Deep Focus

Imagine being present at the moment of creation. Now imagine being one of the creators, inventing new sounds and new rhythms that the world has never heard, that people will still be talking about 70 years later. Drummer Roy Haynes played Birdland with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Bud Powell, AND HE’S STILL WITH US! Roy’s son Graham Haynes (a marvelously accomplished and inventive musician in his own right) and I celebrate Roy in this Deep Focus from 2017.Yum!#WKCR @JazzRadio #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #RoyHaynes #GrahamHaynes #BirdlandPhoto credit: Roy_Haynes_(6338437993) jose nieto, CC BY 2.0 creativecommons.org-licenses-by-2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

A band cannot be a great band if it doesn't have its own distinctive sound. The sonorities of the instruments and the writing are part of it but it's really the character of the players and how they blend, how they respond to one another. Ellington had it, of course; Mingus had it; Ornette always had it, no matter how far flung the instrumentation but... What is it exactly?! It's ineffable, yes, but Brandon Ross spreads light in this edition of Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus from 2015 on Keith Jarrett's American Quartet.#WKCR #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #BrandonRoss #KeithJarrett #KeithJarrettAmericanQuartet#JazzRadio #JazzInterview #jazzpodcast

 

Photo credit: Enid Farber

A band cannot be a great band if it doesn't have its own distinctive sound. The sonorities of the instruments and the writing are part of it but it's really the character of the players and how they blend, how they respond to one another. Ellington had it, of course; Mingus had it; Ornette always had it, no matter how far flung the instrumentation but... What is it exactly?! It's ineffable, yes, but Brandon Ross spreads light in this edition of Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus from 2015 on Keith Jarrett's American Quartet.#WKCR #DeepFocus #MitchGoldman #BrandonRoss #KeithJarrett #KeithJarrettAmericanQuartet#JazzRadio #JazzInterview #jazzpodcast

 

Photo credit: Enid Farber

What are the lessons that musicians look to their forebears for?  

How to play the instrument? Certainly. 

Composition? Sure. 

Bandleading? Yes.

What else?

 

What about finding humor in desperation? 

What about embracing life? 

 What about theatricality? 

What about swagger? 

What about making something out of nothing?

What about the things that make people talk about you decades after you have left the planet?  

 

Melvin Gibbs checked out Lester Bowie mighty close and he has something to say about it on this edition of Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus from 2016.  

 

#WKCR #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #MelvinGibbs #LesterBowie #JazzRadio #JazzInterview JazzPodcast

Photo credit: Lester_Bowie,_Jazz_Festival_Zeltweg_1983 - Jodeli, CC BY-SA 4.0 creativecommons.org-licenses-by-sa-4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

What are the lessons that musicians look to their forebears for?  

How to play the instrument? Certainly. 

Composition? Sure. 

Bandleading? Yes.

What else?

 

What about finding humor in desperation? 

What about embracing life? 

 What about theatricality? 

What about swagger? 

What about making something out of nothing?

What about the things that make people talk about you decades after you have left the planet?  

 

Melvin Gibbs checked out Lester Bowie mighty close and he has something to say about it on this edition of Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus from 2016.  

 

#WKCR #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #MelvinGibbs #LesterBowie #JazzRadio #JazzInterview JazzPodcast

Photo credit: Lester_Bowie,_Jazz_Festival_Zeltweg_1983 - Jodeli, CC BY-SA 4.0 creativecommons.org-licenses-by-sa-4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Milford Graves-- percussionist, acupuncturist, herbalist, martial artist, programmer, professor and pioneer of improvised music-- left this world on February 12, 2021. Join me in this celebration of his music and his life in a Deep Focus from July of 2019 with the brilliant Pheeroan Aklaff.  Splendor!As a special bonus, if I get just one request, I will also post the interview that Andy Rotman and I did with Milford in July of 1987(!).#WKCR #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #PheeroanakLaff #MilfordGraves #Jazz #JazzRadio #JazzInterview

Here for you is a bonus episode.  Since we are remembering Milford Graves, this is an interview that Andy Rotman and I did with him in 1987 on the topic of Albert Ayler.  Thank you for the music, Milford!

Milford Graves-- percussionist, acupuncturist, herbalist, martial artist, programmer, professor and pioneer of improvised music-- left this world on February 12, 2021. Join me in this celebration of his music and his life in a Deep Focus from July of 2019 with the brilliant Pheeroan Aklaff.  Splendor!As a special bonus, if I get just one request, I will also post the interview that Andy Rotman and I did with Milford in July of 1987(!).#WKCR #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #PheeroanakLaff #MilfordGraves #Jazz #JazzRadio #JazzInterviewPhoto credit: Milford Graves by Andy Newcombe Farnborough, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Milford Graves-- percussionist, acupuncturist, herbalist, martial artist, programmer, professor and pioneer of improvised music-- left this world on February 12, 2021. Join me in this celebration of his music and his life in a Deep Focus from July of 2019 with the brilliant Pheeroan Aklaff. Splendor!As a special bonus, if I get just one request, I will also post the interview that Andy Rotman and I did with Milford in July of 1987(!).#WKCR #MitchGoldman #DeepFocus #PheeroanakLaff #MilfordGraves #Jazz #JazzRadio #JazzInterviewPhoto credit: Milford Graves by Andy Newcombe Farnborough, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

If you are looking for new ways to think about and hear this music, pay attention to what Jason Moran and Alicia Hall Moran are doing, both separately and together. Consider how Jason looks at the physical culture around the music's past and present, as he did in his show at the Whitney Museum last year; check out Alicia's take on her personal and family history in her theatrical stage shows; explore the topics that they engage with in their sweeping multi-disciplinary performances.  

 

Jason and Alicia came by the studio in March of last year in anticipation of their sold-out performance at Carnegie Hall, Two Wings.  Their inspired (and inspiring) topics for Deep Focus? Jaki Byard for Jason and Nina Simone for Alicia.  The WKCR archives yielded treasures for both, and Jason and Alicia's insights made the riches even more abundant.  

 

#DeepFocus #JasonMoran #AliciaHallMoran #JakiByard #NinaSimone #MitchGoldman #Jazz #JazzRadio #JazzInterview #JazzPodcast

 

Photo credit: Nina_Simone_-1969 Gerrit de Bruin CC BY  creativecommons.org-licenses-by-4.0.jpg