The Jazz Session #48: Marcin Wasilewski

Posted 27 October, 2008 in Jazz, Music, The Jazz Session

Jason Crane interviews Polish pianist and composer Marcin Wasilewski. His new recording, January (ECM, 2008), features his own compositions alongside those of Gary Peacock, Carla Bley, Ennio Moricone and … Prince. Wasilewski’s trio is very much a part of the new European piano trio renaissance, featuring inventive material played democratically.

LISTEN TO THE SHOW

CONTEST! The Marcin Wasilewski Trio starts a U.S. tour on November 1 in Seattle, with stops in San Francisco, LA, Chicago, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Columbus. I’ve got two tickets to Marcin’s show at the Jazz Bakery in LA on Monday, November 3. To win, be the first person to send an e-mail to contest@thejazzsession.com with “Marcin” in the subject line. Listeners who have won in the past 30 days need to sit this one out. Everyone else — good luck!

Calculate your tax savings under Barack Obama’s plan

Posted 27 October, 2008 in Politics & Activism

Thomas Flynn’s Bikeman

Posted 26 October, 2008 in Poetry

People react to tragedy in different ways. For Thomas Flynn, a network news reporter covering the 9/11 tragedy as it happened, the story became more than an object to be studied. It became an all-encompassing, life-or-death struggle through the debris-strewn, dust-blind streets of New York.

Seven years later, Flynn tells his tale through the underused medium of the epic poem.

I picked up this book several weeks ago at The Book House, an independent bookstore (!) here in Albany. Today I went back there to have the book signed by its author during his in-store appearance. It turns out that Tom Flynn was born in Albany and still has many connections here.

His book is worth your time.

The Jazz Session #47: Satoko Fujii

Posted 20 October, 2008 in Japan, Jazz, Music, The Jazz Session

On the new episode of The Jazz Session, I interview pianist and composer Satoko Fujii. Fujii has released four new recordings in 2008, her 50th birthday year. These records find her with her New York trio; on accordion in the avant-folk-jazz group of her husband, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura; in a quartet with some of Japan’s most talented improvising musicians; and in a second trio with both American and Japanese musicians. Far from slowing down in her middle years, Fujii seems to be pushing herself even more relentlessly, searching for new and exciting ways of expressing her musical ideas.

Listen to the show.

A visit to Robert Frost’s Stone House

Posted 19 October, 2008 in Poetry, Travel

I drove to Shaftsbury, VT, today to visit one of the houses in which poet Robert Frost lived. It was in this house — known as the Stone House — that he wrote “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening.” Just as most of the classic Xmas albums were recorded in the summer, this quintessential winter poem was written in July.

POEM: Reggae Shack

Posted 18 October, 2008 in My poems, Poetry

In 1999, Jen and I lived just over the bridge from Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. I played in a dance club on the island, and Jen taught ESL. There was a guy who frequented our club, and who was known to just about everyone who knew the island. He was your typical working-class islander, living the beach life to the best of his ability. He was a big reggae fan, and one morning, in the small hours, we was found dead outside a little reggae hideaway near the beach. This is his poem.