Robin D.G. Kelley, author of the exhaustively-researched and superb new Thelonious Monk biography Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of An American Original (Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster), contributed the following piece to the recent 75th birthday commemoration for Amiri Baraka. He granted re-print permission to The Independent Ear. Read Robin’s contribution [...]
New York-based writer Ron Scott, past contributor to our ongoing dialogue with African American music journalists Ain’t But a Few of Us, weighs in here with his take on the recently-released compilation of Amiri Baraka writings. Digging: The Afro-American Soul of American Classical Music by Amiri Baraka A Review by Ron Scott The [...]
Our ongoing series of conversations with black jazz writers continues with one who doubles as an active musician-bandleader, Greg Tate, leader of the burning, probing, inquisitive, boundary-free ensemble known as Burnt Sugar. Greg has contributed to a variety of publications, becoming most widely-read from his days as a frequent commentator for the Village Voice, where he [...]
You Don’t Have to be a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind is Blowing! Another Look at the "Jazz is Dead" Controversy; Part One By Ron "Slim" Washington Black Telephone Workers for Justice "Slim" suggests the development of a jazz club circuit to include such venues as Cecil’s in West Orange, NJ… [...]
The latest contributor to our ongoing series of conversations with black music writers is Kelvin L. Williams, an astute New York City-based writer, who has written under the byline K. Leander Williams and who besides the jazz prints like JazzTimes, has managed to land by-lines in an assortment of general interest publications, including The Nation, Entertainment Weekly, [...]
Our series of conversations with black music writers continues with a contribution from Robin D.G. Kelley, who is currently a Professor of American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. The author of several books Robin’s forthcoming release Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original (Free Press) is eagerly anticipated, set for [...]
Our correspondent for this edition of the series Ain’t But a Few of Us: Black jazz writers tell their story is Bridget Arnwine. I first encountered Bridget in 2005 when the Jazz Journalists Association sponsored a one-time fellowship award in the name of the late African American jazz writer Clarence Atkins. The fellowships were awarded [...]
The pt. 7 contributor to our dialogue with black jazz writers on their respective career arcs, issues they’ve faced, and their various observations on recent recordings is MARTIN JOHNSON, shown (left) in the photo below conversing with the late, great soprano saxophone master Steve Lacy. Martin Johnson got his start writing about jazz for the [...]
The latest installment in our ongoing series of virtual conversations with African American jazz writers features the venerable veteran journalist-critic-author, journalist-advocate and dedicated Harlemite Herb Boyd, a fellow midwesterner from Detroit. I first became acquainted with Herb via his writings on Detroit and the many great musicians who make that city one of the key points [...]
Installment #6 in this ongoing series of stories on their development, trials, tribulations and in some cases recommendations from black music writers continues with a contribution from RON SCOTT, who comes from a perspective unique to our contributors thus far. And that’s because Ron is a regular contributor to what has long been referred to in black [...]