The Josh Nelson Quartet wows the crowd at a recent Blue Whale show

In case you’re wondering how I’m ringing in the New Year for 2012, I have the pleasure of joining up with some of my old friends at WBGO for the annual Toast of the Nation extravaganza. The last leg of our multi-city tour features the Billy Childs Quartet from the Blue Whale in downtown Los Angeles, where I’ll be helping out with the broadcast and digging the music.

I’m not sure if the photo above captures it, but this is a seriously cool music venue. Just over two years old, it is a refreshingly up-to-date take on the jazz club concept, far from your typical dimly-lit jazz bar. I’m looking forward to checking this place out a lot in 2012 — starting with one of my favorite trombonists and UCLA alumni, Alan Ferber, next weekend.

But I’m getting ahead of myself — tune in for the broadcast tomorrow, which starts at 8 p.m. EST (5 out here on the Left Coast) with Julian Lage in Boston. Our segment from Los Angeles will run from 2 a.m. EST (11 p.m. LA time) and will count down the New Year in Pacific Time. It’s a great chance to put my radio hat back on for a couple of days — we’ll have a live chat running at the WBGO blog, so tune in and come hang: wbgo.org/toast is the address.

Happy New Year to everyone, and thanks for reading in 2011!

Photo by Mike of Luminosity Photo Blog

Well, it’s been three months since I’ve found the time to get back to the blog. But now that I just wrapped up my first quarter of coursework at UCLA, it seems like a good time to poke my head out from the mountains of reading and say hello to all my friends on the internet. If Andrew can do it in the middle of a book project, and Rachel can find the time between coursework, a radio internship, and the unrequited love of jazz nerds, then who am I to complain?

As the photo shows, winter in Los Angeles can be tough, but so far I’m managing to survive. This city is a strange and different urban animal, but I do feel extremely blessed to be here, even when I have been overwhelmingly busy and unable to enjoy an afternoon in the Santa Monica sand. 

Despite the workload, though, graduate life here has been good to me. UCLA’s PhD program in ethnomusicology so far has had me studying the works of previous ethnomusicologists, going all the way back to Alexander Ellis’s musical pitch experiments in 1885. For an often-hilarious perspective on how Europeans reacted to the sounds of the peoples they were busy colonizing, check out Richard Wallaschek’s Primitive Music. If nothing else, it confirms that even in the 19th century, one could make “a great impression on the ladies by means of a banjo.” (Yes, that is an exact quote.)

So far, the highlights of the experience have come thanks to the eight other sharp, talented aspiring ethnomusicologists in my cohort. It’s very different from my experience at Rutgers, where I was surrounded by jazz musicians there to study jazz; here, I’m the “jazz guy” but experiencing that with other big-eared, open-minded students of different musical  traditions. As a result, I have already begun to learn about Egyptian Pop, Mexican Trio Romantico, Tuareg Ishumar, Irish fiddling, reinterpretations of 19th-century Armenian music, and all kinds of other cool stuff from my new friends and colleagues. (Click the links or check out the videos at the end of this post.)

Also, the professors I have had the pleasure to work with have been fantastic. In particular, Steve Loza’s history seminar and James Newton’s course on jazz since the sixties really blew my mind. What’s more, both of them are baaaaad jazz players! (Seriously, if you haven’t heard James Newton, you are missing out. Because he has a self-proclaimed “deep aversion to fame,” a lot of musicians my age probably haven’t heard him, but he is kind of a big deal.)

While I’m here, I have also started to get some trombone chops back together–this past quarter, I played lead trombone with the UCLA Jazz Orchestra. A couple of weeks ago, we played a tribute concert for recently-passed saxophonist and arranger Frank Foster, which was a lot of fun and a good way to ease back into the playing routine (few things are more musically satisfying to me than knocking off some Basie charts with a good band.) Led by guitarist Charley Harrison, the group is enthusiastic and hard-swinging; hearing sophomore trombone phenom Jonah Levine (solo at 6:44) rock the solo chair all quarter was one of the many highlights. Jazz critics take note: this guy will be on your radar soon!

