Chris Robinson's Music & Culture Blog
Psalm 98:4 of the King James Bible reads: "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise." While I'm not a religious man, something about the words "make a joyful noise" really resonates with me. It's not "play a symphony in a black tuxedo" or …
A few weeks back I was lucky enough to find a Pepper Adams LP for a buck at my local record store. It's pretty solid. After I put it on the felt I read the liner notes, written by Fred Goodman, who wrote for Cash Box magazine, which I had never heard of. Then in …
Continue reading That time Fred Goodman likened the bari sax to the fat girl at the school dance
"There is no music without order---if that music comes from a man's innards. But that order is not necessarily related to any single criterion of what order should be as imposed from the outside. Whether that criterion is the song form or what some critic thinks jazz should be. This is not a question, then, …
I went record shopping Friday after work. It had been a really sucky week so I needed to treat myself. In the used jazz section I found a copy of Paris Concert by Circle (Anthony Braxton, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, Barry Altschul). I was stoked. I was certain I didn't own it. But I thought …
Continue reading Record Shopping at Home: Circle’s Paris-Concert
Hey all, it's been more than a hot minute since I've been blogging. Most of this is due to the fact that I've been working on my book manuscript. But now that it's temporarily out of my hands, I'm going to get back to this site. I had some domain and web hosting issues, so …
Happy 2015 folks. Even though the new year is already a few days old there's already more than a few excellent releases to look forward to in 2015. I'm particularly stoked about the live album from Jack DeJohnette/Roscoe Mitchell/Henry Threadgill/Muhal Richard Abrams/Larry Gray that is coming out on ECM shortly. But I'm getting ahead of …
Continue reading Last Batch of Favorites of 2014 & Thoughts on the NPR Poll
Ok folks, a couple more of my favorite albums from the last year (and as always, the whole list can be found here).... Peter Brendler, Outside the Line (Posi-tone) - What a sizzling, fun, and adventurous date. Bassist Brendler, joined by the unbeatable front line of tenor saxist Rich Perry and trumpeter Peter Evans, and …
Continue reading More Favorites of 2014: Peter Brendler and Captain Black Big Band
