Author Archives: The Independent Ear

Artist’s P.O.V.: The Return of Sumi Tonooka

What’s Up with Sumi Tonooka? Pianist-composer Sumi Tonooka, a native of Philadelphia, has always been a very thoughtful artist with an exceptional touch at the keyboard and an uncommon cultural sensitivity based in equal parts on her diverse background and growing up in … Continue reading

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NOLA DIARY: Saved from Gustav by the Detroit Jazz Fest

TIME TO SPLIT… Well good people, the Jenkins Family sojourn — more like a furlough to be sure — to New Orleans has concluded and we are back home in the DC area.  In September Suzan Jenkins’ tenure as the … Continue reading

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New Orleans Diary Xll: Sultry Summertime

Dillard Interviews The last week of July and first week of August were busy times for the Dillard University interview series mentioned previously in Independent Ear profiles of Harold Battiste, and Dr. Michael White.  Last week I had the great … Continue reading

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Artist as Entrepreneur: World Culture Music

KENDRICK SCOTT: Interview with a real self-starter   I’m always interested in the efforts of artists who aren’t sitting around longing for some elusive record deal but who are putting their music on the marketplace themselves; and not just the … Continue reading

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NOLA Diary Xll: A Staunch Jazz Traditionalist

A profile in today’s Times Picayune weekly Lagniappe arts & entertainment section identifies the erudite clarinetist Dr. Michael White as Renaissance Man.  That’s a dead-on descriptor and comes on the heels of a very revealing interview sit-down I had with … Continue reading

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