Although it has been tough to find the time, I have also  managed to do a little extracurricular writing. That  includes a recap of Kenny Burrell’s 80th birthday concert in November for the Friends of  Jazz at UCLA newsletter, and a review of Kevin Fellezs’s new book Birds of Fire: Jazz, Rock, Funk and the Creation of Fusion for the UCLA graduate student journal Ethnomusicology Review. (While you’re there, bookmark that page–the journal’s newly-redesigned website has a lot of really interesting content to peruse.)

But really, nothing sums up my last three months better than this ridiculous, expansive and fascinating array of music that has been making its way through my ears:

Irish Fiddler Martin Hayes, hipped to me by Kevin Levine:

Los Tres Reyes, hipped to me by Leon Garcia:

Tuareg Ishumar, hipped to me by Eric Schmidt:

Amr Diab, hipped to me by Darci Sprengel:

Isabel Bayrakdarian, hipped to me by Alyssa Mathias:

Jack Teagarden, hipped to me by Chilean jazz connoisseur Pepe Hosaisson (but that’s another story . . .)

Fits right together, no? As always, feel free to leave a comment below and let me know what you think of this funny business I’m up to out on the Left Coast.

Louis Armstrong, author of countless hilarious missives

I’m a little late to the party on this one, but I have been spending much of my limited internet free time on my road trip (hello, Arizona! Almost there …) reading the many impassioned responses to Roanna Forman’s question, “Do Jazz Critics Need To Know How To Play Jazz?” The question has inspired a very worthwhile discussion and sparked a flurry of great jazz writing — precisely the sort of thing that I had been missing when I wrote my last post.

The question gets right to the heart of what has, for me, often felt like a deep, existential struggle. I have spent much of my life playing with these dual identities, Jazz Musician and Jazz Writer, and remain unclear as to how they can best get along in my life. Most broadly, I agree with Peter Hum’s take:

Good jazz writing is accurate, well-informed, clear, insightful and, I’d contend, passionate. Having my modest but, I’d contend, significant background as a jazz pianist provides me with a vital grounding in most, if not all, of these respects.

Still, I read plenty of great non-jazz-musician jazz writers, some of whom have very thoughtfully defended themselves at their own blogs. So my answer to Roanna’s question, in a specific sense, is “no, you can write about jazz without playing, but basic music training will always inform one’s criticism and is very worthwhile.” But there are deeper issues to parse here; to understand why this discussion seems so relevant today, it helps to hear it in conversation with the music’s long history of critical debates.

What has struck me the most from reading all of the responses to the question is the similarity to past jazz discourse, going all the way back to the 1930s. As Bruce Boyd Raeburn points out in his excellent 2009 book “New Orleans Jazz and the Writing of American Jazz History,” the presence of non-musician critical advocates for the music goes all the way back to the music’s beginnings, when the likes of Charles Delaunay, William Russell and C.E. Smith devoted themselves to the promotion of the New Orleans jazz style. These men are the ancestors of those who are now known as critics, although very little of their work was critical (in the sense of the definition of critical as “discerning” that it implies in this context.)

Most of these men were not musicians, although (as the book’s cover photo shows) they were not averse to informal amateur performance. Their efforts were crucial in framing jazz as something more musically appealing than mere syncopated irreverence. They heard great beauty in the improvisations of Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet, and devoted their lives to making sure that others heard it, too. Their dedication as passionate amateurs still serve as models for today’s jazz enthusiasts.

At the same time, the popularity of the music in the 1930s led to the creation of trade publications such as Down Beat and Melody Maker, mass-produced magazines that brought news on the big swing bands of the era. It’s no wonder that musicians quickly began to resent the power that these publications had over their own music.

In both cases, a group of mostly-white, mostly-non-musicians (exceptions in the latter category include Leonard Feather and later Don DeMichael) were primarily responsible for the framing of jazz to its audience. The idea of framing is important here: imagine a Van Gogh hanging in a museum without a frame! Or, worse, with a garish metal one from Target. Consider the case of superstar violin virtuoso Joshua Bell, who made a paltry $30 busking at a D.C. Metro stop. Whether we notice them or not, frames matter.

Ultimately, the antagonism that has always existed between musicians and non-musicians (and, in a related but not identical fashion, African Americans and whites) in the jazz community stems from this power imbalance: that frames matter, and mostly white male non-musicians have been responsible for most of the frame-building. This is due in part to the need for practice in the craft of writing, as Phil Freeman argues, and also due to the racialized reality that African Americans have rarely been afforded the opportunity to participate, as Willard Jenkins has frequently and pointedly observed throughout his career.

