Blog - Jazz Spectrum

For Sonny Rollins (1930–2026)

June 5, 2026

Imagine it: you’re scuffling in New York, Autumn 1959, writing your first stage play and believing that you might be Chekhov or Brecht. Your late shift ends somewhere in Brooklyn, and you make your way home through the New York night – across the Williamsburg Bridge and on toward your tiny studio with the grimy window overlooking Washington Square. Somewhere above you on the bridge, carried on the night air, you hear something – a sound at once keening and robust, probing and assured. Read More

Solo Sonny, Road Shows Vol. 3: 19 September 2009, St. Louis

June 4, 2026

Jazz Spectrum

Sonny Rollins was active from 1947 to 2014. He played a lot—gigs, practice, jam sessions, practice, at least 45 studio recordings as a leader, and practice. I want to focus on just nine minutes out of all those hours and hours of playing jazz at the highest level. Those are not necessarily special, though that Sonny, so often dissatisfied with his own playing, released it to us eager listeners says he thought it was at least okay. However I was present at that performance, so it is pretty damn special to me. Read More

Miles Davis at 100 – Part 4: Why His Music Matters

May 29, 2026

Jazz Spectrum

Here at Jazz Spectrum Central, it’s Miles Davis week in honor of the centenary of his birth. Read More

Miles Davis at 100 – Part 3: The Second Great Quintet

May 28, 2026

Jazz Spectrum

The Underappreciated Miles Davis

May 28, 2026

Jazz Spectrum

‘Tis the season to celebrate Miles Davis’s massive contributions to jazz. He is our Picasso, reimagining himself and what the music could be time after time. For many of us, he was our introduction to jazz, providing so many pathways to explore. He defined repertoire, how ensembles should work together, how the trumpet sounds, and what cool is. Since most of these essays for his 100th birthday are discussing favorite moments in the music, let me instead confess some of what I have missed so far in his canon. Read More

Miles Davis at 100 – Part 2: Miles and Friends

May 27, 2026

Jazz Spectrum

In yesterday's post, I noted something striking about Miles Davis at nineteen: even while playing in Charlie Parker's quintet, alongside the most revered innovator in jazz, and while still absorbing the methods and challenge of bebop, Miles was already forging his own aesthetic in his own sound, his own relationship with silence, his own sense of where a melody wanted to go. The point warrants a second look because it illuminates something that would define Miles's entire career. Even in his apprenticeship, Miles treated Bird as a collaborator. Not as a superior. Read More

Miles Davis at 100 – Part 1: The Six Revolutions of Miles

May 26, 2026

Jazz Spectrum

Today is the centenary of the birth of Miles Davis. Born in 1926, he passed in 1991 at the age of 65. He made his first important recordings when he was about twenty. By many sane reckonings, he made his last radical records when he was about fifty. So, thirty years of transcendent art. Let me give you one more number – he changed music six times. I don’t mean he changed his music six times; or that he constantly grew and evolved, burnishing his sound and expanding the range of his tastes. Most important jazz musicians have done that, and more. Read More

Roscoe Mitchell in Performance

April 15, 2026

Jazz Spectrum

Roscoe Mitchell with K. Curtis Lyle, Damon Scott and Shuggie
Dissonant Works, St. Louis Read More

Music Was Breath and Blood for Hannah

February 20, 2026

Jazz Spectrum

Music was breath and blood for Hannah Lammie, a gifted singer, inspired librarian, humanitarian, and devoted wife, mother, sister, and daughter. Even before she was born in Connecticut, on Feb. 19, 1973, she absorbed the sounds and vibrations of great orchestral music, church classics, and flute lessons, as her mother Sally pursued her own musical career. With her sisters, Emily and Sarah, Hannah listened to folk music by such performers as Pete Seeger, Judy Collins and Bob Dylan. Read More

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