You'll have to tune in to find out but trust me: you are going to be a fly on the wall with William and me for some heavy, heavy business!   This Monday 6p to 9p NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   Photo credit: William Parker by Jimmy Katz, used by permission of William Parker, williamparker.net.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #WilliamParker #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast #FreeJazz #JazzImprov #VisionFest

William Parker has perhaps done more than any musician alive to spread understanding and support for open improvised music.  More than that, he is a bassist, bandleader, and conceptualist of the highest order.  The sheer volume of projects (including the upcoming Vision Festival) that he commits energy to is simply daunting and the list of noted improvisers he has played with is practically a who's who of the idiom.   So which of them are we going to focus on?  Are we going to push our luck one more time in the WKCR archives to try to find a live set from the legendary Five Spot of William playing with the mighty Don Cherry?  A set William himself has never heard?  CAN IT BE?!  Ttrust me: you are going to be a fly on the wall with William and me for some heavy, heavy business!   This Monday 6p to 9p NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at mitchgoldman.podbean.com/

When the centennial of an artist as singular and inventive and influential and expressive as Wes Montgomery passes, one Deep Focus is not enough.  Several weeks ago, Rodney Jones brought us a whole new appreciation for Wes.  Can Mark Whitfield do it again?        This Monday (5/8), Mark takes a deep dive into the WKCR archives on Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus.  Not only are we going to play some never-released live recordings from the NYC nightlife of 1965, but what about that supposed recording of Wes playing alone in a hotel room?  Talk about crypto-jazzology, right?!   This Monday (5/8) 6p to 9p EDT on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org.   Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/ and your favorite podcasting app.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #WesMontgomery #MarkWhitfield #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzGuitar #JazzPodcast   Photo credit: Wes_Montgomery_ Photo first published by Gibson. According to NPR, the photo was taken by Chuck Stewart., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

When the centennial of an artist as singular and inventive and influential and expressive as Wes Montgomery passes, one Deep Focus is not enough.  Several weeks ago, Rodney Jones brought us a whole new appreciation for Wes.  Can Mark Whitfield do it again?        This Monday (5/8), Mark takes a deep dive into the WKCR archives on Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus.  Not only are we going to play some never-released live recordings from the NYC nightlife of 1965, but what about that supposed recording of Wes playing alone in a hotel room?  Talk about crypto-jazzology, right?!   This Monday (5/8) 6p to 9p EDT on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org.   Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/ and your favorite podcasting app.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #WesMontgomery #MarkWhitfield #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzGuitar #JazzPodcast   Photo credit: Wes_Montgomery_(1967) Published by A&M Records. Photographer uncredited and unknown., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

When the centennial of an artist as singular and inventive and influential and expressive as Wes Montgomery passes, one Deep Focus is not enough.  Several weeks ago, Rodney Jones brought us a whole new appreciation for Wes.  Can Mark Whitfield do it again?        This Monday (5/8), Mark takes a deep dive into the WKCR archives on Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus.  Not only are we going to play some never-released live recordings from the NYC nightlife of 1965, but what about that supposed recording of Wes playing alone in a hotel room?  Talk about crypto-jazzology, right?!   This Monday (5/8) 6p to 9p EDT on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org.   Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/ and your favorite podcasting app.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #WesMontgomery #MarkWhitfield #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzGuitar #JazzPodcast   Photo credit: Wes_Montgomery_ Photo first published by Gibson. According to NPR, the photo was taken by Chuck Stewart., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

This Monday  (5/1) Jazz Alternatives presents Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus on Andrew Cyrille with guest Daniel Sadownick.  Take a stroll through Andrew Cyrille's discography.   The range of his work across the last 60+ years is practically gasp-inducing.  Admire How many of the hundreds of sessions that he has anchored in that time represent the leader's best works.  Weigh the sense of anticipation you feel when you see him taking the bandstand, the certainty that you are about to be led through a quarter that no one has ever visited before, not even him.  This is a musician of great consequence.   Percussionist Daniel Sadownick knows a thing or two about the transformational power of music.  He studied with Cyrille and will share his first-person insight with us.  Hey, did anyone remember to check the WKCR archives for astonishing, unknown live recordings?  Oh yes, we did.  Oh yes!Monday night from 6pm to 9pm EDT on WKCR 89.9FM in NYC, WKCR-HD, and wkcr.org.Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com joining hundreds of other episodes.  Photo credit: Andrew Cyrille by Shawn Brackbill, Brooklyn, NY, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #AndrewCyrille #DanielSadownick #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview #CecilTaylor

This Monday  (5/1) Jazz Alternatives presents Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus on Andrew Cyrille with guest Daniel Sadownick.  Take a stroll through Andrew Cyrille's discography.   The range of his work across the last 60+ years is practically gasp-inducing.  Admire How many of the hundreds of sessions that he has anchored in that time represent the leader's best works.  Weigh the sense of anticipation you feel when you see him taking the bandstand, the certainty that you are about to be led through a quarter that no one has ever visited before, not even him.  This is a musician of great consequence.   Percussionist Daniel Sadownick knows a thing or two about the transformational power of music.  He studied with Cyrille and will share his first-person insight with us.  Hey, did anyone remember to check the WKCR archives for astonishing, unknown live recordings?  Oh yes, we did.  Oh yes!Monday night from 6pm to 9pm EDT on WKCR 89.9FM in NYC, WKCR-HD, and wkcr.org.Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com joining hundreds of other episodes.  Photo credit: Andrew Cyrille by Shawn Brackbill, Brooklyn, NY, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #AndrewCyrille #DanielSadownick #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview #CecilTaylor

