[VIDEO] All About The Mahavishnu Orchestra with author Walter Kolosky
Posted: November 27, 2017 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: 1970s, Billy Cobbham, Fusion, Jan Hammer, Jazz, Jerry Goodman, John McLaughlin, Miles Davis, Rick Laird, Rock, video, Walter Kolosky Leave a commentMeet Walter Kolosky, author of “The Mahavishnu Orchestra Picture Book.” Walter has written three books about the Mahavishnu Orchestra and we’ discuss the history of John McLaughlin’s group.
To buy the iBook go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/maha…
To buy the Kindle Book go to https://www.amazon.com/Mahavishnu-Orc…
[VIDEO] Frank Zappa LIVE: ‘Whippin’ Post’
Posted: February 2, 2017 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Mediasphere | Tags: 1980s, Frank Zappa, Jazz, Live Music, Live Performance, Music, Rock, video, Whippin' Post 1 Comment
[VIDEO] Conversations with John McLaughlin
Posted: February 1, 2017 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Mediasphere | Tags: Berklee College of Music, Dr. David Schroeder, guitar, Guitarist, Hunter College High School, Jazz, Jazz Rock Fusion, John Coltrane, John McLaughlin, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Miles Davis, New York City, NYU, NYU Steinhardt Jazz Interview Series, Philip Glass, PopMatters Leave a comment
NYU Steinhardt Jazz Interview Series with Dr. David Schroeder interviews legendary guitarist, composer and bandleader John McLaughlin. December 5, 2016
[VIDEO] Week 8: Chick Corea & John McLaughlin Duet; RTF Meets Mahavishnu
Posted: January 21, 2017 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: Chick Corea, Fusion, Jazz, John McLaughlin, Lenny White, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Music, New York, New York City, Return to Forever, RTF, The Blue Note, video Leave a comment
The Greatest Jazz Birthday Party Ever. Chick Corea @ 75, Blue Note Jazz Club, NYC
[VIDEO] John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, Lenny White, Victor Wooten, at the Blue Note: ‘Miles Beyond’, December 19, 2016
Posted: January 5, 2017 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Mediasphere | Tags: Blue Note, Chick Corea, Fusion, Jazz, John McLaughlin, Lenny White, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Music, NYC, Return to Forever, Victor Wooten, video Leave a comment
[VIDEO] ‘You Know, You Know’, John McLaughlin & Chick Corea at the Blue Note in NYC, December 8, 2016
Posted: January 4, 2017 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Mediasphere | Tags: Blue Note, Jazz, Jazz fusion, John McLaughlin, Lenny White, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Miles Davis, Music, NYC, Return to Forever, Victor Wooten, You Know You Know Leave a comment
[VIDEO] John McLaughlin and the Free Spirits LIVE at the Umbria Jazz Pageant, 1995
Posted: December 18, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: Dennis Chambers, Jazz, Jazz fusion, Joey Defrancesco, John McLaughlin, Live Performance, Music, The Free Spirits, Umbria Jazz Pageant, video Leave a comment
[VIDEO] John McLaughlin, Joey DeFrancesco, Dennis Chambers Live in Madrid 1993
Posted: December 17, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: Dennis Chambers, Fusion, guitar, Jazz, Joey Defrancesco, John McLaughlin, Live Perfromance, Madrid Spain, Rock, The Free Spirits Leave a comment
[PHOTOS] Jazz Portraits by Herman Leonard at National Portrait Gallery, London
Posted: December 3, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: Buddy Rich, Frank Sinatra, Jazz, Lester Young, Louis Armstrong, Music, Photography, Sarah Vaughan, Thelonious Monk Leave a comment[VIDEO] John McLaughlin & the Fourth Dimension LIVE: With Mark Mondesir, Gary Husband, Etienne Mbappe
Posted: November 29, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Mediasphere | Tags: Etienne Mbappe, Gary Husband, Jazz, John McLaughlin, John McLaughlin and The 4th Dimension, Mark Mondesir, Music, Performance Leave a comment

©Andrei Jipa
www.andreijipa.com
Miles Davis: Photo by David Redfern
Posted: November 26, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: Jazz, Miles Davis, Music, Photography Leave a commentSource: Jazzyzin
[VIDEO] John Mclaughlin with Jonas Hellborg & Billy Cobham
Posted: November 2, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, France, Mediasphere | Tags: Billy Cobham, guitar, Indo-Jazz, Jazz, John McLaughlin, Jonas Hellborg Leave a comment
On French TV, January 1984
[VIDEO] John McLaughlin & Chick Corea – White House Hosts International Jazz Day Concert 2016-04-30
