When comedy and jazz particles collide

January 18, 2008. Posted by Joshua Jackson.

Add new comment | Filed under: art music, bear witness, Diversions, improvisation, international phenomenon, jazz critics, listmania, mainstream, national treasure, new year, pianist, rages, Video, www youtube

And Now for Something Completely Different ...
Since we're headlong into the New Year, and the 2007 listmania has ended - Best Of, Top Ten, Bottom Eleven etc. - permit me to right an historic wrong among jazz critics. Since I'm not one of them.
There's no debating that jazz has become an international phenomenon. However, the stale argument about who's moving the music forward still rages. While Americans can clearly take ownership of our national treasure, it's foreign-born artists like the Austrian pianist, Hans Groiner, who are finding ways to bring improvisation and art music back into the mainstream. Without any further discussion, bear witness to the Most Overlooked Artist, two years running:

If you'd like to hear The Shape of Jazz to Come, check out Hans Groiner Plays Monk on MySpace.
- Josh Jackson

© 2008 WBGO

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And you don't stop ...

January 15, 2008. Posted by .

Add new comment | Filed under: Diversions, Masters, News, Notes, Places and Spaces, Real Life Stories, Video

Residents of a Bronx building where hip hop was born say they have a plan to buy it so that they can keep it affordable. Tenants at the building on 1520 Sedgwick Avenue got word last year that the owners wanted to opt out of a state affordable housing program, which could mean big rent increases for them. They want to buy each apartment for a few thousand dollars each.
During the 1970s, DJ Kool Herc spun records at parties in the basement rec. room, ushering in the the hip-hop era. While a lot of today's hip hop annoys me, the stuff that came out of the Bronx in the late 70's and early 80's is forever ingrained in my mind (and soul.)

I was never at one of Herc's basement parties or any of those classic sets in abandoned buildings in the Bronx of the early 1980's. But I can remember my utter amazement at seeing break dancers and rappers for the first time in pre-Disney Times Square (circa 1980.) I'm sure I had no clue at the time that I was witnessing the birth of a nation.

Here's a clip of Herc from a European documentary on the birth of hip hop. Dig it. - David Cruz

© 2008 WBGO

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Beyond IAJE - Mr. Goudas Ginger Beer

January 12, 2008. Posted by Joshua Jackson.

Add new comment | Filed under: Discovery, Diversions, food and beverage, ginger, ginger beer, guilty pleasure, iaje, IAJE 2008, indian population, mr goudas, toronto

Thanks to Toronto's sizable West Indian population, there's a lot of food and beverage variety. Mr. Goudas Ginger Beer is my new favorite guilty pleasure during long days and nights at IAJE. I've had ginger beer, but nothing like this. It will set your mouth ablaze.

You gotta check out the commercial (RealMedia)

Too rich... - Josh

© 2008 WBGO

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