Blog - Jazz Spectrum

Remembering Jack DeJohnette

November 6, 2025

I saw Jack DeJohnette perform twice, once with Special Edition at the Chicago Jazz Festival in 1981, and, much more recently, as part of the charming Hudson at St. Louis’s Sheldon Concert Hall in 2017. For the former, I was part of a Grant Park crowd thinned out by rain and the end of the weekend and festival. For the latter, I was three rows away at eye level with the maestro, periodically visible between those glorious cymbals. That show was a chance to see a giant of the music with a faultless band (John Scofield, John Medeski, and Larry Grenadier). Read More

In Memorium, Jack DeJohnette (1942-2025)

October 31, 2025

Jazz Spectrum

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

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