Posted: October 7, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Mediasphere, White House | Tags: Chick Corea, International Jazz Day, Jazz, John McLaughlin Leave a comment
[VIDEO] Jeff Beck and Tal Wilkenfeld: ‘Women of Ireland’
Posted: September 16, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Mediasphere | Tags: Bass Guitar, Bass Player, Bassist, Fusion, Jazz, Jeff Beck, Music video, pop music, Rock, Tal Wilkenfeld, video Leave a comment
Copenhagen Jazz Festival 2013 by Søren Behncke
Posted: August 14, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: Bill Evans, design, graphics, Illustration, Jazz, Music, typography Leave a comment[VIDEO] ‘Deacon Blues’ Deconstructed: How Steely Dan Composes A Song
Posted: April 25, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Global | Tags: Composing, Crimson Tide, Deacon Blues, Donald Fagan, Jazz, Loser, Music, Pop, pop music, Saxaphone, Steely Dan, Suburbs, video, Walter Becker Leave a comment
[VIDEO] MILES AHEAD (2016) – HD Preview
Posted: April 2, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Mediasphere | Tags: Chet Baker, Cinema, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, Ewan McGregor, Films, Jazz, Miles Ahead, Miles Davis, Movies, Robert Budreau, Rolling Stone, video Leave a comment
MILES AHEAD is a wildly entertaining and moving exploration of one of 20th century music’s creative geniuses, Miles Davis, featuring a career defining performance by Oscar nominee Don Cheadle in the title role. Working from a script he co-wrote with Steven Baigelman, Cheadle’s bravura directorial debut is not a conventional bio-pic but rather a unique, no-holds barred portrait of a singular artist in crisis.
[Official Miles Ahead Soundtrack: iTunes –Amazon]
In the midst of a dazzling and prolific career at the forefront of modern jazz innovation, Miles Davis (Cheadle) virtually disappears from public view for a period of five years in the late 1970s. Alone and holed up in his home, he is beset by chronic pain from a deteriorating hip, his musical voice stifled and numbed by drugs and pain medications, his mind haunted by unsettling ghosts from the past.
[VIDEO] Miles Davis and Cicely Tyson Celebrate Davis’ 60th Birthday, 1986
Posted: February 13, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: Cicely Tyson, Jazz, Miles Davis, Photography Leave a commentJazz musician Miles Davis affectionately wraps his arm around Cicely Tyson as they celebrate Davis’s 60th birthday. (Isaac Sutton/ EBONY Collection)
Poster: ‘Jazz West Coast’
Posted: January 29, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: 1950s, design, Illustration, Jazz, Music, Pacific Jazz Records, Photography, Poster Art, typography Leave a comment[VIDEO] Tal Wilkenfeld: Live at Namm Show, 2016
Posted: January 24, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Mediasphere | Tags: Bass Guitar, Funk, Fusion, guitar, Jazz, Live Performance, Music, Pop, Tal Wolkenfeld, video Leave a comment
Live at Namm show 2016 (may be incomplete)
[PHOTOS] Dizzy Gillespie, July 1963 at Fort Belvedere
Posted: January 9, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, History | Tags: 1960s, Dizzy Gillespie, Fort Belvedere, Jazz, Photography Leave a comment
[PHOTO] Sinatra with a Donut
Posted: December 31, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: Frank Sinatra, Jazz, Movies, Music, Photography, Show Business Leave a commentAndy Warhol: Jazz Album Covers 1952-58
Posted: December 18, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: 1950s, Andy Warhol, Cool, design, fashion, Illustration, Jazz, Music, Style, typography Leave a comment[PHOTO] Miles Davis
Posted: December 16, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: Be Bop, Birth of the Cool, Brooks Brothers, Cool, fashion, Jazz, Miles Davis, Photography, Style 1 CommentMiles Davis was the best-dressed man of the 20th century. Starting out, he’d customise his pawnshop Brooks Brothers suits, cutting notches in the lapels in imitation of the Duke of Windsor. After 1949’s Birth of the Cool, he favoured the Ivy League look of European tailoring. In the 60s he went for slim-cut Italian suits and handmade doeskin loafers. He was always the coolest-looking man in the room. Hell, he even managed to look cool sporting a blood-splattered white khaki jacket following a scuffle with police outside Birdland. In the 70s his wardrobe went as far-gone funky as his music and he was the only man who could get away with wearing purple bell bottoms, kipper ties and hexagonal glasses.