I am encouraged, however, by this discussion as a starting point in breaking down this antagonism. At the end of the day, we’re all on the same team here: musicians, writers, fans, and anyone else who hears the same transcendence in the music that William Russell and Leonard Feather did many years ago. I am reminded of a brief conversation that I had during the 2010 Jazz Journalists Association Awards with Stefon Harris, one of my early jazz heroes. He told me how grateful he was to be in the room with so many people who cared so deeply about his music, and recognized the importance of those voices in making his music happen. My sincere hope is that more musicians and writers can share his humility and appreciation for everyone who makes this community real.

Change: not always what you expect

On Monday, I submitted my last column to the Star-Ledger, and with my professional writing career on hold for now, I’m in a bit of a reflective mood. Looking back at my earlier posts, I am reminded of the fun conversations and insightful dialogues that I have been blessed to join over the past two-plus years, and am proud of what I have been able to contribute to the discussion.

When I started this blog in May 2009, I was delighted and surprised by the vibrancy and warmth of the nascent community that seemed to be emerging on the internet to share its love for jazz. NPR’s A Blog Supreme had just started (long before I became an occasional contributor), musician-bloggers like Ethan Iverson, Andrew Durkin and Darcy James Argue were in full force, longtime jazz journalists were bringing their work online, jazz.com supported rich, daily contributions, Nextbop was in its infancy, The Checkout was the new thing in jazz radio, and the exchanges and arguments brimmed with possibility.

But as many frustrated liberal politicos can tell you, change rarely plays out in ways that optimists expect. Still, if there are any lessons that jazz can teach a distraught idealist, it’s that there is beauty in the unexpected, and the pleasures of spontaneity reward the adventuresome.

As I leave the New York jazz scene behind for now, I must admit some disappointment at the Jazz Internet’s slow development. Granted, some excessively cool things have happened in the past two years — Live at the Village Vanguard is still doing its thing (featuring Jenny Scheinman this week!), Peter Hum, Nate Chinen and Ethan Iverson are still going strong, NPR is discerning and thoughtful in its jazz coverage, the Jazz Journalism Association has expanded into the short-form web video world, some great new voices like Jon Wertheim and Matt Kassel have entered the fold, and my mentor Josh Jackson has an awesome new project going — but reading those old entries, I’m still left with a sense of what might have been.

Some of my favorite voices from that time have changed their tune — Andrew Durkin is deep in the throes of a book project, Jason Parker is preparing himself for fatherhood, Dean Christesen is in management school, Chris Rich has cooled his hilarious jazz rants to work behind the scenes at AllAboutJazz.com, Darcy James Argue is writing less to work on (admittedly awesome-sounding) musical projects, jazz.com no longer exists, and I have no idea what Search and Restore is doing with that $75,000 in Kickstarter money.

Back in 2009, I had hoped that the promising positive energy of the “Jazz Internet”, epitomized by A Blog Supreme’s Jazz Now project, would have found a forceful solution to Terry Teachout’s pessimistic 2009 polemic “Can Jazz Be Saved?” Unfortunately, the jazz world is still trying to figure it out. A recent study by the Jazz Audiences Initiative, summarized by Patrick at A Blog Supreme, points in some interesting directions, but since the unfortunate demise of the philanthropist-backed jazz.com, nobody has been able to cultivate a thriving space online for rich, daily conversations and engaging curated content. The arrival of new technologies such as Spotify in the United States offers even more tools for this project, but still no compelling solutions have emerged.

My disappointment with some of the new directions of this loose and self-organizing network of fellow enthusiasts, however, shouldn’t be taken for disillusionment. I have no idea what institutional systems will finally step forward to support this untapped wellspring of creative interest, but I’m pretty confident that whatever happens, jazz and its listeners will be just fine. I know that many intelligent, passionate people are working hard to improve the online jazz platform, and that those efforts will pay off soon.

I’m also looking forward to learning more about other ways of engaging with the music through ethnomusicology and some West Coast perspective, continuing to correspond with my friends and fellow jazz travelers online, and sharing what I can here at the blog. In the meantime, jazz musicians will continue to make amazing music — John Hollenbeck at Newport is a prime example — and people will continue to write interesting things about it. (For good measure, I have updated the blogroll, to your left.)

