Ornette Coleman

An appreciation: Phil Ramone's golden ear for the hits

2013-03-31 17:45:00

That Phil Ramone was a musical force in the recording studio is undeniable, and the evidence lies in the range of his accomplishments. For example, within one three-year period in the early 1960s, Ramone mixed Lesley Gore's smash hit "It's My Party,"...

2012 National Recording Registry selections unveiled

2013-03-21 05:00:00

This post has been updated. See note below for details. Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” is no longer just the rock album that has logged more weeks than any other on Billboard’s national album chart nor merely the one acid...

SFJAZZ plays another bold riff

2013-01-05 07:00:00

SAN FRANCISCO — "This is one of my favorite rooms," said SFJAZZ founder and Executive Artistic Director Randall Kline, smiling as he stepped over exposed pipes and dusty planks in the SFJAZZ Center. "Then again, they're all my favorite rooms," he...

Jayne Cortez dies at 78; poet and performance artist

2013-01-11 18:54:00

Before the ashes and the anguish, before the 1965 riots and the spotlight of attention that followed, there was a pocket of people already fighting for Watts. They fought for the arts and for the black community from a building on Grandee Avenue and...

Anna Deavere Smith wins $300,000 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize

2013-01-18 08:15:00

Anna Deavere Smith, famed for creating one-woman, documentary theater pieces about taut social issues in which she portrays multiple people she’s interviewed, has won the $300,000 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, one of the most lucrative awards in...

Fontella Bass: An appreciation

2012-12-28 10:09:00

There are two works that illustrate the range of Fontella Bass' singing power. One is a gut-busting soul cry, “Rescue Me,” a propellant R&B banger from 1965 that became Bass' signature. The other, equally vital, is a nine-minute thrill...

Appreciation: Pianist Dave Brubeck's gift for timing endures

2012-12-05 13:33:00

When thinking about Dave Brubeck, you can't help but also consider time, and not just how much of it fans received from the prolific jazz pianist up to his death Wednesday at age 91. A titan of West Coast jazz, Brubeck was linked with California for...

Album review: Neneh Cherry and the Thing's 'The Cherry Thing'

2012-06-19 04:35:59

Album Review: Charlie Haden and Hank Jones' 'Come Sunday'

2012-01-09 21:36:49

Music review: John Cage in a motel room as part of PST

2012-01-30 21:33:14

Tracing the history of music with Spotify's new Facebook timeline

2012-03-30 16:35:59

Grammys: Jazz nominees mix fresh faces with familiar reliables

2011-11-30 21:33:09

Charlie Haden (right) with Donald Cherry (left), Ed Blackwell and Ornette Coleman on the cover of Coleman's album This is Our Music.

2013-01-29 07:39:00

A bold return by Cherry, this album sets "Buffalo Stance" memories aside with a fiery Scandinavian free-jazz trio. The results whip together the Stooges, Ornette Coleman and MF Doom to discover where punk, funk and jazz collide.

2012-12-14 15:33:00

Of interest and note perhaps only because of the Stones collaboration with the Master Musicians of Jajouka, those Moroccan hash mystics with all the horns and drums that fascinated Brian Jones and William Burroughs and Ornette Coleman (who also recorded a tune with them once).

2012-10-11 00:00:00