This Monday  (5/1) Jazz Alternatives presents Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus on Andrew Cyrille with guest Daniel Sadownick.  Take a stroll through Andrew Cyrille's discography.   The range of his work across the last 60+ years is practically gasp-inducing.  Admire How many of the hundreds of sessions that he has anchored in that time represent the leader's best works.  Weigh the sense of anticipation you feel when you see him taking the bandstand, the certainty that you are about to be led through a quarter that no one has ever visited before, not even him.  This is a musician of great consequence.   Percussionist Daniel Sadownick knows a thing or two about the transformational power of music.  He studied with Cyrille and will share his first-person insight with us.  Hey, did anyone remember to check the WKCR archives for astonishing, unknown live recordings?  Oh yes, we did.  Oh yes!Monday night from 6pm to 9pm EDT on WKCR 89.9FM in NYC, WKCR-HD, and wkcr.org.Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com joining hundreds of other episodes.  Photo credit: Andrew Cyrille by Shawn Brackbill, Brooklyn, NY, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #AndrewCyrille #DanielSadownick #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview #CecilTaylor

The streets of NYC are vibrantly alive with the spirits of the originators and the thrust and tumult of what they created.  If, that is, you know how to summon them, and few do as our guest for this Deep Focus, Ras Moshe.  He and host Mitch Goldman bring us to the legendary Tin Palace for an exploration by Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre at the height of his creative powers in the mid-Seventies.  He is joined by some of the brightest lights of that continually-emerging scene.  Want to know what it was really like?  This will be a revelation.   Deep Focus on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org Monday (3/20) 6pm to 9pm NYC time.     Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/    Photo credit: fair use.   #WKCR #DeepFocus #Kalaparusha #RasMoshe #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview

The streets of NYC are vibrantly alive with the spirits of the originators and the thrust and tumult of what they created.  If, that is, you know how to summon them, and few do as our guest for this Deep Focus, Ras Moshe.  He and host Mitch Goldman bring us to the legendary Tin Palace for an exploration by Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre at the height of his creative powers in the mid-Seventies.  He is joined by some of the brightest lights of that continually-emerging scene.  Want to know what it was really like?  This will be a revelation.   Deep Focus on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org Monday (3/20) 6pm to 9pm NYC time.     Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/    Photo credit: fair use.   #WKCR #DeepFocus #Kalaparusha #RasMoshe #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview

The streets of NYC are vibrantly alive with the spirits of the originators and the thrust and tumult of what they created.  If, that is, you know how to summon them, and few do as our guest for this Deep Focus, Ras Moshe.  He and host Mitch Goldman bring us to the legendary Tin Palace for an exploration by Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre at the height of his creative powers in the mid-Seventies.  He is joined by some of the brightest lights of that continually-emerging scene.  Want to know what it was really like?  This will be a revelation.   Deep Focus on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD and wkcr.org Monday (3/20) 6pm to 9pm NYC time.     Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/    Photo credit: fair use.   #WKCR #DeepFocus #Kalaparusha #RasMoshe #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview

It's 1965.  Wes Montgomery has been on the scene for more than 2 decades but he is just emerging as a major pop star.  He has hit singles on the charts and he is touring major European concert venues.  But in New York, he plays a series of shows at a small club on Spring Street called the Half Note.  It's the spot downtown where all the cats check each other out.   For this episode, recorded on the actual centennial of Wes Montgomery's birth, you are a fly on the wall of the Half Note for some true musical magic.  Our guide is a genuine adept of all things Wes: master guitarist Rodney Jones.   Photo credit: Wes_Montgomery_(1967) Published by A&M Records. Photographer uncredited and unknown., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. #WKCR #DeepFocus #WesMontgomery #RodneyJones #MitchGoldman #JazzGuitar #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview

It's 1965.  Wes Montgomery has been on the scene for more than 2 decades but he is just emerging as a major pop star.  He has hit singles on the charts and he is touring major European concert venues.  But in New York, he plays a series of shows at a small club on Spring Street called the Half Note.  It's the spot downtown where all the cats check each other out.   For this episode, recorded on the actual centennial of Wes Montgomery's birth, you are a fly on the wall of the Half Note for some true musical magic.  Our guide is a genuine adept of all things Wes: master guitarist Rodney Jones.   Also, an added bonus: is this Wes Montgomery practicing alone in a hotel room?  Doing what no one else can?  Rodney Jones seems to think so.  What do you think? #WKCR #DeepFocus #WesMontgomery #RodneyJones #MitchGoldman #JazzGuitar #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview Photo credit:  Wes Montgomery - Photo first published by Gibson. According to NPR, the photo was taken by Chuck Stewart., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

It's 1965.  Wes Montgomery has been on the scene for more than 2 decades but he is just emerging as a major pop star.  He has hit singles on the charts and he is touring major European concert venues.  But in New York, he plays a series of shows at a small club on Spring Street called the Half Note.  It's the spot downtown where all the cats check each other out.   For this episode, recorded on the actual centennial of Wes Montgomery's birth, you are a fly on the wall of the Half Note for some true musical magic.  Our guide is a genuine adept of all things Wes: master guitarist Rodney Jones.   Photo credit: Wes_Montgomery_(1967) Published by A&M Records. Photographer uncredited and unknown., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. #WKCR #DeepFocus #WesMontgomery #RodneyJones #MitchGoldman #JazzGuitar #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview

Celebrating the glorious music of Dexter Gordon on the centenary of his birth, February 27, 2023, with the brilliant Eric Person.     Photo credit: Dexter Gordon at Mountain Winery Jazz Festival, Saratoga CA_1981 Brianmcmillen, CC BY-SA 4.0 creativecommons.org-licenses-by-sa-4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Celebrating the magnificent Dexter Gordon on the centenary of his birth, February 27, 2023, with the brilliant Eric Person.     Photo credit: Dexter_Gordon at Mountain Winery Jazz Festival, Saratoga CA_1981 Brianmcmillen, CC BY-SA 4.0 creativecommons.org-licenses-by-sa-4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Celebrating the incomparable Dexter Gordon on the centenary of his birth, February 27, 2023, with the brilliant Eric Person.     Photo credit: Dexter Gordon at Mountain Winery Jazz Festival, Saratoga CA_1981 Brianmcmillen, CC BY-SA 4.0 creativecommons.org-licenses-by-sa-4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Jeff Beck arrived at a time when all the rules were being questioned.  Unlike many of his contemporaries (and many in his audience), he never lost the sense of discovery in his music.  Put an instrumental band together and get it played on the radio?  Sure, why not?  Collaborate with Stevie Wonder and Tina Turner?  I'll try that!  Introduce a whole new audience to the music of Charles Mingus? That's for me.   And it never sounded stale or contrived or like the work of anyone else.  Always, organically, Jeff Beck; his fans loved him for it.     Jeff Beck, seemingly the eternally enthusiastic youngster, died this past January and a violent shockwave tore through the music community.  No one was ready for him to go and so much felt unfinished.   This Monday from 6pm to 9pm on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD1 and wkcr.org, guitarist/sonic architect Ben Tyree joins host Mitch Goldman for a Deep Focus on Jeff Beck, with special attention to live recordings from the WKCR archives of his vibrant Seventies improvisations.     Next week it goes up at the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR #DeepFocus #JeffBeck #BenTyree #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview   Photo credit: Jeff_Beck 1973 by Jean-Luc Ourlin, CC BY-SA 2.0 creativecommons.org-licenses-by-sa-2.0

