Deep Focus

By Small Media LargeEducation Arts Music Music Commentary

Deep Focus episodes

June 29, 2021 2018.03.05 Steven Bernstein on Roswell Rudd - 1 of 3
What do you need to make great music? Chops? Theory? Encyclopedic knowledge of the music? Yeah, that too, but if you don’t have curiosity, a willingness to engage with people, a giving heart, who is going to want to hear what you have to say? Through sixty years of fusing traditions with experimentation, that was always the message from Roswell Rudd and his trombone. Roswell passed away in December 2017 at the age of 82. Trumpeter Steven Bernstein, who was one of Roswell’s musical partners, takes this message to heart.

We’ve got music like you’ve never heard (because I promise you’ve never heard this!).

#WKCR #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #RoswellRudd #StevenBernstein #SexMob #MTO #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

Photo credit: Christian Sahm Aschaffenburg, Deutschland, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
1 hr 15 min
June 27, 2021 2013.10.07 Vijay Iyer on Andrew Hill - 3 of 3
Sometimes you have to take all the furniture out of the room to see what it really looks like and to decide what belongs in there. Pianist Andrew Hill did that for our music (most memorably on a series of outstanding Blue Note recordings in the 1960's) and then he put it back together in a whole new way. It's still the same room but it feels fresh and vibrant; the angles are better, you can move around in it more easily. He also opened many new doors leading out of that room and entire generations of younger musicians have enthusiastically moved through them.

Vijay Iyer is certainly one of them. He could never be called a Hill clone but he learned many lessons from this imaginative bandleader. It's readily apparent today in the many ensembles that he leads and his even more numerous collaborations and multimedia work. He talks about it with clarity and zeal with host Mitch Goldman in this Deep Focus from 2013.

#WKCR #JazzAlternatives #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #AndrewHill #VijayIyer #JazzRadio #jazzpodcast

Photo credit: fair use.
35 min
June 24, 2021 2013.10.07 Vijay Iyer on Andrew Hill - 2 of 3
Sometimes you have to take all the furniture out of the room to see what it really looks like and to decide what belongs in there. Pianist Andrew Hill did that for our music (most memorably on a series of outstanding Blue Note recordings in the 1960's) and then he put it back together in a whole new way. It's still the same room but it feels fresh and vibrant; the angles are better, you can move around in it more easily. He also opened many new doors leading out of that room and entire generations of younger musicians have enthusiastically moved through them.

Vijay Iyer is certainly one of them. He could never be called a Hill clone but he learned many lessons from this imaginative bandleader. It's readily apparent today in the many ensembles that he leads and his even more numerous collaborations and multimedia work. He talks about it with clarity and zeal with host Mitch Goldman in this Deep Focus from 2013.

#WKCR #JazzAlternatives #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #AndrewHill #VijayIyer #JazzRadio #jazzpodcast

Photo credit: fair use.
1 hr 14 min
June 22, 2021 2013.10.07 Vijay Iyer on Andrew Hill - 1 of 3
Sometimes you have to take all the furniture out of the room to see what it really looks like and to decide what belongs in there. Pianist Andrew Hill did that for our music (most memorably on a series of outstanding Blue Note recordings in the 1960's) and then he put it back together in a whole new way. It's still the same room but it feels fresh and vibrant; the angles are better, you can move around in it more easily. He also opened many new doors leading out of that room and entire generations of younger musicians have enthusiastically moved through them.

Vijay Iyer is certainly one of them. He could never be called a Hill clone but he learned many lessons from this imaginative bandleader. It's readily apparent today in the many ensembles that he leads and his even more numerous collaborations and multimedia work. He talks about it with clarity and zeal with host Mitch Goldman in this Deep Focus from 2013.

#WKCR #JazzAlternatives #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #AndrewHill #VijayIyer #JazzRadio #jazzpodcast

