Soul Note News Today

The Brooklyn Rail is a journal committed to providing an independent forum for visual arts, culture, and politics throughout New York City and beyond.

In December 1989, I went to Town Hall for the ten-year reunion concert of Cecil Taylor and Max Roach, revisiting and renewing their historic live performance at Columbia University. That first concert was released as Historic Concerts in 1984 on the Soul Note label. The concert is one of those musical experiences permanently embedded in my memory, the shape and feeling of literally ducking down behind the seat in front of me because the torrent of onrushing ideas was overwhelming and seemed a li...

Jazz Corner of the World Encore Mondays from 6:00pm to 10:00pm Grant Green On Blue Note Host Craig Kessler gives us a listen to Grant Green on Blue Note Records. We’ll hear some sweet stuff from this all-time guitar great’s 1960s work, both as a leader and as a sideman. Tune in for absolute classic … Continue reading

Aside from being a great improvisational drummer, Paul Motian is perhaps best known for his composing. Motian was the ideal artist for the dream-like ethereal sounds often captured by the ECM label on which this tribute Once Around the Room appears. His melodies seem to drift like shrouds of mist above a foundation, sometimes shifting but more often sturdy. It’s the kind of music that places a premium on listening and group interplay rather than a series of solos.