Jeff Beck arrived at a time when all the rules were being questioned.  Unlike many of his contemporaries (and many in his audience), he never lost the sense of discovery in his music.  Put an instrumental band together and get it played on the radio?  Sure, why not?  Collaborate with Stevie Wonder and Tina Turner?  I'll try that!  Introduce a whole new audience to the music of Charles Mingus? That's for me.   And it never sounded stale or contrived or like the work of anyone else.  Always, organically, Jeff Beck; his fans loved him for it.     Jeff Beck, seemingly the eternally enthusiastic youngster, died this past January and a violent shockwave tore through the music community.  No one was ready for him to go and so much felt unfinished.   This Monday from 6pm to 9pm on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD1 and wkcr.org, guitarist/sonic architect Ben Tyree joins host Mitch Goldman for a Deep Focus on Jeff Beck, with special attention to live recordings from the WKCR archives of his vibrant Seventies improvisations.     Next week it goes up at the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR #DeepFocus #JeffBeck #BenTyree #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview   Photo credit: Jeff_Beck 1973 by Jean-Luc Ourlin, CC BY-SA 2.0 creativecommons.org-licenses-by-sa-2.0

Jeff Beck arrived at a time when all the rules were being questioned.  Unlike many of his contemporaries (and many in his audience), he never lost the sense of discovery in his music.  Put an instrumental band together and get it played on the radio?  Sure, why not?  Collaborate with Stevie Wonder and Tina Turner?  I'll try that!  Introduce a whole new audience to the music of Charles Mingus? That's for me.   And it never sounded stale or contrived or like the work of anyone else.  Always, organically, Jeff Beck; his fans loved him for it.     Jeff Beck, seemingly the eternally enthusiastic youngster, died this past January and a violent shockwave tore through the music community.  No one was ready for him to go and so much felt unfinished.   This Monday from 6pm to 9pm on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD1 and wkcr.org, guitarist/sonic architect Ben Tyree joins host Mitch Goldman for a Deep Focus on Jeff Beck, with special attention to live recordings from the WKCR archives of his vibrant Seventies improvisations.     Next week it goes up at the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR #DeepFocus #JeffBeck #BenTyree #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview   Photo credit: Jeff_Beck in 1979 - Chris Hakkens, CC BY-SA 2.0 creative commons.org-licenses-by-sa-2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Meet Karl Berger and Ingrid Sertso.  In 1965, they traveled from West Germany to Le Chat Qui Pêche in Paris and found Don Cherry there.  What flowed from that encounter is a tale of discovery and evolution that is still unfolding, still reaching new ears and new minds.  Let's hear about it from them firsthand.  Hey, have you got any music we've never heard, Mitch?  Do I?  Do I! #WKCR #DeepFocus #DonCherry #KarlBerger #IngridSertso #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast #CompleteCommunion Photo credit: by Brian McMillen.  Used by permission.

Meet Karl Berger and Ingrid Sertso.  In 1965, they traveled from West Germany to Le Chat Qui Pêche in Paris and found Don Cherry there.  What flowed from that encounter is a tale of discovery and evolution that is still unfolding, still reaching new ears and new minds.  Let's hear about it from them firsthand.  Hey, have you got any music we've never heard, Mitch?  Do I?  Do I! #WKCR #DeepFocus #DonCherry #KarlBerger #IngridSertso #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast #CompleteCommunion Photo credit: by Mitch Goldman, copyright 1982.  All rights reserved.

Jimmy Smith didn't invent the electric organ but, for several decades at least, you wouldn't know it.  The response to his Blue Note and Verve LPs in the Fifties and Sixties made him a festival headliner and earned him the nickname "The Incredible Jimmy Smith."  To this day, no one in the Jazz idiom can sit down at a Hammond B3 without contending with his influence or his very life force, even 17 years after he left this earth.   Brian Charette knows.  He has been in the top 10 in Downbeat Magazine's critics' poll of best organ players for most of the last 10 years because he is a player of wit, passion, and intensity.  On this Monday's Deep Focus, Mitch Goldman will lead Brian through the WKCR archives and ask him to show us what kind of live performer The Incredible Jimmy Smith really was.   It's only on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD-1 and wkcr.org Monday night from 6pm to 9pm NYC time.   Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   Photo credit: fair use.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #JimmySmith #BrianCharette #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzPodast #JazzInterview

Jimmy Smith didn't invent the electric organ but, for several decades at least, you wouldn't know it.  The response to his Blue Note and Verve LPs in the Fifties and Sixties made him a festival headliner and earned him the nickname "The Incredible Jimmy Smith."  To this day, no one in the Jazz idiom can sit down at a Hammond B3 without contending with his influence or his very life force, even 17 years after he left this earth.   Brian Charette knows.  He has been in the top 10 in Downbeat Magazine's critics' poll of best organ players for most of the last 10 years because he is a player of wit, passion, and intensity.  On this Monday's Deep Focus, Mitch Goldman will lead Brian through the WKCR archives and ask him to show us what kind of live performer The Incredible Jimmy Smith really was.   It's only on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD-1 and wkcr.org Monday night from 6pm to 9pm NYC time.   Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   Photo credit: fair use.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #JimmySmith #BrianCharette #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzPodast #JazzInterview

