I like to remind my students that Jackie Robinson RE-broke the color barrier because >50 yrs previously there were Black players in the Majors, but the teams actively chose to segregate. Segregation & acts of racism are affirmative choices made by & for the benefit of White people & institutions.

Listening to this, I can understand why he found success in TV and film. He was good at giving you melodies you wanted to hear again and again, which isn't exactly rewarded in jazz. Really enjoy this album.

I'm running on fumes this week, so you get a treat: outtakes from my 2024 interview with Miranda Lambert. Subscribe to Don't Rock The Inbox for more like this (yes this gold is free!!!!) www.dontrocktheinbox.com/miranda-on-m...

apropos of nothing other than Maria Muldaur's cameo youtu.be/D5kpDsMbCvo?...

Glad to see this album resonating w. a few of you. Ilessi is a powerful singer & composer from Rio

Stuff Smith. (Ignore the misleading photo!) With Kenny Drew, NHØP and Alex Riel. Last number, Bugle Call Rag, is the best...

Jazz OTD: Trumpeter/composer Dave Douglas’s quintet with Jon Irabagon (ts), Matt Mitchell (p), Linda Oh (b), and Rudy Royston (d) is my personal favorite group of the past quarter century. They recorded two albums, including the brilliant “Time Travel,” on April 15-16, 2012. #jazzsky

👇👇👇👇

Jim Pepper Comin' and Goin' (1984) Hamid Drake Nana Vasconcelos Kenny Werner John Scofield Lester McFarland Ed Schuller Mark Helias Colin Walcott

Just a quick note to say that I have sent 2 cards to Mrs Ramsbottom. So you had better see her & ask her to post them on as they are very nice pictures. Sorry for inconvenience caused.

Interested in dolphins since the mid-1960s, when he began visiting the Miami Seaquarium, Neil, with Ric O'Barry, founded the Dolphin Research Project in 1970, an organization dedicated to stopping the capture, trafficking and exploitation of dolphins worldwide.

I watched a wonderful Q&A with Wim Wenders last night, largely about his polaroids: how he gave away more than he kept because that medium seemed to belong to the photographed, not him – SUCH a beautiful sentiment. It reminded me of this essay I wrote about Wenders & polaroids for @thequietus.com:

Guitarist Han-earl Parks' series of irreverent, raw and immediate, improvised studies on the electric guitar demands a fresh way of listening to the guitar's sonic possibilities and the sensibilities of time and space. My review for Percorsi Musicali: www.percorsimusicali.eu/2026/04/14/h...

good morning youtu.be/CEPugltVcTw?...

i spoke to a classroom of fifth graders today about being a journalist and it was a blast. kids are great!

apropos of something else: youtube.com/playlist?lis...

today at the Inter Chicago Circle for Experimental Critical Theory: "the term *imaginary* belongs to the culturalist makeover of theoretical concepts in the neoliberal era" interccect.com/2026/03/19/w...

Congratualtions to 2026 Guggenheim Fellows Jon Irabagon, Ingrid Laubrock, James Brandon Lewis and Linda May Han Oh. www.gf.org/stories/anno...

CRi reissue now on bandcamp --> Mario Davidovsky: Synchronisms / Harvey Sollberger: Chamber Variations (1966) Group for Contemporary Music; Efrain Guigui, Gunther Schuller, Conductors; &others #ClassicalMusic composersrecordingsinc.bandcamp.com/album/mario-...

No one writes about upcoming jazz events with the lapidary precision and literary verve @jimmacnie.bsky.social musters—and he makes it look effortless. Whether you're a local scenester or a curious tourist, dig his weekly Must-See Three for three main recommendations, plus plenty more listings.

I study racism for a living and can still manage to be shocked by how institutionalized it is. What do you mean they were giving tax-breaks to white supremacists celebrating treason? just a wild country

Happy Birthday to one of my great heroes, Gene Ammons, born this day 101 years ago, 4/14/25 and gone far too young at age 49 in 1974. The sweetest spot on record is 1960-62. Roughly 20 LPs in that widow, including my faves: Jug, Nice 'n Cool, Boss Tenor, Soulful Moods (all in 4th row from bottom).

Saturday

On April 14, 1971, Jan Garbarek, Bobo Stenson, Terje Rypdal, Arild Andersen and Jon Christensen had their first of two consecutive days of recording sessions for what would become the album Sart. A personal favorite among Garbarek's work.

I just listened to Georgie Porgie yesterday. Salute to Soror Lyte.

A lovely piece about a fantastic and fascinating artist. And the new reissue is essential. www.bbc.com/culture/arti...

TODAY IS THE DAY! My Book…….. Is Out www.basicbooks.com/titles/melvi...

In 1935 Dr. Percy Julian invented glaucoma medicine, a milestone in the history of US chemistry. Descended from enslaved grandparents, he was valedictorian at his university but not allowed to live in the residence halls & became “one of the most important scientists of the 20th century.”

now playing [cd - ECM 1192 / 847 333-2] ( It's lacks the soaring beauty of the first, but there's something here conceptually that I find very compelling. I think there's a real strength of character to it that ultimately works better as an "album")

fantastic album! youtube.com/playlist?lis...

The Tube Station of Dr. Caligari

This track is endlessly stuck in my head.

To accompany his article on Hive Mind The Wire 507, Daniel Spicer compiles an annotated playlist of tracks from the Brighton based label www.thewire.co.uk/audio/tracks...

good morning [cd via disc one of the Mosaic Select set]

Tonight, my friends. Arthur's Tavern, NYC, Art Bailey Trio- Orion Turre d, Julian Smith b, yours truly on the piano and supplying the freshly minted tunes. 10-12:30pm. Here's a nice outdated publicity photo of me with a 70s ballplayer 'stache for your amusement: arthurstavern.nyc/events/art-b...

My brilliant, talented friend and long-ago Boston Globe podmate Amanda Katz (@katzish.bsky.social), until recently WaPo Opinions senior assignment editor, is launching a newsletter on @beehiiv.com. Get in on the ground floor here: www.porchpartynews.com

synergies... synergies

Palmer sounding occasionally rather like Philip Collins, Esq

Inside The Wire 507: The Sleeves "In that world [of improvising] it can be so exciting, but there can be a little bit of a fear around repeating anything ... It's so nice to sit on something, especially if you lock in with someone..." Read the full article in The Wire 507. www.thewire.co.uk/shop/

In celebrating this immense artist who passed away in 2023, the ONJ, helmed by Sylvaine Hélary, takes up the torch and holds it high, for it respects both the spirit and the letter of Carla Bley. Instead of prosaic rewritings, Rémi Sciuto's arrangements and compositions are in fact extensions.

Recorded live at Radio Studio Zurich on February 19, 1968, nearly seven months before Santana, previously considered the trio's debut, Bird Food is the earliest known document of the Pierre Favre Trio. The tape lay dormant in the drummer's personal archive for over half a century, until ...

While the newsletter is suspended, the blog lives on… new playlists every Monday + maybe more sometime soon. Latest weekly tally of noteworthy things that got stuck in my ears includes Isabel Pine, Robert Honstein, Min Xiao-Fen & Julian Kytasty, Robert Fripp, and much more…

It's springtime and IN THE TIME OF THE BLUE BALL is freshly and finally back in stock!