My review of Nicholas Payton, Bob Belden, Sam Yehel, John Hart, Billy Drummond: Mysterious Shorter: Music of Wayne Shorter is now up at Face the Music blog.
Ohhhhh, my aching head. Back from a wedding and then right into CMJ (a sort of New York version of Austin's SXSW), which strangely enough actually had music worth seeing and some very cool panels for the first time in many many years. The Thrill Jockey Showcase that I saw, which showcased all the noiserock that Shytown is famous for, was excellent. Also attended a party at the Slipper Room on the Lower East Side for Fuzz Music, a new music company whose backing comes from one of the Google millionaires. They're looking for things to sign but have no real idea, it seems, as to what directin they want to go. A new music company in 2006. God bless they're Googly millions.
Stephen Walsh's new biography of Stravinsky sounds as though it proves that, at least when it comes to hagiography, sometimes art is better without Craft (ahem!).
If you've flown anywhere in the last decade or so, you've seen SkyMall, that compendium of useless, hopelessly geeky, and just downright strange products. Pretty hard to parody something like that, eh?
Fred Kaplan's piece on Ornette Coleman in Slate isn't simply a brilliant piece of work, it uses embedded links to their greatest advantage. This ain't easy, although Fred's graceful prose and mastery of his subject sure make it go down smooth.