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On the web since 1999
This essay explores memory, music, and the way sound holds emotions that words often fail to capture, blending personal history with a musician’s perspective on unfinished echoes—both in life and in art.
...April 9th, 2025
Short of all the musicians being mind readers, what accounts for free jazz musicians’ – in this instance those playing with the pianist Matthew Shipp – incredible ability for mutual attunement as they play?
...March 26th, 2025
Google “what is jazz-hop?” and the AI overview describes it is “a subgenre of hip-hop that combines jazz and hip-hop music. It developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s.” In Mr. Vernon’s observation, he makes the case that it is also a subgenre of jazz.
...February 24th, 2025
The writer suggests taking to music during these divisive times – specifically the composer Guillermo Lago’s piece “Sarajevo”
...November 30th, 2024
In this edition, Rife writes about jazz novels and short stories that feature a theme of “mystery.”
...October 10th, 2024
An essay remembering the late jazz musician Michael “Dodo” Marmarosa, awarded Esquire Magazine’s New Star Award in 1947, and who critics predicted would dominate the jazz scene for the next 30 years.
...September 25th, 2024
The first time Benny Goodman heard Bix Beiderbecke play cornet, he recalled, he wondered, “My God, what planet, what galaxy, did this guy come from?” (Skretvedt)
...August 30th, 2024
Remembering the genius of the multi-instrumentalist who played with the likes of Bix Beiderbecke, Benny Goodman, Red Nichols, Miff Mole, and Joe Venuti
...July 25th, 2024
Tad Richards is a prolific visual artist, poet, novelist, and nonfiction writer who has been active for over four decades. ..He frequently writes about poetry, and the following piece about the history of the connection of jazz and American poetry first appeared in the Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Poetry (2005). It is published with the permission of the author.
...February 6th, 2024
A tale of two Michael Cohens — one is Trump’s former “fixer,” the other is an important voice in LGBTQ history
...March 29th, 2023
The author writes about his hometown of Lubbock, Texas, and some of the musicians and events that made up that city’s thriving music scene during the mid-20th century
...March 8th, 2023
The author describes the emotional experience of listening to the music of Nina Simone
...February 24th, 2023
The author considers John Coltrane’s intensity and tenderness, and how these two qualities intertwine in his improvisations.
...January 6th, 2023
Mr. Donnelly’s “The Sweatshop” is a memoir about about his time working in a music accessory sweatshop by day, and slogging it out on the club circuit by night…
...September 29th, 2022
“Ensemble”—I had heard the director use the term on many occasions, and thought it just meant some undefined collection of musicians. My Jr-high classmates were asked “to meet for ensemble,” or were told that “the ensemble session will be at 10:10 today.” In school, if you joined the band you just started playing; there was no course in Orientation to Band 101 to explain these concepts to us.
...May 13th, 2021
My mother’s ghost comes to me whenever I smoke one of my innumerable cigarettes, when I am re-reading one of her favorite books – like Jane Austen’s Emma – or even when I’m walking, careless and carefree, down the street. And her ghost always arrives when I hear certain music.
...May 5th, 2021
Click here to read about plans for the future of Jerry Jazz Musician.
“Paul Desmond” by Tim Maloney
The Sunday Poem is published weekly, and strives to include the poet reading their work....
Tim Maloney reads his poem at its conclusion
Click here to read previous editions of The Sunday Poem
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