Category Archives: Musicians

KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN: Music Docu Film – “FIRE MUSIC”… A HISTORY OF THE FREE JAZZ REVOLUTION

THE PROJECT

We need you to get involved! FIRE MUSIC, a documentary that tells the criminally ignored true history of the Free Jazz revolution, has been fully researched and has been shooting for over 4 years. Over 300 hours of footage has already been shot.

“Free Jazz is liberation, is the excitement of the new and now,” says Thurston Moore, executive producer of FIRE MUSIC. “It is with respect, passion and knowledge that Tom Surgal captures the significance of it. His work, like its subject, shines for the collective call of beauty and unity.”

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Farewell, Ornette. Meditations on a Giant Who Walked Among Us

Ornette ColemanText by Dawoud Kringle

On the morning of Saturday, June 27th, 2015, I attended jazz legend Ornette Coleman‘s funeral.

It somehow seems inappropriate to write a “play by play” about this event. Sure, I could list those who spoke, sharing beautiful and sometime hilarious anecdotes, or described his genius and influence. I could talk about the beautiful music offered by Pharaoh Saunders, Cecil Taylor, Henry Threadgil, Bachir Attar, Geri Allen, Ravi Coltrane, and others. Somehow, that doesn’t quite work in the context of Ornette.

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Interview: Arun Ramamurthy “…When I offered him a baseball ticket in exchange for an interview.”

Interview by Richard Bennett

Arun Ramamurthy

Photo courtesy of Arun Ramamurthy

The excellent violinist Arun Ramamurthy combines Carnatic music with jazz in his eponymously titled  Arun Ramamurthy Trio. He lives in Brooklyn with wife, violinist Trina Basu and their baby son. When I offered him a baseball ticket in exchange for an interview, he quickly agreed. We sat in section 202 in the bleachers at Yankee Stadium on a sunny day. Arun was wearing a Don Mattingly Throwback Jersey. I bought Arun a hot dog and a beer and between innings we talked.

Richard Bennett (RB): In your ideal band, would you rather hire Questlove or Zakir Hussein?

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Kickstarter Campaign: Taikoza’s new exciting CD featuring a 300 lb. and 6 foot taiko drum and 150 lb. drums with bamboo flutes (shakuhachi, fue and nohkan)

TaikozaText by Marco Lienhard/Taikoza

About this project

We are excited at the project of recording a new CD of Taikoza‘s new pieces. We have been performing our new repertoire but we do not have the songs recorded yet. We hope that, with your help, we will be able to finally make this new CD. We have the opportunity to use a 6-foot long Taiko drum but could not find a space to record it. We finally found the Studio in New York that has doors big enough to fit it in.

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