Jimmy Smith didn't invent the electric organ but, for several decades at least, you wouldn't know it.  The response to his Blue Note and Verve LPs in the Fifties and Sixties made him a festival headliner and earned him the nickname "The Incredible Jimmy Smith."  To this day, no one in the Jazz idiom can sit down at a Hammond B3 without contending with his influence or his very life force, even 17 years after he left this earth.   Brian Charette knows.  He has been in the top 10 in Downbeat Magazine's critics' poll of best organ players for most of the last 10 years because he is a player of wit, passion, and intensity.  On this Monday's Deep Focus, Mitch Goldman will lead Brian through the WKCR archives and ask him to show us what kind of live performer The Incredible Jimmy Smith really was.   It's only on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD-1 and wkcr.org Monday night from 6pm to 9pm NYC time.   Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   Photo credit: fair use.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #JimmySmith #BrianCharette #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzPodast #JazzInterview

Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus this Monday (12/12) is on Miles Davis with guest David Soldier.  Soldier's punk chamber music, elephant orchestra (yes, the elephants play the instruments), Most Unwanted Song (which we absolutely love!) and tons of other off-center music had to come from someplace, but where?  What inspires an emerging composer to take such brash risks and leaps of musical derring-do?  Could it be from hearing one of Miles Davis' most outré bands at a formative age?  Could there be a recording of such a show?  Could there be a photograph of our young composer in the front row of the audience at such a show?!?  COULD THAT BE HIM IN THIS PHOTO?   The Shaboo Inn, in a remote corner of Connecticut, might have been the smallest venue Miles played in 1974 (he would play Carnegie Hall 2 months later).  Even at that, even after canceling the first of 3 nights because Miles was too, er, "distracted," only 50 or 60 people showed up.  So the stakes were low, Miles was high and the band (as ferocious a Murderers' Row as Miles ever assembled) was ready to eviscerate the songs that had been in the book for the previous 5 years.     This one!  THIS ONE, I tell ya!   Tune in to WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD-1 or wkcr.org this Monday from 6pm to 9pm NYC time.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast, along with hundreds of other episodes, on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #MilesDavis #DavidSoldier #DaveSoldier #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast   Photo credit: no publishing information available.

Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus this Monday (12/12) is on Miles Davis with guest David Soldier.  Soldier's punk chamber music, elephant orchestra (yes, the elephants play the instruments), Most Unwanted Song (which we absolutely love!) and tons of other off-center music had to come from someplace, but where?  What inspires an emerging composer to take such brash risks and leaps of musical derring-do?  Could it be from hearing one of Miles Davis' most outré bands at a formative age?  Could there be a recording of such a show?  Could there be a photograph of our young composer in the front row of the audience at such a show?!?  COULD THAT BE HIM IN THIS PHOTO?   The Shaboo Inn, in a remote corner of Connecticut, might have been the smallest venue Miles played in 1974 (he would play Carnegie Hall 2 months later).  Even at that, even after canceling the first of 3 nights because Miles was too, er, "distracted," only 50 or 60 people showed up.  So the stakes were low, Miles was high and the band (as ferocious a Murderers' Row as Miles ever assembled) was ready to eviscerate the songs that had been in the book for the previous 5 years.     This one!  THIS ONE, I tell ya!   Tune in to WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD-1 or wkcr.org this Monday from 6pm to 9pm NYC time.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast, along with hundreds of other episodes, on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #MilesDavis #DavidSoldier #DaveSoldier #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast   Photo credit: no publishing information available.

Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus this Monday (12/12) is on Miles Davis with guest David Soldier.  Soldier's punk chamber music, elephant orchestra (yes, the elephants play the instruments), Most Unwanted Song (which we absolutely love!) and tons of other off-center music had to come from someplace, but where?  What inspires an emerging composer to take such brash risks and leaps of musical derring-do?  Could it be from hearing one of Miles Davis' most outré bands at a formative age?  Could there be a recording of such a show?  Could there be a photograph of our young composer in the front row of the audience at such a show?!?  COULD THAT BE HIM IN THIS PHOTO?   The Shaboo Inn, in a remote corner of Connecticut, might have been the smallest venue Miles played in 1974 (he would play Carnegie Hall 2 months later).  Even at that, even after canceling the first of 3 nights because Miles was too, er, "distracted," only 50 or 60 people showed up.  So the stakes were low, Miles was high and the band (as ferocious a Murderers' Row as Miles ever assembled) was ready to eviscerate the songs that had been in the book for the previous 5 years.     This one!  THIS ONE, I tell ya!   Tune in to WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD-1 or wkcr.org this Monday from 6pm to 9pm NYC time.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast, along with hundreds of other episodes, on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #MilesDavis #DavidSoldier #DaveSoldier #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast   Photo credit: no publishing information available.

In 1972, as Miles Davis was rewriting the genetic code of musical possibilities in NYC, Carlos Santana, his labelmate, was doing the exact same thing in San Francisco.  Blazing electric keyboard player? Check. Hard-swinging drummer? Check.  Inventive electric bassist? Check.  Fathomless well of creative ideas and the fearlessness to apply them? Check and double-check.  One aspirant who was so moved by this that he picked up a guitar and never put it down was our guest, Vernon Reid.     So did Santana ever play this music live?   Did anyone think to record it?   Did those recordings find their way to the WKCR archives?   Does Vernon Reid have 50 years' worth of introspection on this music to share?     Hmmm... One way to find out!  Tune in to Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus with guest Vernon Reid this Monday 11/28 from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD-1 or wkcr.org.    Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   Photo credit: Carlos Santana_1973 Heinrich Klaffs, CC BY-SA 2.0 creativecommons.org-licenses-by-sa-2.0 via Wikimedia Commons   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #VernonReid #CarlosSantana #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast

