“Music is a noble profession.”
Date: June 28, 2017
Venue: Brooklyn Music School (Brooklyn, New York)
Review by Dawoud Kringle
Arturo O’Farrill Brings A Humble Nobility To MFM’s Talk Series
The Need for a Revision of the Concept of Musical Professionalism
Text by Dawoud Kringle
Several weeks before this writing, guitar master Bern Nix passed away. He was an elder master with astonishing musical abilities, and an impressive resume behind him. Yet he was in poverty, living in dire straits for years. His is an old story that seems to keep repeating itself.
This myth of the inevitability of the “starving artist” is self perpetuating. It seems that people on all sides of the equation have it so ingrained into their subconscious that it’s almost expected that musicians be impoverished, ignored, and mistreated.
Geri Allen: MFM Salutes The Maestra’s Memory and Legacy
Text by Dawoud Kringle
On Tuesday, June 27th, 2017, pianist, composer, and music educator Geri Allen died. The cause of death was reported to be cancer. She was 60 years old.
Her work has earned her a reputation as one of the world’s finest jazz pianists.
Geri Antoinette Allen was born on June 12, 1957 in Pontiac, Michigan, and raised in Detroit. She began studying the piano at age seven and went on to graduate from Cass Technical High School, (the alma mater of Paul Chambers, Wardell Gray, Gerald Wilson and Donald Byrd).
Review: MFM Presents “Make Music Your Business” Nr. 3 MFM Talk Series w. Mario Guarneri
From San Francisco Mario Guarneri in Conversation with MFM’s Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi
Date: May 25, 2017
Venue: WeWork Bryant Park (NY)
Review by Dawoud Kringle
Another Great Musician Left Us: Southern Rock’s Gregg Allman
Text By Dawoud Kringle
Getty Images
Despite his personal dislike of the term “Southern Rock,” Gregg Allman built a successful career and left behind an impressive body of work that not only defined the genre, but transcended it.
