This week's episode of Out There is a little bit of a continuation of the last Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting, focusing on drummer Tony Williams.  Williams started drumming professionally at age 13, and by 19 was a member of Miles Davis' quintet.  His flowing, angular style was something of an avant garde middle ground between conventional bebop drumming and the all-out free style of drummers like Sunny Murray and Milford Graves.  Features music from his solo albums, his albums with Miles Davis, Grachan Moncur III, and Andrew Hill.  If you have any questions or comments, call the WNPM/Out There voicemail box at (424) 704-1666 or email [email protected]

This week's episode of Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting is about Miles Davis' second great quintet with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams, five musicians who elevated the possibilities of group interplay to unprecedented heights. 

This week's episode of Out There is about the wonderful free jazz drummer Milford Graves, who started out in the New York free jazz scene in the 1960's.  

This week's episode of WNPM is about a true original, Thelonious Monk.  Monk was instrumental in the birth of bebop, as the house pianist at Minton's Playhouse, where the style was developed, yet unlike some of his Minton's contemporaries-especially Bird and Diz-it took a long time for a wider audience to appreciate his work.  Nonetheless, Monk continued to play and to compose beautiful, unusual, eclectic, eccentric music, and put together a body of work that stands today as testament to his genius.

This week's episode of the Out There Avant Garde Jazz Podcast is about Albert Ayler.  Ayler's uncompromising approach to the saxophone and to music in general took jazz into the territory of pure freedom to an unprecedented degree.  In a way it seems to me that making music was secondary to Ayler's true purpose: communion with a higher power through sound.  The episode features music from the various albums Ayler released during his tragically short life, as well as a recording of his performance at John Coltrane's funeral.  Approach it with an open mind, and enjoy an hour or so of some incredible, stimulating, passionate music, like nothing that had come before it.  

This week's episode of WNPM is about the music of John Coltrane's quartet with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones, featuring music from their albums A Love Supreme, Crescent, Live at Birdland, and more.  Also, I set up a Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting voicemail box to encourage some audience participation.  Questions? Requests? Comments? Suggestions for future shows? Call (424) 704-1666 and leave a message, or email [email protected]

This week's episode of Out There is about the Pianist Don Pullen, an incredibly exciting and relentless player, who played in a style that shares a lot of qualities with that of Cecil Taylor, but who maintained a grounding to traditional ideas of connectedness to theme and chord changes that make him in many ways easier to listen to. Featuring music from his time in Charles Mingus' band, his solo records, his album with Sunny Murray, and more!

Another episode about the music of Charles Mingus, this time focusing on what I think of as the beginning of his maturity as a musician and bandleader, from 1957-1962.  Featuring music from his albums Ah Um, Mingus Dynasty, Blues and Roots, Live at Antibes, and more

This week's episode of Out There is a little unusual.  I realized that all this time I haven't been mentioning the names or credits of the songs I've been using behind the voiceover, so wanted to remedy that by presenting them all in one place, without my talking over them, and saying who is playing what, because they are some great songs, and it's information worth knowing! Enjoy!

This week's episode of Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting is about Lee Morgan, a trumpeter whose prolific output was sadly stopped early, when he was shot to death between sets by his wife, over an apparent affair.  His style strikes an interesting balance between interesting future-minded experimental ideas and great memorable, soulful, catchy hitmaking.