Though I knew she had been ill for some time, it was still a shock to hear that Aretha Franklin  (1942-2018) had moved to hospice care...

One of the joys of the internet, and of Twitter --horrible social media platform though it sometimes can be--is the serendipity of coming a...

Another one of the greats, Cecil Taylor , is gone. He passed away on April 5. As longtime J's Theater  readers know, I've posted...

South African trumpeter and musician Hugh Masekela at St. Lucia Jazz festival, May 2012. (Reuters/Andrea De Silva) This past week broug...

The new year brought with it the saddening news that the golden-voiced Natalie Cole (1950-2015) had died of congestive heart failure, at Ce...

(Randolph Denard)  Ornette Coleman (March 9, 1930 - June 11, 2015) succeeded, through his extraordinary musical gifts and linguistic inven...

Cecil Taylor Today is pianist and composer Cecil Taylor 's 86th birthday. One of the true originals of late 20th century American m...

Jayne Cortez (1934-2012), has passed away after a long illness . She was a original among the Black Arts Movement poets, as likely to w...

Cecil Taylor (from All About Jazz) Via his Twitter feed and New Black Man 's blog, a very appropriate tribute for today, Internati...

b. Cleveland Heights, Ohio, July 13, 1936 - d. New York, NY, November 25, 1970 "Love means nothing in tennis, but it's everything...

Are you a music fan? A rich one? Or one blessed with carpentry and masonry skills?  Rich and skilled enough to help restore and preserve a ...

I guess I shouldn't have spoken too soon about burrowing--clawing, carving, wrenching--my way out of the grave, because fresh shovel-ful...

Silence: not the best way to maintain a blog, but wordless, what can I do? Nevertheless, here's a try. On Monday night I headed down to...

A few short hits: I've yet to catch Michael Moore 's extensively heralded and praised new film, Sicko , but since I watch far too m...