I am a freelance writer, saxophonist, lap steel guitarist, and former academic. I finished my PhD in American Studies at the University of Kansas in 2014, where I studied jazz criticism, black music, and cultural theory. I am currently Associate Books Marketing Manager at Duke University Press. My writing has been appeared in Downbeat, Passion of the Weiss, Point of Departure, Earshot Jazz, American Studies, Jazz Perspectives, and other publications.
Popular Publications (selected)
As album reviewer
-Point of Departure, 2016-present
-Downbeat, August 2007-2013
-Earshot Jazz, 2007-2009
Essays, Interviews, Journalism
-“Andre 3000’s ‘New Blue Sun’ is Full of Subtle Beauty,” Passion of the Weiss, December 6, 2023.
-“So It Goes: On Mac Miller, Swimming, and Survival,” Passion of the Weiss, October 3, 2023.
-“Bass Clarinet Boom Bap,” Passion of the Weiss, November 18, 2022.
-“‘I’m 72 and Something That I wrote At 18 is Relevant Now’: An Interview with Ronnie Foster,” Passion of the Weiss, August 1, 2022.
-“‘Jazz is Black and Must Be Kept that Way:’ The Black Jazz Records Essentials, Passion of the Weiss, June 16, 2021.
-“Thelonious Monk, Live from Palo Alto,” Passion of the Weiss, September 22, 2020.
-“The Last Don: The Return of Shabazz Palaces,” Passion of the Weiss, April 21, 2020.
-“A Happy Dance to Fight Existential Dread: Thundercat’s It Is What It Is,” Passion of the Weiss, April 1, 2020.
-“Riding on a Comet: The Astral Plane of Shabaka Hutchings,” Passion of the Weiss, March 25, 2020.
-“Hit ‘Em with the Ism: On Junius Paul’s Latest Opus,” Passion of the Weiss, January 16, 2020.
-“The Lady’s Day: Reflecting on Billie Holiday at 100,” Cuepoint, April 7, 2015.
-“The Religious Experience of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme,” Cuepoint, March 2, 2015.
-“Rhythm Changes Conference Urges Rethinking of Jazz Cultures,” Downbeat, September, 2013, 86.
-“Keeping Kansas City Cosmopolitan,” Downbeat, August, 2013, 75.
-“Hip-Hop Spinning Beyond Boundaries,” Downbeat, May 2013, 57.
-“Clinics Strike a Chord at UNC Jazz Festival,” Downbeat, July, 2012, 78.
-“SF Jazz Collective Lights Up Lawrence’s Lied Center,” Downbeat.com, March 21, 2012.
Academic Publications
-“Media Review: Miles Davis, Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3,” Jazz Perspectives, Volume 8, Number 3 (2014): 321-326.
-with Milton Wendland and Pete Williams, “Thick Critical Thinking: Toward a New Classroom Pedagogy,” in Critical Thinking in Higher Education, Edited by Martin Davies, Ron Barnett, Robert Ennis (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2015).
-“A Change Is Gonna Come: African American Literature, Jazz and the Intersections of Time, Race, and Justice,” American Studies, Volume 53, Number 4 (2014).
-“Media Review: Wadada Leo Smith, Ten Freedom Summers,” Jazz Perspectives, Volume 7, Number 1 (2013): 77-80.
-“Wynton Marsalis,” The Grove Dictionary of Music, 2nd ed., Edited by Charles Hiroshi Garrett. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013).
-“Maria Schneider” The Grove Dictionary of Music, 2nd ed., Edited by Charles Hiroshi Garrett. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013).
-“Frank Sinatra.” In The Forties in America. Edited by Thomas Tandy Lewis. Pasadena, California: Salem Press, 2010, 873-874.
Editorial Experience
2012-2014: Assistant Editor for the international peer reviewed journal American Studies.
Discography
Baritone Saxophone on Triangle Afrobeat Orchestra’s Live in Raleigh
Saxophone on Cyanotype’s Two Silent Schnauzers
“Excerpt from The Methodist Hymnal” on Out and Gone Music’s compilation Curve
The Turnaround 