Category Archives: Jazz

The Impossibly Cool Album Covers of Blue Note Records: Meet the Creative Team Behind These Iconic Designs

Posted on May 22, 2020 by

“If you stepped into a record store in the 1950s and 60s, you would likely be drawn almost immediately to a Blue Note release—whether or not you were a fan of jazz or had heard of the artist or even … Continue reading →

Posted in Jazz, Music | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Invention of Mid-Century Cool

Posted on February 13, 2020 by

“Between 1951, when Barney Rosset purchased it for $3000, and 1970, Grove Press became a veritable communications center for the counterculture, defined in many ways by the visual sensibility of legendary cover designer Roy Kuhlman. Rosset shared Kuhlman’s aesthetic taste—which … Continue reading →

Posted in Alan Watts, Black Power, Books, Burroughs, Jazz, LA Boom, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Avant-garde jazz

Posted on January 19, 2020 by

Robert Palmer – Jan. 31, 1986: “They said avant-garde jazz, or ‘free form’ or ‘the new music,’ wouldn’t last -‘they’ always do. But the avant-garde jazz of the 1960’s, that initially chaotic-sounding assault on traditional notions of harmony, rhythm and … Continue reading →

Posted in Jazz | Tagged | Leave a comment

Mod and Rockers

Posted on January 12, 2020 by

Mod teenagers in 1965 “Mod is a subculture that began in London and spread throughout Great Britain and elsewhere, eventually influencing fashions and trends in other countries, and continues today on a smaller scale. Focused on music and fashion, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Jazz, Music | Tagged , | Leave a comment

What A Long Strange Trip It’s Been (February 26, 1976)

Posted on December 18, 2019 by

“The San Francisco scene started at the Red Dog Saloon, as much as you can say it started at any one place. Most of the elements were there: rock & roll, a sort of light show, the first psychedelic dance … Continue reading →

Posted in Alan Watts, Allen Ginsberg, Bill Graham, Counterculture, Environmental, Grateful Dead, Haight-Ashbury, Happenings, Hippie, Hunter S. Thompson, Jazz, Ken Kesey, LSD, Marijuana, Merry Pranksters, Music, Religion, Street theater | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Black Arts Movement

Posted on December 13, 2019 by

Amiri Baraka (center) and Yusef Iman (second from left) with musicians and actors of the black arts movement, Spirit House, Newark, New Jersey, 1966 “The Black Arts Movement (or BAM) was an African American-led art movement, active during the 1960s … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Power, Books, Civil Rights Mov., Dick Gregory, Eldridge Cleaver, Huey P. Newton, James Baldwin, Jazz, Malcolm X, MLKJr., Music, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ska

Posted on November 9, 2019 by

“Ska (/skɑː/; Jamaican: [skjæ]) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is … Continue reading →

Posted in Jazz, Music | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Fillmore

Posted on September 17, 2019 by

“The Fillmore is a historic music venue in San Francisco, California. Built in 1912 and originally named the Majestic Hall, it became the Fillmore Auditorium in 1954. It is in Western Addition, on the edge of the Fillmore District and … Continue reading →

Posted in Bill Graham, Grateful Dead, Jazz, Movie, Music, Poetry, Street theater | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Horace Silver – Song For My Father (1964)

Posted on September 8, 2019 by

“One of Blue Note’s greatest mainstream hard bop dates, Song for My Father is Horace Silver‘s signature LP and the peak of a discography already studded with classics. Silver was always a master at balancing jumping rhythms with complex harmonies … Continue reading →

Posted in Jazz | Tagged | Leave a comment

At ‘Black Woodstock,’ an All-Star Lineup Delivered Joy and Renewal to 300,000

Posted on August 19, 2019 by

A rain shower didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the crowds at what is now Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem. July 13, 1969. “Woodstock was big and messy, thrilling and stirring — and summed up finally by Jimi Hendrix, whose festival-closing … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Power, Harlem, Jazz, Jesse Jackson, Music | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment