Blog - Jazz Spectrum

For Abdullah Ibrahim (1934–2026)

In 2005 I traveled with my oldest daughter to South Africa for a bit of work and a lot of what Duke Ellington called the “Tourist Point of View.” One afternoon during our interlude in Cape Town we were hosted for tea and dessert at a Cape Malay home. I’ve lost most of the small facts about the visit, but I recall the mood, the laughter, and the warmth of our hosts. This I really do recall: the sensation, as the hours unwound, of having been in that room, or at least having felt its ambience, before. Read More

On Seeing Abdullah Ibrahim in 2018

My most recent contribution to this blog was a recollection of seeing Sonny Rollins perform in 2009. Now I return with a memory, now bittersweet due to his own death this week, of seeing Abdullah Ibrahim in 2018. Rollins was 79, old only until the moment when the band and his own playing lit a spark. Ibrahim was 83 and although ever alert and observant, he was less energetic. Read More

Don Byas: A Celebration

The recent death of Sonny Rollins prompted the kind of grand homage that a career of that magnitude warrants. For nearly seven decades, Sonny was the — or at least a —  dominant voice on the tenor saxophone, not immune from the whims of musical fashion or the occasional eclipse of a brighter new star, but always present, active, recording, performing, forever searching. His fame was proportionate to his genius.  It grew as he aged, and it will survive his passing. Not every genius is so fortunate. Read More

For Sonny Rollins (1930–2026)

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

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

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

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The Underappreciated Miles Davis

‘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

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