Author Archives: The Independent Ear

This year marks my 4th decade doing weekly jazz radio shows for community and public radio stations. Currently my Ancient/Future show airs Wednesday nights 10:00pm-midnight over WPFW 89.3 FM in the DC Metro area, and streaming live at http://www.wpfw.org; from … Continue reading →

Ain’t But a Few of Us Black music writers tell their story… Anthony Dean-Harris I first encountered the young writer Anthony Dean-Harris via his very active jazz-based blog at http://www.NEXTBOP.com. Just to give you a sense of where he’s been … Continue reading →

DC-area based songstress/conceptualist Alison Crockett is a decidedly 21st century artist. I say that because here’s a woman who combines the political sensibility of a Nina Simone with a craft based on equal parts Sarah Vaughan and Jill Scott, blended … Continue reading →

“Ed Blackwell is one of the major drum influences of the twentieth-century. Through his connection to the African diaspora, his so-called avant garde drumming implied all world music, ancient to the future.” Master drummer Billy Hart In the late 1960s-early … Continue reading →

Pianist Ethan Iverson is known primarily for his work in the Bad Plus, and despite that band’s wink-wink genre-busting and wildly unpredictable repertoire, he’s always shown a great respect and reverence for the jazz canon and for those elders who … Continue reading →