2016 has been brutal for music fans. Today, we add the artist usually known as Prince to the list of recently departed pop music greats. Prince’s impact was certainly felt by all fans of rock and pop music: Not only… Continue Reading
I recently encountered a lengthy article detailing the history of famous rock musicians’ involvement with the occult. Read it here: Devil Music: A History of the Occult in Rock & Roll It’s no secret that rock artists have used occult themes in… Continue Reading
No One’s Listening. Why? Jazz can be as sophisticated as classical music, but with a beat. This gives jazz the potential to capture the interest of “casual” listeners, i.e. those who usually opt for less challenging (threatening?) popular styles, while… Continue Reading
Of the memorials I’ve posted to date, this is perhaps the most meaningful to me. Jim Hall was a large influence on my approach to improvisation, and on my sense of melody. His performances on Sonny Rollins’s album The Bridge were… Continue Reading
Well, not “dead” like tissue, but “dead” like a marriage. So says Sam McPheeters in this Vice article from 2010. Comparing rock circa 1994 to the Wild West circa 1890, he describes a “closed frontier,” a state in which the once… Continue Reading
In part one of my Video History of Metal, I described Sabbath’s second and third albums as “a blueprint for the creation of metal music.” In his article for the Houston Press, Nathan Smith takes us on a tour of… Continue Reading
For whatever reasons, Dave Brubeck is often overlooked by purists when recounting the greatest artists of jazz. But his legacy is nearly as impactful as any artist of the last century, and his music easily as inspiring. I first encountered… Continue Reading
Over at Noise Made Me Do It,we are treated to an excerpt from a 1964 Down Beat magazine interview with Miles Davis, in which he is given a blind listening test. In typical Miles fashion, he spares no energy in… Continue Reading
Jazz seems to be on a decline. Here in Madison, I have seen most of the (already few) clubs that hosted live jazz either change their format or close their doors. In this article by Kurt Ellenberger, we learn that… Continue Reading
I can be really flighty. Sometimes I convince myself that the breaks I take from my work are for legitimate reasons, but at the end of the day I know I have wasted a good deal of time. Ego has… Continue Reading