We mourn the loss of Patti Bosworth: great and beloved friend, brilliant biographer and memoirist, indefatigable hostess.
One of my favorite musicians and people, Jimmy Heath, died on Sunday, January 19, 2020, at age 93, in the Georgia home he and Mona moved to three years ago. In remembrance I want to offer my 2001 assessment of his playing and composing as it appeared in the Village Voice (it is essay #97 in my book, Weather Bird, published by Oxford University Press, 2003), and two excerpts from the 2007 Master Class DVD seriesRead More
Why I Write (December 2012) One of the musical tracks I often use in lectures is the 1956 recording “Concerto for Billy the Kid” by the composer and orchestra leader George Russell, who died this summer. Most people – even those who love jazz – have never heard it, yet it is an amazing performance, not five minutes long, which adapts piano concerto format to a sextet. The arrangement is based on a series ofRead More