Thanks again to everyone who has been along for the ride these past two years — and of course, stay tuned for more.

Roy Haynes Performs at the Litchfield Jazz Fest

By Alex W. Rodriguez for the Hartford Advocate

Adding a notch to my freelancing belt with this one — thanks to Bill Carbone for the connection, and the opportunity to talk to another one of the music’s legends while in my temporary New England digs. Some quotes that didn’t make the final piece:

“I’ve always been a dreamer – in school I used to daydream, but now I know that every moment is to be cherished.”

“I don’t know what the heck I would have done if I wasn’t playing these drums since I was a teenager.”

“I am a natural born drummer.”

Spiffy header image courtesy of Chris Albertson

It’s been another one of those blog dry-spells the past few months, what with the winding down of my life on the East Coast, gearing up for Los Angeles, and, you know, actually writing for a living every once in awhile. I’ve stopped posting individual links to my weekly Star-Ledger columns, but you Jersey locals can stay hip the scene by subscribing to the Star-Ledger Jazz RSS feed. Some good stuff has passed through recently!

Rather than go back and make separate posts, I’ve included links below to all of the other writing projects that have kept me busy this summer, in the style of STUFF WHAT I HAVE WROTE, the monthly series by one of my favorite citizens of the jazz blogosphere, Phil Freeman:

In addition to the weekly listings gig for the Star-Ledger, I also penned two features. The first, which ran in early May, previewed the Sonny Rollins hit at NJPAC on May 13. Along with the amazing chance to shoot the breeze with one of my all-time jazz heroes for the piece, I got to check out the show with my girlfriend that evening; she (somewhat of a jazz skeptic) and I both thoroughly dug it — that cat can play.

The next day, I presented a chapter of my M.A. thesis on Jack Teagarden at the CUNY Graduate Students in Music Symposium, which was another enjoyable experience. I got some great feedback on the paper from fellow music scholars, as well as the excellent moderator, Maureen Mahon from NYU. David McCarthy, who gave a fascinating presentation entitled “A Disco Dialectic?“, is also a fledgling blogger: check him out at McCarthyisms For Your Work Week.

For anyone curious to read my thesis, “White and Blue: Alternate Takes on Jack Teagarden,” I’d be happy to send you a .pdf copy by e-mail. I’m not entirely sure what else I’m going to do with it for now, but will certainly post any new information here when I make up my mind. I feel pretty good about how it turned out, all things considered, and am looking forward to moving on to new research at UCLA.

Later that month, I published another piece for the Star-Ledger, on the fast-growing Montclair-based nonprofit Jazz House Kids and their annual celebration concert, with Chick Corea as this year’s guest artist.

I’ve also been working steadily to help my favorite jazz radio station, WBGO, develop online content. For a daily dose of station news and relevant jazz links, birthdays, and upcoming NY/NJ-area events, check out my Morning Cup of Jazz at the WBGO Blog.

For something a little more in-depth, WBGO’s epic Billy Taylor tribute celebrates the piano master’s long and fruitful relationship with the station. I wrote “Taylor’s Take Four,” on his legacy at the UMass Jazz In July summer jazz workshop, which just celebrated its 30th anniversary.

I have also been helping my former professor and mentor Dr. Lewis Porter with his WBGO blog feature, “You Don’t Know Jazz!” Another post will be up soon, on early jazz drummers.

Stay tuned for more, too — I’ll be blogging live from the Newport Jazz Festival this weekend, and will also be at this month’s edition of The Checkout: Live From 92YTribeca, featuring Marcus Strickland and Eric Harland!

Finally, and completely off topic: HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my not-so-little brother Evan, who celebrates his quarter-century-mark today in sunny California (not that I’m jealous or anything …) I’m proud of you, bro!

Bill Graham is one such student, and is looking to understand the impact that Coltrane has had on everyday people who listen to his music for his final project. As a part of this exploration, he’d like to hear from you about your memorable experiences with Coltrane’s music.

