Deep Focus

Composer/bandleader Eric Person learned his craft from some of boldest who ever played the game.  Dave Holland was an influence, Chico Hamilton had a major impact but Ronald Shannon Jackson is the one who inspired Eric to lead a band playing compositions that Jackson wrote.  The work is unmistakeable– filled with history, mystery and suspense– and Eric will bring some astonishingly rare recordings to life.  

Many artists are admired but few are elevated to the status of icons. Eric Dolphy's rich yet austere tone, his thorny compositions and especially his daring solos, with their intervalic leaps and note choices so wrong they're perfect, set him apart from the crowd even now, over 50 years after his death. The urgency and absolute sincerity that he conveyed still set a standard that few artists achieve to their own satisfaction.

Jorge Sylvester is one of the great students of Dolphy's (Unlike the case of, say, Miles Davis or Sonny Rollins, I don't know anyone who is inclined to refer to him by his first name). Like Dolphy, he is a bandleader, a composer and a multi-reed master who goes his own way.

How many drummers changed the whole conversation, just with their playing?  Like, to the point that they became the North Star for the next generation or two?  How many of those were also great bandleaders, and maybe even solid composers?  It’s a short list by anybody’s count but one name you are probably already thinking of is Jack DeJohnette.   

This Monday, Pheeroan akLaff joins Mitch Goldman to put DeJohnette in Deep Focus.  Mitch, of course, has some spectacular live music from the archives that you’ve never heard.