How Lady Day was in the middle of a Federal Bureau of Narcotics fight for survival From his first day in office in 1930, Harry Anslinger had a problem, and everybody knew it. He had just been appointed head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics—a tiny agency, buried in the gray bowels of the Treasury […]
View MoreTag: Jazz
What Louis Armstrong Really Thinks | The New Yorker
On October 31, 1965, Louis (Satchmo) Armstrong gave his first performance in New Orleans, his home town, in nine years. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″] At twelve, he marched in parades for the Colored Waif’s Home for Boys, where he was given his first cornet. But he had publicly boycotted the city since its banning of integrated bands, […]
View More
Why MLK Believed Jazz Was the Perfect Soundtrack for Civil Rights | Daily JSTOR
Jazz, King declared, was the ability to take the “hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph.”
View More
BANNED: The Bluest Eye| PBS
By From The Collection” The Library, PBS [dropcap]C[/dropcap]The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison’s first novel, was published in 1970. Set in Lorain, Ohio — where Morrison herself was born — the book tells the story of Pecola Breedlove, an eleven-year-old African American girl who is convinced that she is ugly, and yearns to have lighter skin and […]
View More
A Lost Album From John Coltrane, With Thanks To A French-Canadian Director | NPR
Nate Chinen, NPR John Coltrane, photographed in his backyard in Queens, New York in 1963. JB/© Jim Marshall Photography LLC.Featured Image [dropcap]There[/dropcap] is never any end,” John Coltrane said sometime in the mid-1960s, at the height of his powers. “There are always new sounds to imagine; new feelings to get at.” Coltrane, one of jazz’s […]
View More
Statement on the Passing of Toni Morrison | National Museum of African American History & Culture
Thinker, Writer, Literary Activist, Nobel Laureate
View More
Birmingham school teacher tops Billboard Smooth Jazz chart | CBS42
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — Kim Scott is the head of the music department at the Alabama School of the Fine Arts. The Flutist also has a chart-topping new single out. Her recent release, “Emerge” is number one on the Billboard Smooth Jazz chart. When she isn’t teaching, Kim Scott is playing her flute. She says […]
View More
The 9 Most Essential Toni Morrison Works | Rolling Stone
The celebrated author and Nobel Prize winner died this week at the age of 88
View More
Herbie Hancock Is Still Breaking Rules | The New York Times
The 79-year-old pianist and composer talks about admiring Kendrick Lamar, making a new album, and calling jazz an international — not just an American — music.
View More
The Man They Called ‘Trane’, Remembering A Jazz Giant | uDiscoverMusic
Richard Havers, uDiscoverMusic [dropcap]John[/dropcap] Coltrane died on 17 July 1967 having given more to jazz in his 40 years than many who live a much longer life. His music has been an inspiration to many rock musicians as well as younger jazz musicians and his album, A Love Supreme, is one of the acknowledged masterpieces […]
View More
You must be logged in to post a comment.