Here’s how Bill explains it:

Coltrane lovers, here is a chance for you to bare your souls. I am interested in how the music of John Coltrane has changed your life. Tell us your stories about how Trane came into your life, how his music makes your daily living more livable, funny anecdotes, anything you like, as long as it’s from the heart. I’ll be using your responses in a research paper. No information beyond what you share will be used. Your story may be as simple as the following:

One of the first hints that there was something different about Coltrane’s music came to me when I was working at a job  polishing silverware at merchandise store. I was setting on the showroom floor polishing away, while listening to Coltrane’s tune “The Promise,” on headphones.  All of sudden, for some reason that I can’t explain to this day, I started screaming at the top of my voice. I don’t know how it happened, but before I knew anything I had lost it. I needed to be slapped.

Let us hear your testimonials. Come one – come all!

The experience that comes to mind for me is from my freshman year in college, playing “In A Sentimental Mood” with a small group. The pianist had hipped me to the recording of it from the Duke Ellington and John Coltrane album, and I was listening to it nonstop trying to emulate Trane’s phrasing on the opening line of Duke’s melody. The serenity with which he floated over the slow tempo was unbelievable; not surprisingly, I never quite did get that down. But the amount of effort that it inspired, even in a futile struggle to imitate his sound — that’s what sticks with me, even today.

Share your stories in the comments below — Bill and I are looking forward to reading them!

Stein Brothers Quintet at the Priory (and more)

Lots of great jazz happening in New Jersey this week: Stein Brothers at the Priory, Christian McBride at Cecil’s, Nancy Wilson at BergenPAC, and The Bad Plus w/ Joshua Redman at the Blue Note (also, a solo show by Ethan Iverson at the Institute of Jazz Studies). For more, check out the WBGO Calendar.

The Income Tax Cocktail, photo by Sean Lorre

When I started writing this blog almost two years ago, I didn’t really know what would come of it. I thought that jazz would play a central role, but didn’t know what else might grace the electronic pages of this here publication. Chalk today’s entry up in the “other” column — a short piece on an old cocktail recipe (with a very silly picture of me, as a nice bonus).

Celebrate your taxes being done with this: the Income Tax Cocktail, courtesy of the Five O’Clock Cocktail Blog!

If you’ve been wondering what’s kept me quiet here at the blog for the past couple of months, it has been the extremely stressful and nerve-wracking process that is graduate school admissions. US News’ Education page and Online Graduate Programs both have more information on what goes into the strenuous application process.

After I was mercilessly rejected by five schools, UCLA, Wesleyan and Brown University all came through with excellent offers to attend their programs in the fall. In the end, I decided to return to California to study at UCLA — where I will begin coursework in September.

It’s a huge relief to be done with all this, and I can’t even begin to express how exciting the prospect of studying ethnomusicology at one of the most happening programs in the country actually is! I plan to do my dissertation research on the jazz scene in Chile and Argentina, working with ethnomusicologist and latin music scholar Steven Loza.

In a very fortuitous coincidence, I also learned that the Thelonious Monk Institute will be moving its headquarters to UCLA next year, so I look forward to getting to know some of the talented young jazz musicians with whom I will be sharing the campus. UCLA has an excellent undergraduate jazz studies program — with faculty like Kenny Burrell and James Newton, you really can’t go wrong. Have a listen to their big band to see what I mean.

And in terms of my ancillary interest in basketball, UCLA is the obvious pick (although I’ll admit, I am more into the NBA than college hoops. Maybe the Bruins can change that, with or without Malcolm Lee). Just don’t expect me to be caught dead in a Kobe jersey.

In other exciting news, I have just submitted my MA thesis on Jack Teagarden for final evaluation by the faculty at Rutgers. Once it’s finished, I plan to publish it here in small parts over the summer.

To everyone who has read this blog, submitted comments, linked to it, e-mailed me privately, and encouraged me to write and think critically about jazz: I am infinitely grateful. Without your support and engagement, I would not be celebrating this week’s excellent news.

I do hope to get back into a regular blogging routine soon, so don’t take Lubricity off your bookmarks! In the meantime, I highly recommend the series that I am producing for the WBGO Blog, You Don’t Know Jazz! w/ Dr. Lewis Porter. The latest installment, The Origins of the Word Jazz, is well worth a read.

Thanks again to all who have read and supported my work over the past two years. Go Bruins!

UPDATE: The two links to US News and Online Graduate Programs were added, sponsored by their respective site owners.