Fear is a Man's Best Friend: On childhood terrors, homemade masks, cat hair ghosts, losing your kid in public, and things you just do when you're bored: open.substack.com/pub/andybeta...

A biography of Alice Coltrane, by Andy Beta? Yes please. (Coming from Hachette in March.) www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/andy-...

"How can this be any good? We didn't pay anything for it." Nice lookback at this outlaw classic: www.dontrocktheinbox.com/james-talley...

Two Chicago jazz albums (over 30 years apart) that make time warp around you: open.substack.com/pub/andybeta...

And your apartment listing

"When I would speak of those morbid things/When I would speak of those sordid men/When I would speak of this storm/You didn’t listen/You don’t want to believe/But that’s so normal." In the depths of Brazil's fascist regime, Lô Borges (with Milton) provided some hope. RIP to a master:

In May of 2024, I received an email that Jack DeJohnette would speak with me for the Alice Coltrane book. So thoughtful and direct: "The music wasn't complicated. It wasn't difficult. It was a vibe, you know? Melodies, spiritual feeling, [an] expansive look at being, playing that music."

Most people at Frost Bank Center didn’t realize it, but Gregg Popovich was in the building Sunday, and he’d given his blessing to a banner, raised sans ceremony. How the Spurs planned the perfect Pop tribute: www.expressnews.com/sports/artic...

Fly on, Jack DeJohnette. 💐🕊️🤲🏾 photo (by me) backstage at Jazz @ Lincoln Center, Nov 2, 2019

Jack DeJohnette doubling as DX-7 wizard: youtu.be/OiilVpyKAY0?...

💔

Can verify after last night's set at Brooklyn Steel:

"I hesitate to say that I understood what João was doing with just his voice and guitar; that all really remains an unplumbable mystery." A few more stray thoughts on João and the album I *really* wanted to write about instead of G/G: andybeta.substack.com/p/joao

For @pitchfork.com Sunday Review, I wrote about Getz/ Gilberto, but more importantly, about João Gilberto's gentle genius, the real girl from Ipanema, and the best music genre to ever emerge from a bathroom: pitchfork.com/reviews/albu...

"Just as unrequited love might never be quenched, so it was with bossa nova. There was always a dark shadow amid its elegant curves, harmonies that didn’t quite resolve as was expected. Gilberto’s sound shrugged; such was life." pitchfork.com/reviews/albu...

David Mancuso

Wild that Miles's name-checked Willie Nelson years before he got out from under the "Nashville Sound": youtu.be/3fI8c-E7zrw?...

Lot Radio show for October (and of course, the baseball reference is cropped out of the thumbnail): andybeta.substack.com/p/the-lot-fo...

RIP Ken Jacobs. His Nervous Lantern collab with Black Dice circa 2004 at @anthologyfilm.bsky.social was one of the loudest, most brutal, and psychically disturbing sound / visual experiences of my life: youtu.be/PCipTFJwYNg?...

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Remembering some interactions with a true gentleman: open.substack.com/pub/andybeta...

I wrote the cover story for a big ol' Jeff Parker feature for We Jazz Magazine, available in print only: open.substack.com/pub/andybeta...

May you be eternally jamming in the River of Heaven: youtu.be/lZbfNtDCHdM?...

This could be US but u playin: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/w...

The Lot for September: open.substack.com/pub/andybeta...

Happy Earth Day to the sublime Marion Brown. Since I've been on a big Mal kick, here's a lovely read by the duo on a McCoy tune: youtu.be/8ABoTCKv_GE?...

"I’ve always admired how Ryuichi Sakamoto explored and questioned the cultural tensions between East and West — especially from within his own country. These ideas felt especially relevant to where I was heading." Jason Kolàr open.substack.com/pub/andybeta...

“I live. For now. Wait for my return to [a] state of NOTHING.” pitchfork.com/news/bruce-l...

50 years ago today, Miles performed the final date of his electric era - a late summer festival date at Wollman Rink in Central Park. Despite a sizable audience, extensive photos from David Gahn, and a somewhat clueless recap from the Times, aural evidence of the evening has never surfaced. ...

Saying goodbye to a fried amp, the NYC-brand of silence, and riding shotgun with Phil Collins: open.substack.com/pub/andybeta...

Listening in 3 Parts open.substack.com/pub/andybeta...

Pals with Montreal/ Quebec City recos (shops, spots, food, live show listings) please lay 'em on me

Mal Waldron is some of my earliest formative jazz listening (with Eric Dolphy at the Five Spot) and my most obsessive recent listening (What It Is and Moods esp), a sound as steady as rocks rolling in the back of a truck: andybeta.substack.com/p/twofer-tue...

Is Godley & Creme's "Cry" an answer song to their own "I'm Not In Love" (as 10cc)? youtu.be/ypMnBuvP5kA?...

The Lot for August: new Mood Hut, Ghosted III, Jonny Nash, Chicago Underground Duo, and a wicked version of "Wicked Game": open.substack.com/pub/andybeta...

"The most compelling thing about Momoko's voice for me is actually the way she builds and shapes her backing vocals. It’s like working with an orchestra rather than a soloist." New Herbert/ Momoko album is choice. open.substack.com/pub/andybeta... @matthewherbert.bsky.social @momokogill.bsky.social

One of those days where just walking around leads you to encounter homemade Leonard Cohen paintings

^Devendra Banhart

"A duo collaboration can be very vulnerable. Once Matthew realized this was happening he saw this record as an equal collaboration. He has described this as a liberating letting-go but I'm sure it took a lot of faith." Matthew Herbert & Momoko Gill: open.substack.com/pub/andybeta...

Reporting on Eddie Palmieri back in 2016 and making it into newsprint myself

Twofer Tuesday #9: Two albums that opened the iron gate of my landlocked mind in Texas, Super Ape and Heart of the Congos: open.substack.com/pub/andybeta...

Rest easy Flaco, San Antonio's finest: youtu.be/2KrGWnFiQQY?...

Twofer Tuesday #8: Nobukazu Takemura and the two mature works highlighting his childlike whimsy: open.substack.com/pub/andybeta... @thrilljockey.bsky.social

Twofer Tuesday: two '80s albums imagining new directions in weird world music: andybeta.substack.com/p/twofer-tue...

summer vi - Taisho (大暑) - Great heat

Twofer Tuesday on two random album pick-ups by lowkey Detroit great, Tommy Flanagan: andybeta.substack.com/p/twofer-tue...

Twofer Tuesday #5 on the joyous dynamo that is Tim Barnes (special s/o @marcissist.bsky.social for the deep BC story): open.substack.com/pub/andybeta...

An homage to drummer Tim Barnes and my earliest days in NYC, where he seemingly played every single night and was a dervish of motion and a steady hub for the creative music community. His two new albums of collabs are thrilling things: open.substack.com/pub/andybeta...

Since I'm late to all birthday parties... In the Fried Archives: Terry Riley open.substack.com/pub/andybeta...