In 1972, as Miles Davis was rewriting the genetic code of musical possibilities in NYC, Carlos Santana, his labelmate, was doing the exact same thing in San Francisco.  Blazing electric keyboard player? Check. Hard-swinging drummer? Check.  Inventive electric bassist? Check.  Fathomless well of creative ideas and the fearlessness to apply them? Check and double-check.  One aspirant who was so moved by this that he picked up a guitar and never put it down was our guest, Vernon Reid.     So did Santana ever play this music live?   Did anyone think to record it?   Did those recordings find their way to the WKCR archives?   Does Vernon Reid have 50 years' worth of introspection on this music to share?     Hmmm... One way to find out!  Tune in to Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus with guest Vernon Reid this Monday 11/28 from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD-1 or wkcr.org.    Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   Photo credit: Chris Hakkens, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #VernonReid #CarlosSantana #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast

In 1972, as Miles Davis was rewriting the genetic code of musical possibilities in NYC, Carlos Santana, his labelmate, was doing the exact same thing in San Francisco.  Blazing electric keyboard player? Check. Hard-swinging drummer? Check.  Inventive electric bassist? Check.  Fathomless well of creative ideas and the fearlessness to apply them? Check and double-check.  One aspirant who was so moved by this that he picked up a guitar and never put it down was our guest, Vernon Reid.     So did Santana ever play this music live?   Did anyone think to record it?   Did those recordings find their way to the WKCR archives?   Does Vernon Reid have 50 years' worth of introspection on this music to share?     Hmmm... One way to find out!  Tune in to Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus with guest Vernon Reid this Monday 11/28 from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD-1 or wkcr.org.    Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   Photo credit: Chris Hakkens, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #VernonReid #CarlosSantana #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast

"Lester Bowie": instead of thinking of that sound as a person's name, maybe we should start thinking of it as a verb.  Here's one definition: to change the orientation of something familiar so that it becomes unimaginably magnificent. Example: "I'm going to Lester Bowie this pebble and make a beautiful jewel out of it" or "I'm going to Lester Bowie these old tires into a holiday feast." It helps if you apply a bit of magic as Lester always seemed to manage to do.   This Monday night on Jazz Alternatives, Eric Person and host Mitch Goldman put Lester Bowie in Deep Focus.  While Lester may be more familiar from his work with the Art Ensemble of Chicago and Brass Fantasy, Eric and Mitch are digging somewhat deeper.  Once again, gems from the WKCR archives abound.     Only on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD1 and wkcr.org this Monday from 6pm to 9pm NYC time.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR #DeepFocus #JazzAlternatives #EricPerson #LesterBowie #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast    Photo credit: Robbie Drexhage, CC BY-SA 4.0 , attraverso Wikimedia Commons

"Lester Bowie": instead of thinking of that sound as a person's name, maybe we should start thinking of it as a verb.  Here's one definition: to change the orientation of something familiar so that it becomes unimaginably magnificent. Example: "I'm going to Lester Bowie this pebble and make a beautiful jewel out of it" or "I'm going to Lester Bowie these old tires into a holiday feast." It helps if you apply a bit of magic as Lester always seemed to manage to do.   This Monday night on Jazz Alternatives, Eric Person and host Mitch Goldman put Lester Bowie in Deep Focus.  While Lester may be more familiar from his work with the Art Ensemble of Chicago and Brass Fantasy, Eric and Mitch are digging somewhat deeper.  Once again, gems from the WKCR archives abound.     Only on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD1 and wkcr.org this Monday from 6pm to 9pm NYC time.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR #DeepFocus #JazzAlternatives #EricPerson #LesterBowie #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast    Photo credit: Lester Bowie, Sweet Basil, NYC by Anthony Barboza, Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.  Fair use.

"Lester Bowie": instead of thinking of that sound as a person's name, maybe we should start thinking of it as a verb.  Here's one definition: to change the orientation of something familiar so that it becomes unimaginably magnificent. Example: "I'm going to Lester Bowie this pebble and make a beautiful jewel out of it" or "I'm going to Lester Bowie these old tires into a holiday feast." It helps if you apply a bit of magic as Lester always seemed to manage to do.   This Monday night on Jazz Alternatives, Eric Person and host Mitch Goldman put Lester Bowie in Deep Focus.  While Lester may be more familiar from his work with the Art Ensemble of Chicago and Brass Fantasy, Eric and Mitch are digging somewhat deeper.  Once again, gems from the WKCR archives abound.     Only on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD1 and wkcr.org this Monday from 6pm to 9pm NYC time.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR #DeepFocus #JazzAlternatives #EricPerson #LesterBowie #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast    Photo credit: Robbie Drexhage, CC BY-SA 4.0 , attraverso Wikimedia Commons

This Monday night on Jazz Alternatives, Mitch Goldman welcomes drummer Don McKenzie back to the studio for a very special Deep Focus on the supergroup Last Exit (Peter Brotzmann, Sonny Sharrock, Bill Laswell, Ronald Shannon Jackson), a rebroadcast from 2015.The band was known for its uncompromising musical ferocity, fueled by the band members' confrontational attitudes. Greg Kot wrote that they brought a level of "volume and violence that makes most rock bands sound tame."  Although Last Exit left a mere handful of recordings and made only limited tour dates, they left a reputation for scorched earth; dazzled, sputtering listeners and no apologies.  A quarter century later, however, when the swagger of the music's creators has been set aside, what emerges is magnificent improvisation (they never rehearsed) with glistening shards of beauty from each of the composer/bandleader members.  This will be especially well borne out by the unreleased live recordings to be presented on Monday night, music the world has almost never heard.  Drummer Don McKenzie, well-known for his playing with Elliot Sharp, Marc Ribot, Vernon Reid and Roswell Rudd among many, many others, brings special insight into this ensemble, so often discussed but so seldom brought to light.   WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD1 and wkcr.org.   Catch it on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #LastExit #DonMcKenzie #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #PeterBrotzmann #SonnySharrock #BillLaswell #RonaldShannonJackson #JazzRockFusion #NoWave   Photo credit: no publishing information available.