[PHOTO] Dizzy for President
Posted: December 14, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, White House | Tags: Dizzy Gillespie, Jazz, Music, Photography, President of the United States Leave a comment[VIDEO] Vinnie Colaiuta & Tal Wilkenfeld LIVE: ‘Pound for a Brown’, Zappa Plays Zappa, Saban Theater, Dec 11, 2015
Posted: December 12, 2015 Filed under: Entertainment, Mediasphere | Tags: Bass Guitar, Frank Zappa, Funk, Jazz, Jazz fusion, Rock, Saba Theater, Tal Wilkenfeld, Vinnie Colaiuta, Zappa Leave a comment
Frank Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim, 1967
Posted: December 12, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: Antônio Carlos Jobim, Frank Sinatra, Jazz, Photography, pop music Leave a commentFrank Sinatra – born December 12, 1915 – and Antonio Carlos Jobim, 1967
[VIDEO] Funky Duet: Tal Wilkenfeld & Jeff Beck, ‘Because We’ve Ended as Lovers’
Posted: December 11, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Mediasphere | Tags: Bass Guitar, Bass Player (magazine), Because We've Ended as Friends, Duet, Electric guitar, Fretboard, Funk, Jazz, Jazz fusion, Jeff Beck, Live Performance, Rock, Soul, Tal Wilkenfeld Leave a comment
Legendary guitarist Jeff Beck and killer bassist Tal Wilkenfeld have performed this stunt (and variations on this stunt) many times on many tours, over the last few years, this is a good example. Regular readers may notice, we’ve posted Jeff/Tal duets before. (what concert is this, what city? The YouTube notes don’t say) This is not just a novelty, musically it’s fantastic. Jeff Beck is holding down the beat, on a single bass string, on the low end, with Wilkenfeld soloing on the high end, on the same fretboard. Is this complicated? Not really. But it’s musically better than it should be, if you listen closely, the stunt disappears.
Bonus: notice the time signature shift near the end, where Tal departs, Jeff maintaining the original time signature, without interrupting the momentum, still holding the groove. This pairing has been among the most most exciting in jazz fusion in the last ten years, thrilling jaded audiences, boosting the careers of each artist, and bringing some much-needed vitality and sexy fun to an increasingly obscure art form.
