Sonny Rollins and Ornette Coleman

A couple of weeks from now, saxophonist Sonny Rollins will release his new album, Road Shows Vol. 2, which includes a widely publicized meeting with Ornette Coleman recorded at Rollins's eightieth birthday concert at The Beacon Theatre last year.  You can preview the entire album on NPR's website here.  And here's the promotional video:

Rollins's and Coleman's twenty-minute rendition of "Sonnymoon for Two" was heralded as the only documented meeting of arguably the two most influential living jazz saxophonists.  It's disappointing.  For the first four minutes or so, Rollins plays a series of short motivic fragments with lots of pregnant pauses, evidently trying to coax some interaction out of drummer Roy Haynes and bassist Christian McBride.  He then announces the un-named guest artist, who doesn't arrive on cue.  So Rollins plays another solo, but it sounds like he's basically killing time with some very simple half-hearted riffs, wondering why Coleman hasn't materialized.

Dexter Gordon

Dexter Gordon in 1973, with Hampton Hawes (piano), Bob Cranshaw (bass), and Kenny Clarke (drums):

Michel De Certeau

Conyers and Copyright...

Congressman John Conyers wants to revise the 1976 copyright act to clarify whether recording artists can reclaim the rights to their songs from record companies.  Conyers's record on intellectual property issues doesn't inspire confidence—he's against open access for scholarship and he sponsored the Performance Rights Act even though small African-American radio stations opposed it because they feared not being able to pay performance royalties to musicians.

In general, Conyers's heart is in the right place.  Motown Records, which started out in Detroit—Conyers's electoral district—depended for its early success on many brilliant musicians who never reaped financial rewards commensurate with their creative contributions.  But unfortunately he seems inclined to solve problems with intellectual property laws by advocating more copyright regulation, which isn't necessarily what's needed these days.

Here's Motown's Marvin Gaye live in concert (with James Jamerson on bass):

Tom Jones

"It's Not Unusual" (1968):

"Kiss" (1989):

Nicole Mitchell

Trio in concert:

Black Earth Ensemble in rehearsal:

Archie Shepp Concert

Archie Shepp performing in France last month.  Perhaps he ought not to have sung (at 15:40)...

Jayne Cortez

A reading by Jayne Cortez:

With her son, Denardo Coleman:

John Currin

Calvin Tomkins's 2008 New Yorker profile is here.  And here is a 2009 interview:

Ring Lardner, Jr.