Singing in the Shower: Ralph Ellison and the Blues

Ralph Ellison’s commentary on jazz and blues in his now-legendary volume of essays, Shadow and Act [Random House, 1953], presents a case for black musical creation as a universally representative art form.

Tommy Flanagan, a reminiscence

My personal memories of Tommy are too numerous to hold in a single grasp. His conversations were mini-seminars on the deep structure of music.

What We Hear When We Listen to Music

I imagine that the perplexity of listening to music with all of the peculiarities and personal nuances that suffuse its engagement appears far simpler than the contrast I point to and the contexts that haunt my awareness here.

The Question of Miles Davis

An Advance Excerpt from boundary 2 (Summer 2001, Duke University Press).

Jazz Column

Now that maestro Chico O’Farrill has been rediscovered all over again — and he never went anywhere in the first place — the Afro-Cuban scene can smile a broad grin of recognition that one of its central figures is here given room to show off.