The new Stone Temple Pilots album, Shangri-LA DEE DA (Atlantic), begs the question: Can you teach an old dog to rip off new tricks? Once the subject of venomous rants by every self-righteous indiebot trying to keep it real in the post-Nirvana gold rush, S.T.P., like the radon in your basement, have somehow endured. Someday Read More
Drummer Paul Motian has worked himself into some of the most important piano jazz of the past three decades, with Bill Evans in the 60′s, with Keith Jarrett in the 60′s and 70′s and with Paul Bley seemingly forever. Now with the support of the European boutique label Winter & Winter, Mr. Motian has the Read More
Pianist Jason Moran suggested we meet for coffee at the Angelika movie theater’s cafe. The 24-year-old Houstonian has just begun drumming up interest in his excellent debut album, Soundtrack to Human Motion (Blue Note), and already he’s got a journalist’s feel for staging thematic occasions on deadline. “The album title is about my love of Read More
Thelonious Monk would have turned 80 on Oct. 10. It’s a pity he’s not here to cast a quizzical eye on the current Monk Madness.
Recently, trumpeter Darren Barrett won the 11th annual Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Competition, a jazz-world bauble that increases in prestige every year. Leslie Gourse’s so-so Monk biography, Straight, No Read More
