Author Archives: The Independent Ear

On this the 45th anniversary of the passing on to ancestry of the great John William Coltrane, my home radio station WPFW 89.3 FM (Pacifica Radio in the Washington, DC metro area, streaming live at www.wpfw.org) wisely chose to run … Continue reading →

In the afterglow of another exceptional closing weekend at the 2012 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival we took advantage of an opportunity to witness the progress of the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music the Monday after Jazzfest. Earlier that … Continue reading →

Amidst all the various perceived “ills” prescribed to jazz by its enthusiasts – young musicians failing to “advance” the music stylistically; the younger generations of musicians arriving on the jazz scene simply pale next to the founders and the masters; … Continue reading →

The legacy of the colored/black/African American (covering the different 20th century racial nomenclature) musicians’ union locals (separate from the “regular” musicians’ union locals by racial segregation) is a rich and vastly under-reported root source for much of the creative music … Continue reading →

Last week came the disturbing news that yet another public radio station was about to give up the ghost on its jazz broadcasting responsibilities. WGBH, long a pillar of the Boston radio airways, axed longtime programmer Steve Schwartz program entirely … Continue reading →