I have been thinking for quite a while since last Wednesday night’s concert at FLYWHEEL in Easthampton, Ma. how to arrive at the words to describe the intriguing music I heard. There were essentially distinct definable spaces in front of me in which each of the four musicians created their own place to produce their musical lines. Matt Weston’s more than complete drum set was in the back left corner of the platform. Le Quan Ninh’s large bass drum was on the right of the platform, an array of

In the seventies, prior to the "World Music" explosion of the nineties, Brit fusion guitar god John McLaughlin teamed with a trio of Indian musicians to form Shakti in an attempt to make a jazz noise of the music of the Indian sub-continent. The joy of this particular cross-cultural union of musical souls was that McLaughlin and company - violinist L. Shankar and percussionists Zakir Hussain and Vinayakram didn’t seem to give a damn what genre they were tossed into, just as long as they could we

I may never understand the power that creative improvised music but its existence is undeniable. Leading up to a concert by Jemeel Moondoc and William Parker I was not having a good day. It wasn't that everything was going wrong so much as nothing seemed to be going right. I was rushing around all day without much purpose or focus. The concert was set to begin at 8 p.m. and by 7 p.m. I was seriously considering the possibility of not going. Yes I had been looking forward to the concert for a cou

The theater was crowded, packed with a healthy cross-section of humanity. Jazz-heads old & young, many folks Indian or Indian-American, fans of Indian music, well-dressed fusion fans, musical eclectics of all ages, skin hues & economic status-all have come to see/hear what legendary jazz guitarist John McLaughlin had up his sleeve that night, and/or to hear McLaughlin "revisit" a previous musical context: Shakti. Shakti was a group of McLaughlin's in the mid-to-late 70s. He'd moved away somew

Hold onto your hat jazz fans, San Francisco is quickly becoming one of the hottest jazz scenes in the country thanks to high-profile jazz concerts and festivals, films, educational events and first-class jazz clubs that offer some of the world’s most outstanding jazz performances. San Francisco is not only a beautiful city, but for the diehard jazz enthusiast, a visit promises a whirlwind of venues and activities to make your heart go pitty-pat. Thanks to serious jazz devotees like Randa