According to Don Byron, clarinetist par excellence, the title of this article is how he proposed that the audience listen to the music created by his group at the Iron Horse in Northampton, last Friday night. The group consisted of Byron on clarinet, James Zollar, trumpet, Edsel Gomez, piano, Ben Whitman, drums, Leo Traversa, bass and Milton Cardona, congas. There were only three numbers in one set lasting two hours. Byron dominated this gig. His playing is complex: he doubles and triple pla

Medeski, Martin and Wood (MM&W) first came to my attention about two years ago, the bush telegraph had indicated new and bright stars in the West. A trio, like no other, who had origins in the mainstream of jazz but had found their way to the fore by a long and winding road, that of the US collegiate circuit, normally a path trodden by aspiring rock outfits. Indeed they played support originally, to one of the growing "Jam Bands" A Tribe called West, and others such as Phish, Dave Matthews, Aqua

Last night at the Knitting Factory, the Old Office was jammed with people to see OTHER DIMENSIONS IN MUSIC with guest, Joe McPhee on soprano sax & pocket trumpet. The group is made up of William Parker, bass, Roy Campbell, trumpet, flugelhorn & pocket trumpet, Daniel Carter, tenor, and Rashid Bakr, drums. Seeing this group surprisingly closed a cycle that unknowingly started three years ago when I first heard it at a concert in Amherst, Ma. OTHER DIMENSIONS offered me the first music of its

I recently moved to Chicago to further my career in journalism -that is, I have an internship at a magazine called the Chicago Reporter (http://www.chicagoreporter.com) and figured (grin) that as long as I am here I might as well as enjoy the great music that this city has been producing for so many years (grin). Nobody personifies Chicago jazz better than Fred Anderson. Now 73, Anderson has been playing music for sixty years during the tenure 12 presidents -only two of which have blood relative

Saxophonist/composer Edward Wilkerson, Jr. is one of the most prolific members of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). His work touches upon styles as diverse as Ellington's "jungle music" of the twenties, hard bop, New Orleans ragtime, sixties avant-garde, orchestral composition, and an optimistic view toward the future of jazz. All of this is infused with a wonderful sense of humor and joy that even first-time listeners of his music can notice. Like Ellington