This Monday night on Jazz Alternatives (6pm to 9pm) Mitch Goldman welcomes drummer Don McKenzie back to the studio for a very special Deep Focus on the supergroup Last Exit (Peter Brotzmann, Sonny Sharrock, Bill Laswell, Ronald Shannon Jackson), a rebroadcast from 2015.The band was known for its uncompromising musical ferocity, fueled by the band members' confrontational attitudes. Greg Kot wrote that they brought a level of "volume and violence that makes most rock bands sound tame."  Although Last Exit left a mere handful of recordings and made only limited tour dates, they left a reputation for scorched earth; dazzled, sputtering listeners and no apologies.  A quarter century later, however, when the swagger of the music's creators has been set aside, what emerges is magnificent improvisation (they never rehearsed) with glistening shards of beauty from each of the composer/bandleader members.  This will be especially well borne out by the unreleased live recordings to be presented on Monday night, music the world has almost never heard.  Drummer Don McKenzie, well-known for his playing with Elliot Sharp, Marc Ribot, Vernon Reid and Roswell Rudd among many, many others, brings special insight into this ensemble, so often discussed but so seldom brought to light.   WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD1 and wkcr.org.   Catch it on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #LastExit #DonMcKenzie #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #PeterBrotzmann #SonnySharrock #BillLaswell #RonaldShannonJackson #JazzRockFusion #NoWave   Photo credit: no publishing information available.

This Monday night on Jazz Alternatives, Mitch Goldman welcomes drummer Don McKenzie back to the studio for a very special Deep Focus on the supergroup Last Exit (Peter Brotzmann, Sonny Sharrock, Bill Laswell, Ronald Shannon Jackson), a rebroadcast from 2015.The band was known for its uncompromising musical ferocity, fueled by the band members' confrontational attitudes. Greg Kot wrote that they brought a level of "volume and violence that makes most rock bands sound tame."  Although Last Exit left a mere handful of recordings and made only limited tour dates, they left a reputation for scorched earth; dazzled, sputtering listeners and no apologies.  A quarter century later, however, when the swagger of the music's creators has been set aside, what emerges is magnificent improvisation (they never rehearsed) with glistening shards of beauty from each of the composer/bandleader members.  This will be especially well borne out by the unreleased live recordings to be presented on Monday night, music the world has almost never heard.  Drummer Don McKenzie, well-known for his playing with Elliot Sharp, Marc Ribot, Vernon Reid and Roswell Rudd among many, many others, brings special insight into this ensemble, so often discussed but so seldom brought to light.   WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD1 and wkcr.org.   Catch it on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com.   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #LastExit #DonMcKenzie #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #PeterBrotzmann #SonnySharrock #BillLaswell #RonaldShannonJackson #JazzRockFusion #NoWave   Photo credit: no publishing information available.

No one will ever embody the concept of music as spiritual sustenance the way that Pharoah Sanders did.  William Hooker heard the call through the music and it changed his life.  William joins Mitch Goldman to remember this enduring moment of inspiration and to explore the WKCR archives.  Jewels abound.     The Pharoah Sanders Memorial Broadcast is all day Monday 9/26.  This segment is 6pm to 9pm on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR  HD-1 and wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR #PharoahSanders #PharoahSandersMemorialBroadcast #WilliamHooker #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast   Photo credit: Pharoah Sanders by Manfred Werner (Tsui), CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

No one will ever embody the concept of music as spiritual sustenance the way that Pharoah Sanders did.  William Hooker heard the call through the music and it changed his life.  William joins Mitch Goldman to remember this enduring moment of inspiration and to explore the WKCR archives.  Jewels abound.     The Pharoah Sanders Memorial Broadcast is all day Monday 9/26.  This segment is 6pm to 9pm on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR  HD-1 and wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR #PharoahSanders #PharoahSandersMemorialBroadcast #WilliamHooker #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast   Photo credit: Pharoah Sanders by Manfred Werner (Tsui), CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

