“Cherokee,” written by English bandleader Ray Noble back in the thirties, became a bop anthem in the forties after Charlie Parker used the chord changes to create his virtuoso masterpiece, “Ko-Ko.” Here Wynton Marsalis gives the original a virtuoso workout of his own.
Author: Alan Vanneman
Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary. Oh, and Mark too
Back in the day, and what a day it was, too, the Washington Post comics page would stack Mary Worth, Zippy the Pinhead, and Mark Trail right one on top of one another. The Zipster’s labored, po-mo, self-referencing meta facetiousness, combined with Mark’s two-fisted, straight from the fifties outdoor action and Mary’s two-fisted, straight from…
Early Jeanne, Early Louis, Early Miles
Ever see the flick about the young Parisian car thief who steals an American convertible, find a gun in the glove compartment, kills a guy, and goes down for it? How about the one about a young couple who get involved in murder over a stolen car and fantasize about dying together with their pictures…
Oh, and one more thing. It doesn’t do anything.
Hey, iPhone users, now that you’ve got your gadget, do you need another shot of self-esteem, one that keeps on giving, like, you know, the image of a jewel on your iPhone screen, bearing the caption “I am rich?” Well, sorry, you didn’t move quick enough. You could have gotten it from Apple’s App Store,…
Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Tony Williams
Pre-sellout,mid-sixties Miles with his last great quintet, the “E.S.P.” “Miles Smiles” quintet. In 1969, Davis played the Newport Jazz Festival, as he always did, a festival that had become, much to the chagrin of organizer George Wein, the Newport Jazz/Rock Festival. It was Miles’ invariable practice to arrive at the festival minutes before his set…
NYT gets it right, seriously
Today’s editorial in the New York Times highlights two of the most egregious sores on the American body politic—hatred of foreigners and a grotesquely swollen U.S. penal code. As part of its “We hate immigrants” campaign, the Bush Administration raided a slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa and arrested, not the plant operators for hiring illegal immigrants,…
Anti-Matter! It does exist! Even at the New York Times!
Yes, anti-matter does exist at the New York Times. In fact, the Times conceals within itself an anti-New York Times! Its name is John Tierney, who quite shockingly argues here that you don’t have to do anything those dumb environmentalists tell you to do! OK, it’s not quite that sweeping, but it’s bad enough. Among…
Lester Young—“Jammin’ the Blues”
Filmed back in 1944, this is simply the coolest jazz video ever, starting out with an opening shot of Lester Young’s pork pie hat. (Sorry, but if I had to tell you, you’re not quite as cool as you might be.) Lester Young is the coyest, least satisfying of the great jazz musicians. He broke…
To the guy who gave me the finger at Tyson’s Corners last week
Yeah, it was my fault. I got in the wrong lane and refused to move. So, you were right to honk. Rather than lose ten minutes from my busy schedule I made you lose thirty seconds from your busy schedule. But why did you start honking when the light changed and the cars in the…
American Women: Poor and Oppressed, or Smart and Rich?
It’s tough bein’ a sister, livin’ in the USA. As the New York Times tells it, “Across the country, women in their prime earning years, struggling with an unfriendly economy, are retreating from the work force, either permanently or for long stretches.” In an “above the fold” July 22 story, “Women Are Now Equal as…