Photo credit: fair use.
1 hr 18 min
June 20, 2021 2010.10.18 Eric Person on John Coltrane at the Half Note 1965 and Rahsaan Roland Kirk 1974 - 1of1
Sometimes there’s a fantastic narrative behind these Deep Focus programs and sometimes we are simply reveling in glorious, never-before-heard recordings of history’s greatest musicians with a brilliant scholar of the music to lead us through it. And, by golly, that’s good enough.
Join host Mitch Goldman and his guest, bandleader Eric Anthony Person for a Deep Focus on John Coltrane and Rahsaan Roland Kirk with music from the WKCR archives. Mitch says, “If you have heard any of these recordings before, I’ll eat my hat!”
#WKCR #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #EricPerson #RahsaanRolandKirk #JohnColtrane #ArtEnsembleOfChicago #jazzinterview #jazzradio #jazzpodcast
Photo credit: fair use.
46 min
June 18, 2021 2012.06.04 Eric Person on the Art Ensemble of Chicago - 2 of 2
Sometimes there’s a fantastic narrative behind these Deep Focus programs and sometimes we are simply reveling in glorious, never-before-heard recordings of history’s greatest musicians with a brilliant scholar of the music to lead us through it. And, by golly, that’s good enough.
Join host Mitch Goldman and his guest, bandleader Eric Anthony Person for a Deep Focus on the Art Ensemble of Chicago with music from the WKCR archives. Mitch says, “If you have heard any of these recordings before, I’ll eat my hat!”
#WKCR #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #EricPerson #RahsaanRolandKirk #JohnColtrane #ArtEnsembleOfChicago #jazzinterview #jazzradio #jazzpodcast
Photo credit: fair use.
1 hr 23 min
June 16, 2021 2012.06.04 Eric Person on Art Ensemble of Chicago - 1 of 2
Sometimes there’s a fantastic narrative behind these Deep Focus programs and sometimes we are simply reveling in glorious, never-before-heard recordings of history’s greatest musicians with a brilliant scholar of the music to lead us through it. And, by golly, that’s good enough.
Join host Mitch Goldman and his guest, bandleader Eric Anthony Person for a Deep Focus on the Art Ensemble of Chicago with music from the WKCR archives. Mitch says, “If you have heard any of these recordings before, I’ll eat my hat!”
#WKCR #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #EricPerson #RahsaanRolandKirk #JohnColtrane #ArtEnsembleOfChicago #jazzinterview #jazzradio #jazzpodcast
Photo credit: fair use.
1 hr 19 min
June 13, 2021 2012.04.09 Roy Weinberger on Jaki Byard - 3 of 3
This week's show is a Deep Focus unlike any other. It's actually more like one of those sports movies in which The Kid gets to go into the championship game with his big league hero. The hero, in this case, is none other than Jaki Byard (the subject of Deep Focus episodes with both Graham Haynes and with Jason Moran and Alicia Hall Moran) and the part of The Kid is played by drummer Roy Weinberger.

Jaki Byard booked a date at SUNY-Binghamton in 1981 and asked the students to provide half of a band for him to play with. The students didn't have to think too hard about whom to call; Roy and his brother, alto saxophonist Bob Weinberger, were pretty much the heaviest cats in town. Was being big fish in that little pond enough to get them through the raging river of a performance with Jaki Byard? Tune in to find out. We have documentary evidence! This one is truly fascinating.

#WKCR #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #JakiByard #RoyWeinberger #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

Photo credit: Jaki Byard By Source, Fair use en.wikipedia.org-w-index.php-curid=50315026
49 min
June 10, 2021 2012.04.09 Roy Weinberger on Jaki Byard - 2 of 3
This week's show is a Deep Focus unlike any other. It's actually more like one of those sports movies in which The Kid gets to go into the championship game with his big league hero. The hero, in this case, is none other than Jaki Byard (the subject of Deep Focus episodes with both Graham Haynes and with Jason Moran and Alicia Hall Moran) and the part of The Kid is played by drummer Roy Weinberger.

Jaki Byard booked a date at SUNY-Binghamton in 1981 and asked the students to provide half of a band for him to play with. The students didn't have to think too hard about whom to call; Roy and his brother, alto saxophonist Bob Weinberger, were pretty much the heaviest cats in town. Was being big fish in that little pond enough to get them through the raging river of a performance with Jaki Byard? Tune in to find out. We have documentary evidence! This one is truly fascinating.

#WKCR #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #JakiByard #RoyWeinberger #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

Photo credit: Jaki Byard By Source, Fair use en.wikipedia.org-w-index.php-curid=50315026
1 hr 1 min
June 09, 2021 2012.04.09 Roy Weinberger on Jaki Byard - 1 of 3
This week's show is a Deep Focus unlike any other. It's actually more like one of those sports movies in which The Kid gets to go into the championship game with his big league hero. The hero, in this case, is none other than Jaki Byard (the subject of Deep Focus episodes with both Graham Haynes and with Jason Moran and Alicia Hall Moran) and the part of The Kid is played by drummer Roy Weinberger.

Jaki Byard booked a date at SUNY-Binghamton in 1981 and asked the students to provide half of a band for him to play with. The students didn't have to think too hard about whom to call; Roy and his brother, alto saxophonist Bob Weinberger, were pretty much the heaviest cats in town. Was being big fish in that little pond enough to get them through the raging river of a performance with Jaki Byard? Tune in to find out. We have documentary evidence! This one is truly fascinating.

#WKCR #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #JakiByard #RoyWeinberger #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

Photo credit: Jaki Byard By Source, Fair use en.wikipedia.org-w-index.php-curid=50315026
1 hr 16 min