No one will ever embody the concept of music as spiritual sustenance the way that Pharoah Sanders did.  William Hooker heard the call through the music and it changed his life.  William joins Mitch Goldman to remember this enduring moment of inspiration and to explore the WKCR archives.  Jewels abound.     The Pharoah Sanders Memorial Broadcast is all day Monday 9/26.  This segment is 6pm to 9pm on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR  HD-1 and wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR #PharoahSanders #PharoahSandersMemorialBroadcast #WilliamHooker #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast   Photo credit: Pharoah Sanders by Manfred Werner (Tsui), CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Every once in a while, an artist comes along who gets so caught up in the sweep of history that the world seems to create itself for the artist's work, rather than the other way around.  Dollar Brand came of age as a pianist in South Africa in the late Fifties, just in time for the multiethnic explosion of Johannesburg's Sophiatown.  In the wake of the repression that followed the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960, he became a European exile.  Within months, his music came to the attention of Duke Ellington who was so moved that he brought about the LP session Duke Ellington presents The Dollar Brand Trio on Frank Sinatra's Reprise label.     Brand came to New York, subbed for Duke leading the Ellington Orchestra and attended Juilliard.  But experiences with John Coltrane, Don Cherry and the progressive cadre of the Jazz world gave him a new appreciation of his African roots and he incorporated them into his music.  He returned to South Africa, converted to Islam and became Abdullah Ibrahim.  With these changes came a new style of music that embraced the multi-kulti, freedom-loving culture of his native Cape Town.  His song "Mannenberg" became a theme for the anti-apartheid movement.   After South African police fired on children during the Soweto Uprising of 1976, Ibrahim publicly came out in support of the African National Congress and subsequently returned to New York.  Here he found a community of open-minded musicians and an audience that was supportive of his distinctively contemplative and deeply grooving music.     After the Apartheid regime fell and Nelson Mandela became president, Ibrahim returned to Cape Town; In 2022, he is still recording and performing throughout the world.     What's that you say?  "Gary Lucas?  That guy's a rocker!  Who is he to talk about Abdullah Ibrahim?"   A rocker?  Guess what: so is Abdullah Ibrahim!  Have you heard Gary's version of Ibrahim's "Bra Joe From Kilimanjaro"?  You will have a whole different understanding of who both of these guys are.  Besides, Gary Lucas is a true musical gourmand of the New York old school and I love to talk about music with him.  I can't wait to hear what he has to say about his fellow iconoclast.  As always, the WKCR archives have delivered some rare beauties for us to cherish.     This Monday (Sept. 19) on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD-1 and wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #AbdullahIbrahim #GaryLucas #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast   Photo credit: Tore Sætre, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Every once in a while, an artist comes along who gets so caught up in the sweep of history that the world seems to create itself for the artist's work, rather than the other way around.  Dollar Brand came of age as a pianist in South Africa in the late Fifties, just in time for the multiethnic explosion of Johannesburg's Sophiatown.  In the wake of the repression that followed the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960, he became a European exile.  Within months, his music came to the attention of Duke Ellington who was so moved that he brought about the LP session Duke Ellington presents The Dollar Brand Trio on Frank Sinatra's Reprise label.     Brand came to New York, subbed for Duke leading the Ellington Orchestra and attended Juilliard.  But experiences with John Coltrane, Don Cherry and the progressive cadre of the Jazz world gave him a new appreciation of his African roots and he incorporated them into his music.  He returned to South Africa, converted to Islam and became Abdullah Ibrahim.  With these changes came a new style of music that embraced the multi-kulti, freedom-loving culture of his native Cape Town.  His song "Mannenberg" became a theme for the anti-apartheid movement.   After South African police fired on children during the Soweto Uprising of 1976, Ibrahim publicly came out in support of the African National Congress and subsequently returned to New York.  Here he found a community of open-minded musicians and an audience that was supportive of his distinctively contemplative and deeply grooving music.     After the Apartheid regime fell and Nelson Mandela became president, Ibrahim returned to Cape Town; In 2022, he is still recording and performing throughout the world.     What's that you say?  "Gary Lucas?  That guy's a rocker!  Who is he to talk about Abdullah Ibrahim?"   A rocker?  Guess what: so is Abdullah Ibrahim!  Have you heard Gary's version of Ibrahim's "Bra Joe From Kilimanjaro"?  You will have a whole different understanding of who both of these guys are.  Besides, Gary Lucas is a true musical gourmand of the New York old school and I love to talk about music with him.  I can't wait to hear what he has to say about his fellow iconoclast.  As always, the WKCR archives have delivered some rare beauties for us to cherish.     This Monday (Sept. 19) on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD-1 and wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #AbdullahIbrahim #GaryLucas #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast   Photo credit: Tore Sætre, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Every once in a while, an artist comes along who gets so caught up in the sweep of history that the world seems to create itself for the artist's work, rather than the other way around.  Dollar Brand came of age as a pianist in South Africa in the late Fifties, just in time for the multiethnic explosion of Johannesburg's Sophiatown.  In the wake of the repression that followed the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960, he became a European exile.  Within months, his music came to the attention of Duke Ellington who was so moved that he brought about the LP session Duke Ellington presents The Dollar Brand Trio on Frank Sinatra's Reprise label.     Brand came to New York, subbed for Duke leading the Ellington Orchestra and attended Juilliard.  But experiences with John Coltrane, Don Cherry and the progressive cadre of the Jazz world gave him a new appreciation of his African roots and he incorporated them into his music.  He returned to South Africa, converted to Islam and became Abdullah Ibrahim.  With these changes came a new style of music that embraced the multi-kulti, freedom-loving culture of his native Cape Town.  His song "Mannenberg" became a theme for the anti-apartheid movement.   After South African police fired on children during the Soweto Uprising of 1976, Ibrahim publicly came out in support of the African National Congress and subsequently returned to New York.  Here he found a community of open-minded musicians and an audience that was supportive of his distinctively contemplative and deeply grooving music.     After the Apartheid regime fell and Nelson Mandela became president, Ibrahim returned to Cape Town; In 2022, he is still recording and performing throughout the world.     What's that you say?  "Gary Lucas?  That guy's a rocker!  Who is he to talk about Abdullah Ibrahim?"   A rocker?  Guess what: so is Abdullah Ibrahim!  Have you heard Gary's version of Ibrahim's "Bra Joe From Kilimanjaro"?  You will have a whole different understanding of who both of these guys are.  Besides, Gary Lucas is a true musical gourmand of the New York old school and I love to talk about music with him.  I can't wait to hear what he has to say about his fellow iconoclast.  As always, the WKCR archives have delivered some rare beauties for us to cherish.     This Monday (Sept. 19) on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD-1 and wkcr.org.  Next week it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #AbdullahIbrahim #GaryLucas #MitchGoldman #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast   Photo credit: Tore Sætre, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Even among his collaborators who were known for going their own way-- Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra and Archie Shepp, to name but a few-- trumpeter Bill Dixon was an iconoclast.  When the music was dismissed as being chaotic and structureless, Dixon was an aggressive organizer and conceptualist.  Was this a whole new way of arranging sound to convey ideas?   Graham Haynes worked with Bill Dixon late in Dixon's life and shares insights with host Mitch Goldman about the man and his music.  The WKCR archives reveal recordings that even many of his greatest fans have not heard.   Monday night Sept. 5 from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD-1 and wkcr.org.  The following Monday the show goes up on the Deep Focus podcast, available on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #BillDixon #GrahamHaynes #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast   Photo credit: fair use.

Even among his collaborators who were known for going their own way-- Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra and Archie Shepp, to name but a few-- trumpeter Bill Dixon was an iconoclast.  When the music was dismissed as being chaotic and structureless, Dixon was an aggressive organizer and conceptualist.  Was this a whole new way of arranging sound to convey ideas?   Graham Haynes worked with Bill Dixon late in Dixon's life and shares insights with host Mitch Goldman about the man and his music.  The WKCR archives reveal recordings that even many of his greatest fans have not heard.   Monday night Sept. 5 from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD-1 and wkcr.org.  The following Monday the show goes up on the Deep Focus podcast, available on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #BillDixon #GrahamHaynes #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast   Photo credit: fair use.

Even among his collaborators who were known for going their own way-- Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra and Archie Shepp, to name but a few-- trumpeter Bill Dixon was an iconoclast.  When the music was dismissed as being chaotic and structureless, Dixon was an aggressive organizer and conceptualist.  Was this a whole new way of arranging sound to convey ideas?   Graham Haynes worked with Bill Dixon late in Dixon's life and shares insights with host Mitch Goldman about the man and his music.  The WKCR archives reveal recordings that even many of his greatest fans have not heard.   Monday night Sept. 5 from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD-1 and wkcr.org.  The following Monday the show goes up on the Deep Focus podcast, available on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #BillDixon #GrahamHaynes #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast   Photo credit: fair use.

Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus is back live on WKCR this Monday (8/8) for the first time since March 2020.  Guitarist/sonic architect Ben Tyree joins Mitch in examining rare live recordings of the magnificent guitarist Pat Martino who we lost since our last live broadcast.   If Pat Martino had not existed, some brilliant screenwriter would have had to make him up.  But who would have ever believed such a crazy story?  What other artist ever brought himself to the top of his game (a highwire act if ever there was one), then fell back to earth due to a near-fatal brain seizure (he had no recollection after it of guitar or even of his own family) and then started from the beginning to teach himself again to be "the guitarists' guitarist"?  And too bad the movie could never be made because no one else could play with his flawless chops and immediacy.  Pat Martino is an enduring model of how to live on the bandstand.     This Monday from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD-1 and wkcr.org.   The following Monday it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #PatMartino #BenTyree #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #MitchGoldman Photo credit: by Tom Beetz.  This file is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0.

Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus is back live on WKCR this Monday (8/8) for the first time since March 2020.  Guitarist/sonic architect Ben Tyree joins Mitch in examining rare live recordings of the magnificent guitarist Pat Martino who we lost since our last live broadcast.   If Pat Martino had not existed, some brilliant screenwriter would have had to make him up.  But who would have ever believed such a crazy story?  What other artist ever brought himself to the top of his game (a highwire act if ever there was one), then fell back to earth due to a near-fatal brain malformation (he had no recollection after his surgery of guitar or even of his own family) and then started from the beginning to teach himself again to be "the guitarists' guitarist"?  And too bad the movie could never be made because no one else could play with his flawless chops and immediacy.  Pat Martino is an enduring model of how to live on the bandstand.     This Monday from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD-1 and wkcr.org.   The following Monday it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #PatMartino #BenTyree #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #MitchGoldman Photo credit: by Tom Beetz.  This file is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0.

Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus is back live on WKCR this Monday (8/8) for the first time since March 2020.  Guitarist/sonic architect Ben Tyree joins Mitch in examining rare live recordings of the magnificent guitarist Pat Martino who we lost since our last live broadcast.   If Pat Martino had not existed, some brilliant screenwriter would have had to make him up.  But who would have ever believed such a crazy story?  What other artist ever brought himself to the top of his game (a highwire act if ever there was one), then fell back to earth due to a near-fatal brain seizure (he had no recollection after it of guitar or even of his own family) and then started from the beginning to teach himself again to be "the guitarists' guitarist"?  And too bad the movie could never be made because no one else could play with his flawless chops and immediacy.  Pat Martino is an enduring model of how to live on the bandstand.     This Monday from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD-1 and wkcr.org.   The following Monday it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #PatMartino #BenTyree #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #MitchGoldman Photo credit: by Tom Beetz.  This file is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0.

In the wake of Ornette Coleman's death in June of 2015, Mitch Goldman presented a series of Deep Focus episodes around his music.  This one, with bassist/bandleader Melvin Gibbs, one of the many alumni of Harmolodic High School, focuses on rare recordings from Prime Time in the critical year of 1978.      Monday (7/25) from 6pm to 9pm on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD-1 and WKCR.Org.     Tuesday morning it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #OrnetteColeman #MelvinGibbs #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast   Photo credit: Brianmcmillen, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

In the wake of Ornette Coleman's death in June of 2015, Mitch Goldman presented a series of Deep Focus episodes around his music.  This one, with bassist/bandleader Melvin Gibbs, one of the many alumni of Harmolodic High School, focuses on rare recordings of Prime Time from the critical year of 1978.      Monday (7/25) from 6pm to 9pm on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD-1 and WKCR.Org.     Tuesday morning it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #OrnetteColeman #MelvinGibbs #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast

In the wake of Ornette Coleman's death in June of 2015, Mitch Goldman presented a series of Deep Focus episodes around his music.  This one, with bassist/bandleader Melvin Gibbs, one of the many alumni of Harmolodic High School, focuses on rare recordings from Prime Time in the critical year of 1978.      Monday (7/25) from 6pm to 9pm on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD-1 and WKCR.Org.     Tuesday morning it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #OrnetteColeman #MelvinGibbs #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast

This we love: when a guest on Deep Focus chooses a previous guest as the subject.  It's only happened once before but it's happening again on Monday: guitarist/sonic architect Ben Tyree has selected fellow plectrist Vernon Reid.   Even though Vernon Reid has reached the heights of recognition as an instrumentalist (for instance, Rolling Stone calling him one of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time), Ben and host Mitch Goldman still think he is wildly underrated and they are going to prove it to you.  It's a rebroadcast of a highlight of 2019.  It features music originally performed in the WKCR studios as part of Charles Blass's Live Constructions and what seemed at the time to be Vernon Reid's personal salon, Tonic.     Deep Focus this Monday from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD-1 and wkcr.org.    Tuesday morning it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #VernonReid #BenTyree #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast    Photo credit: Cygaretka real name: Matylda Sęk, CC BY-SA 3.0 , attraverso Wikimedia Commons

This we love: when a guest on Deep Focus chooses a previous guest as the subject.  It's only happened once before but it's happening again on Monday: guitarist/sonic architect Ben Tyree has selected fellow plectrist Vernon Reid.   Even though Vernon Reid has reached the heights of recognition as an instrumentalist (for instance, Rolling Stone calling him one of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time), Ben and host Mitch Goldman still think he is wildly underrated and they are going to prove it to you.  It's a rebroadcast of a highlight of 2019 and it features music originally performed in the WKCR studios as part of Charles Blass's Live Constructions.     Deep Focus this Monday from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR HD-1 and wkcr.org.    Tuesday morning it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/   #WKCR #JazzAlternatives #DeepFocus #VernonReid #BenTyree #MitchGoldman #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast    Photo credit: CC BY-SA 3.0 , attraverso Wikimedia Commons