Blog - Jazz Spectrum

In Memorium, Jack DeJohnette (1942-2025)

October 31, 2025

By Fritz Byers
There’s a YouTube video of the jazz quartet, occasionally referred to as Parallel Realities, comprising the pianist Herbie Hancock, the bassist Dave Holland, the guitarist Pat Metheny, and the drummer Jack DeJohnette, performing live in 1990. The concert begins with Jack playing solo for about two minutes before he is joined, in turn, by Dave, Herbie, and finally Pat. And then they are off, assaying “Shadow Dance” for 15 minutes. Read More

Rodgers & Hart’s “Manhattan” at 100 – A Birthday Celebration

October 9, 2025

Jazz Spectrum

By John Bigelow
Contributing Writer It was a century ago, 1925, the middle of the Roaring Twenties, in New York. The country was on fire. Captains of industry, titans of finance, and show business impresarios were creating fortunes and reputations and making American into a world powerhouse. The Great War was over and it seemed there was nothing but smooth sailing ahead. Optimism was in the air. Read More

Friday's Featured Recording 9/19/25

September 19, 2025

Jazz Spectrum WGTE Blog

This Friday’s featured recording: Pat Metheny’s 80/81 Read More

Jazz Spectrum Blog - 2/28/25 - 3/2/25

February 28, 2025

Jazz Spectrum

By Fritz ByersFritz exchanges thoughts with Aly Krajewski about the Song of the Week featured on Jazz Spectrum Saturday. Read More

The Beautiful Now – The Best of Jazz Spectrum 2024

January 3, 2025

Jazz Spectrum

By Fritz ByersI just finished James Kaplan’s recent book, 3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane and the Lost Empire of Cool. Read More

This Week on Jazz Spectrum - 12/13-12/15

December 12, 2024

Jazz Spectrum

By Fritz ByersFritz exchanges thoughts with Aly Krajewski about the Song of the Week featured on Jazz Spectrum Saturday. Dear Aly, Yesterday while enjoying the ritualized mid-day traffic gridlock in old Maumee, I took respite in pondering the implications of the bumper sticker immediately before me: “Big Foot doesn’t believe in you either.” Fair point, really. And it set me to a-pondering’ about the ways the phrase “magical thinking” has radiated from Joan Didion’s book title through the culture in ways both banal and profound. Read More

This Week on Jazz Spectrum - 11/8-11/10

November 6, 2024

Jazz Spectrum

By Fritz ByersFritz exchanges thoughts with Aly Krajewski about the Song of the Week featured on Jazz Spectrum Saturday.Dear Aly, The noted Sixteenth-Century jazz critic Martin Luther is said to have professed, “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant an apple tree today.” For reasons that are indistinct, this wise moral resolution is paired in my mind today with another psychological truth, which, like alarmingly many in conventional Anglo-American culture, can be sourced to Samuel Johnson: “When a man knows h Read More

This Week on Jazz Spectrum - 9/27 - 9/29

September 26, 2024

Jazz Spectrum

By Fritz ByersEach week, Fritz exchanges thoughts with Aly Krajewski about the Song of the Week featured on Jazz Spectrum Saturday.Hi Aly, I’ve often wondered about the reasons behind the oodles of ironic references to jazz that Big Time cultural tastemakers shoehorn into their pop concoctions. For instance, I have a dim memory of there being a slightly mocking reference to the nonpareil bassist Charles Mingus in Jerry Maguire, although I’m not curious enough to verify this by rewatching it. Read More

This Week on Jazz Spectrum - 9/20-9/22

September 19, 2024

Jazz Spectrum

JULIETA EUGENIO with Marta Sanchez, Matt Dwonszyk, and Steven Krammer, SMALL’S JAZZ CLUB, 5 SEPTEMBER 2024, 10:30 pm setBy Kim Kleinman, Contributing WriterFritz framed his essay on the best jazz albums of 2022 around Julieta Eugenio’s Jump, an astonishing tenor/bass/drums date that, as he put it, Read More

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