Tag: jazz
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The Happy Pals are happening!
Late afternoon last Saturday I found myself walking past Grossman’s Tavern on Spadina in Toronto when a thought suddenly struck me: “Hey, don’t the Happy Pals play here every Saturday afternoon?” I went in and sure enough, the best traditional jazz band north of N’awlins was just setting up, as they have done every Saturday at…
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Phone Sax
A few days ago I posted a video of a poem of mine called Digital Kiss. Now here is another poem called Phone Sax from that same show at Casa del Popolo in Montreal last September. Again, thanks to Zoe for the videography and once again my apologies for the crunchy sound. I guess that’s…
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The Evil I by The John Waynes
The Evil I by The John Waynes John Sobol (vocals) & Wayne Kelso (piano) All words and music in this piece are 100% improvised. No plans, no paper, no second takes. From the unreleased CD TRUCE. Image by Kiyotei Hear Where the Bears Go by The John Waynes Read about Improvised Poetry and Our Digital…
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Where The Bears Go – The John Waynes
Back in 2004, when I was running Digifest, I met an amazing musician and digital artist named Wayne Kelso. One day I went to his studio in the woods and we spent an afternoon improvising music and poetry. Wayne recorded our two 45-minute jam sessions. From those and a few other extended collaborations we extracted…
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Jazz: An Unfinished Conversation (Race and Language in the Digital Age)
Jazz was – among other things – a century-long political conversation between Black Americans and White Americans. It was a musical, intellectual and spiritual conversation within a highly politicized social context whose axes were language, race and power. Jazz was also a conversation about technology, and about techno-cultures. To be specific, in jazz the conflict…
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Franky Rousseau Large Band – Terrific Jazz By Any Other Name
Last week a friend sent me a link to this provocative blog post by famed jazz trumpet player, Nicholas Payton, who argues that jazz is dead. To me this isn’t news, since I wrote the same thing in a lengthy piece in Toronto’s eyeweekly back in 1992. And like Payton, who is being berated by…
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When Bad Things Happen to Good Bassists
Anyone who has gotten out to hear good music in Montreal over the last half-dozen years or so has likely spent a fair amount of time in Casa del Popolo and Sala Rossa, the two cozy and creative music venues founded by Godspeed You Black Emperor bassist Mauro Pezzente. Mauro also programs the amazing and…
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Playing Misty For Ringo (A Dove)
Here’s a little late night sax serenade for all you social media lovebirds…
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Jazz Wisdom for the Digital Age #1 – Acknowledge Others
Jazz musicians are extremely skilled collaborators. Jazz musicians who are complete strangers can create thoughtful and beautiful new music together in an instant. This is partly because they share a language but more importantly because they share a dialogical skillset. They have mastered the rules of collective improvised conversation between strangers. Whereas those of us…
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