News & Updates — avant-garde

Sending out a birthday to salute to Clifford Thornton, a cult free-jazz composer (and former Black Panther Party Minister of Art) who released a spate of classics from '67-'75 on various independent labels. In some ways he could be likened to the Eric Dolphy of his generation, a multi-instrumentalist artist who greatly impacted contemporary musicians around him while remaining out of the general public's eye. From Philly, he was a cousin to jazz drummer J.C. Moses. At seven he started learning piano and as a teenager studied with Donald Byrd and played with jazz tuba player Ray Draper. After moving...

John Cage was one of the first early experimentalists I discovered. As a teenager I had already made my way through punk & industrial and had discovered Japanese noise and 60's black free-jazz. Coming across folks like Cage, Xenakis, Stockhausen and Harry Partch pushed me into brand new ways of appreciating music and sound. Cage's chance operations strategy appealed to my improv side, accompanying my "zen side". His prepared piano stuff appealed to the noise freak in me and his overall unique way of approaching the world was inspirational to me and my friends. The icing on the cake came...

The original Flying Luttenbacher, Hal Russell was a Chicago icon. A multi-instrumentalist, he played tenor sax, c-melody, soprano, drums, trumpet, vibes, marimba, musette, congas and keyboards. One of the most surreal jazz characters of the second half of the twentieth-century jazz scene, this guy brought humor, theater and playfulness into his artform. Harold Luttenbacher was born in Detroit, played drums in Dixieland and swing bands (Woody Herman, etc) before discovering bebop. Moving with his family to Chi-town as a teenager, he started playing trumpet as a second instrument in college. In 1950 he played drums with Miles Davis and did...

One of my very favorites is the pianist/harpist/composer and cosmic music traveler Alice McLeod, known later as Alice Coltrane. Another great jazz artist from Detroit, she is possibly best known for being the wife and collaborator of John Coltrane, but Alice is an amazing artist in her own right. She brought celestial concepts into the music and fused free jazz, Indian, European classical, new age, bebop and avant-garde into a gorgeously spiritual, intense experience. Her music has gained much more currency in the last twenty years but I have always been a fan. I remember thinking "why are her records...

Happy earth arrival day to one of my favorite bassists, Malachi Favors Maghostut. Most famous for playing in my all time favorite group, the highly theatrical and musical Art Ensemble of Chicago, he's also played and recorded with all of the Art Ensemble members, as well as Kahil El'Zabar's Ritual Trio, Archie Shepp, Cheikh Tidiane Fall, Andrew Hill, Wadada Leo Smith, Sunny Murray, Dennis Gonzalez, Fred Anderson, Muhal Richard Abrams, Dewey Redman and many, many more. Born in Mississippi, he started playing bass as a teenager and in '53 made his recording debut with Paul Bascomb after which he found...