[VIDEO] Tal Wilkenfeld with Jackson Browne ‘Doctor My Eyes’
Posted: December 9, 2015 Filed under: Entertainment, Mediasphere | Tags: Australia, Bass Guitar, Bass Player, Jackson Browne, Jazz, Live Performance, Music, Rock & Roll, Tal Wilkenfeld Leave a comment
Thanksgiving Jazz at Carnegie Hall, November 29th 1957
Posted: November 27, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: Billie Holiday, Carnegie Hall, Chet Baker, Dizzy Gillespie, Jazz, John Coltrane, Music, Poster Art, Ray Charles, Sonny Rollins, Thanksgiving, Thelonious Monk Leave a comment[VIDEO] Bass Guitarist Tal Wilkenfeld & Her Japanese Translator タル・ウィルケンフェルドと日本語通訳
Posted: November 24, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Japan, Mediasphere | Tags: Bass Guitar, Funk, Guitarist, Jazz, Jazz fusion, Music, Osaka, pop music, Talk Wilkenfeld, Tokyo, Translation Leave a comment
Tal recruits a random Japanese man at a coffee shop to translate a message to her Japanese fans. Things just didn’t go as well as she had hoped…期待に胸を膨らます、日本のファンの皆に、来日ツアーのメッセージを伝えるべく、そう思い立ったTalは、コーヒーショップにいた適当な日本人らしき男を強引に通訳に仕立ててみた。だが、、、やはり適当な日本人らしき男は、適当で使い物にならない通訳でしかなかった。
[VIDEO] Sonny Rollins Remembers Ben Webster, Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins
Posted: November 21, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Mediasphere | Tags: Andy Kirk (musician), Ben Webster, Billie Holiday, Coleman Hawkins, Duke Ellington, Jazz, John Coltrane, Lester Young, Music, Sonny Rollins, The Girl on the Train, video Leave a commentRaw Video from a 2008 Interview Bret Primack did with Sonny Rollins where he discusses Ben Webster, Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins.
[PHOTO] Miles Davis by Guy Le Querrec
Posted: November 5, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: Guy Le Querrec, Jazz, Miles Davis, Music, Photography Leave a commentQuestion: Who Digs Bill Evans?
Posted: October 22, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: Album, Bill Evans, Jazz, Music, Photography, Piano Leave a comment[VIDEO] Jeff Beck and John McLaughlin: ‘Django,’ Royal Festival Hall, London, 2002
Posted: October 8, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Mediasphere | Tags: guitar, Jazz, Jeff Beck, John McLaughlin, London, media, Music, Royal Festival Hall, video Leave a comment
[PHOTO] Quincy Jones
Posted: September 27, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: Jazz, Music, Photography, pop music, Quincy Jones, Recording, vintage Leave a comment[PHOTO] Ron Carter
Posted: September 27, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: Bass Guitar, Bassist, Jazz, Music, Photography, Ron Carter, Standup Bass, vintage Leave a commentHow Steely Dan Created ‘Deacon Blues’
Posted: September 14, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Mediasphere | Tags: 1970s, 49er (dinghy), Adage Capital Management, Arizona Cardinals, Blue Note, Blues, Deacon Blues, Deacon Jones, Detroit, Detroit Lions, Donald Fagen, Jazz, Larry Carlton, Music, Pete Christlieb, Rock, Rudy Van Gelder, San Diego Chargers, Songwriter, Songwriting, Tom Scott Leave a commentMarc Myers writes: As midlife-crisis songs go, Steely Dan’s “Deacon Blues” ranks among the most melodic and existential. Recorded for the album “Aja” in 1977, the song details the bored existence of a ground-down suburbanite and his romantic fantasy of life as a jazz saxophonist.
Written by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen in 1976, “Deacon Blues” was released in 1977 on Steely Dan’s album “Aja,” which in the fall reached No. 3 on Billboard’s album chart, where it remained for seven consecutive weeks. The song also was a hit single in early 1978.
With Steely Dan appearing in New York at the Beacon Theatre from Oct. 6-17, Mr. Fagen, Mr. Becker, guitarist Larry Carlton and saxophonists Tom Scott and Pete Christlieb recalled the writing, arranging and recording of the cult classic. Edited from interviews:
Donald Fagen: Walter and I wrote “Deacon Blues” in Malibu, Calif., when we lived out there. Walter would come over to my place and we’d sit at the piano. I had an idea for a chorus: If a college football team like the University of Alabama could have a grandiose name like the “Crimson Tide,” the nerds and losers should be entitled to a grandiose name as well.
