Steve Elman
2022 was a year in which hybrid musical forms reached more Boston audiences than ever before. 2023 promises to open even more doors. The Place Between is no longer dangerous territory, a detour, or a side road. It has become a destination in itself.
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Over the past year, I’ve delved into the most significant body of work for string quartet ever written by a composer whose primary identity with the public is as a jazz musician. Here’s how to begin your own encounter with important facets of the work of an artist whose name you ought to know.
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Get out there and hear some live music. It’s the best gift you can give to your ears.
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The pandemic clouds over the Boston / Cambridge jazz scene are breaking up – not completely by any means – but at last you have a broad menu of live music here to pull you away from your TV bingeing.
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If you don’t know those 1969 originals, get them and listen to them. And if you know the recordings well, listen to them again. No matter how familiar this 50-year-old music is to you, you’ll be struck by its timelessness.
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The shadow of Weather Report looms over this groove session of consonant harmonies, the only documentation of a short-lived band that should have had the chance to burn more brightly.
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If you are not familiar with Wadada Leo Smith as an artist or as a thinker, you could start with The Chicago Symphonies and know that you are engaging with some of his finest work.
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Jane Ira Bloom responded to her pandemic isolation with a CD of duets with bassist Mark Helias and a CD of duets with drummer Allison Miller. These two sessions are unique projects in her discography and beautiful testaments to her ingenuity.
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I spoke with Jane Ira Bloom on September 21, 2021 via Zoom. This transcript has been edited for space and ellipses have been omitted for readability. Some paraphrases and details are added for clarity.
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Music Perspective: The Context of Wadada Leo Smith’s 12 String Quartets
Wadada Leo Smith is among the most prolific composers of string quartets in the modern era, the only Black composer to have written so many, and one of the most adventurous writers of quartets in terms of his notation system and the distinctiveness of his musical language.
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