WBGO Blog

  • Play Threefold: Chick Corea, Bobby McFerrin, & Jack DeJohnette

    April 24, 2008. Posted by Simon Rentner.

    Add new comment | Filed under: Jazz Alive

    chick_corea1.jpgbobby_mcferrin1.jpgjack_dejohnette21.jpg

    I dislike using qualitative language to describe music. Words fall short, especially when conjuring up the right descriptors for a performance I experienced last night at Carnegie Hall with Chick Corea, Bobby McFerrin, and Jack DeJohnette. That doesn't mean that I couldn't write a novel about what I witnessed. The existence of a concert like this explains why I find myself helplessly committed to a life in music. It was performance art of the highest order. Excluding the encore, they performed one continuous improvisation that included Bobby singing fluently in many made-up languages, Jack losing himself in a voluminous drum solo, and Chick playing a hand drum like a robot. There were drumsticks flying in every direction, some of which landed in Bobby's hair, a game of four-handed piano playing, where Chick and Bobby swapped places on the piano bench, and a captive audience clicking their tongues in unison. Bobby then led us in "making tones," as Chick described it backstage, where the audience and musicians sang sustained notes -- in six-part harmony -- creating intricate cascading patterns in falsetto throughout Carnegie's cavernous hall. Miraculously, we some how pulled it off. During this part of the concert, which Chick proclaimed his "favorite moment," my colleague Doug Yoel, saw patterns floating in the air. I was hallucinating too. - Simon

    Here's what writer Dan Heckman from the LA Times thought of the trio at Disney Concert Hall.

    © 2008 WBGO

  • Nicholas Payton - A Different Kind of "Blue"

    April 24, 2008. Posted by Joshua Jackson.

    Add new comment | Filed under: club coca cola, coca cola, debut, Listening Post, music, nicholas payton quintet, nonesuch records, studio session, Studio Sessions, wbgo

    Nicholas Payton, courtesy Tree Lawn Artists

    In October 2007, WBGO recorded a studio session with the Nicholas Payton Quintet. The band had just finished a week-long run at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola, and they had just recorded the music for Payton's debut on Nonesuch Records, Into the Blue. The record hit stores this week. Check out the studio session on NPR Music. It posted earlier today. Funny how that works....Timing is everything.
    -Josh

    © 2008 WBGO

  • Great Live Moments - Max Roach

    April 24, 2008. Posted by Joshua Jackson.

    Add new comment | Filed under: Listening Post, Live Music, Studio Sessions

    Max Roach

    Max Roach christened WBGO's music studio. Thanks to our den mother, Dorthaan Kirk, Max came to our performance space in 1987 with two different ensembles. It was a Sunday afternoon, and Max wore a grey silk suit. Those performances with then-WBGO host James Browne marked the beginning of many ambitions for a fledgling jazz station. Now, we have music performances all the time (seven bands booked in this month alone). But the first session with Max Roach is one that many at WBGO will never forget.

    Listen to "Lonesome Lover," from the WBGO Archives.

    If you're feeling ambitious, check out the JazzSet Max Roach Memorial. It includes more music from this WBGO studio session.
    And it you're even more ambitious, and you love to pay nothing for a show (like most jazz people I know), head to Brooklyn for a three-day tribute to Max Roach.
    Fri 4/25 - Max Roach Tribute - music by Randy Weston African Rhythms & an ensemble featuring Lewis Nash, Concord Baptist Church of Christ, 833 Gardner C. Taylor Blvd, 718.756.9407,12-5PM
    Sat 4/26 - Max Roach Tribute - music by M' Boom, Jeff King Band & Cecil Bridgewater, Boys n Girls High School, 1700 Fulton St.,718.756.9407, 3-8PM
    Sun 4/27- Max Roach Tribute- panel discussion moderated by Gil Noble, interview with T.S. Monk, jazz celebrity jam session, Medgar Evers College, 1650 Bedford Ave, 718.756.9407, 3-7PM
    -Josh

    © 2008 WBGO