Walter Becker: Donald had a house that sat on top of a sand dune with a small room with a piano. From the window, you could see the Pacific in between the other houses. “Crimson Tide” didn’t mean anything to us except the exaggerated grandiosity that’s bestowed on winners. “Deacon Blues” was the equivalent for the loser in our song.
Mr. Fagen: When Walter came over, we started on the music, then started filling in more lyrics to fit the story. At that time, there had been a lineman with the Los Angeles Rams and the San Diego Chargers, Deacon Jones. We weren’t serious football fans, but Deacon Jones’s name was in the news a lot in the 1960s and early ‘70s, and we liked how it sounded. It also had two syllables, which was convenient, like “Crimson.” The name had nothing to do with Wake Forest’s Demon Deacons or any other team with a losing record. The only Deacon I was familiar with in football at the time was Deacon Jones.
Mr. Becker: Unlike a lot of other pop songwriting teams, we worked on both the music and lyrics together. It’s not words and music separately, but a single flow of thought. There’s a lot of riffing back and forth, trying to top each other until we’re both happy with the result. We’ve always had a similar conception and sense of humor.
[Read the full story here, at WSJ]
Mr. Fagen: Also, Walter and I both have jazz backgrounds, so our models are different than many pop songwriters. With “Deacon Blues,” as with many of our other songs, we conceived of the tune as more of a big-band arrangement, with different instrumental sections contributing a specific sound at different points. We developed “Deacon Blues” in layers: first came the rhythm tracks, then vocals and finally horns.

Many people have assumed the song is about a guy in the suburbs who ditches his life to become a musician. In truth, I’m not sure the guy actually achieves his dream. He might not even play the horn. It’s the fantasy life of a suburban guy from a certain subculture. Many of our songs are journalistic. But this one was more autobiographical, about our own dreams when we were growing up in different suburban communities—me in New Jersey and Walter in Westchester County.
Mr. Becker: The protagonist in “Deacon Blues” is a triple-L loser—an L-L-L Loser. It’s not so much about a guy who achieves his dream but about a broken dream of a broken man living a broken life.
Mr. Fagen: The concept of the “expanding man” that opens the song [“This is the day of the expanding man / That shape is my shade there where I used to stand”] may have been inspired by Alfred Bester’s “The Demolished Man.” Walter and I were major sci-fi fans. The guy in the song imagines himself ascending the levels of evolution, “expanding” his mind, his spiritual possibilities and his options in life.
Mr. Becker: His personal history didn’t look like much so we allowed him to explode and provided him with a map for some kind of future.
Mr. Fagen: Say a guy is living at home at his parents’ house in suburbia. One day, when he’s 31, he wakes up and decides he wants to change the way he struts his stuff.
[Read the full story here, at WSJ]
Mr. Becker: Or he’s making a skylight for his room above the garage and when the hole is open he feels the vibes coming in and has an epiphany. Or he’s playing chess games against himself by making moves out of a book and cheating.
A mystical thing takes place and he’s suddenly aware of his surroundings and life, and starts thinking about his options. The “fine line” we use in the song [“So useless to ask me why / Throw a kiss and say goodbye / I’ll make it this time / I’m ready to cross that fine line”] is the dividing line between being a loser and winner, at least according to his own code. He’s obviously tried to cross it before, without success. Read the rest of this entry »
[PHOTO] Django Reinhardt in a Hotel Room in 1945 With Gypsy Singer Sonia Dimitrivich
Posted: September 12, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, History | Tags: 1940s, Adolf Hitler, Albert Speer, Arc de Triomphe, Associated Press, Champs-Élysées, Django Reinhardt, Eiffel Tower, Germany, Gypsy, Jazz, Music, Nazi Occupation, Paris, Pete Conrad, Sacré-Cœur, Sonia Dimitrivich Leave a commentDjango Reinhardt in a hotel room in 1945 with gypsy singer Sonia Dimitrivich. Django spent his time during the Nazi Occupation oscillating between a suite on the Champs Elysee and gypsy encampments.