Lists are fun!
GIVE US AN EXAMPLE OR TWO OF AN ESPECIALLY GOOD OR INTERESTING:
1. Movie score. Eyes Wide Shut; Doctor Zhivago
2. TV theme. House (“Teardrop” by Massive Attack)
3. Melody. John Coltrane, “Naima”; Bill Evans, “Nardis”
4. Harmonic language. Thelonious Monk, “Round Midnight”; Rudresh Mahanthappa, “Playing with Stones” from “Apex”
5. Rhythmic feel. Andrew Hill, “Smoke Stack”; Ahmad Jamal, “But Not for Me” from “Live at the Pershing”
6. Hip-hop track. Das Racist, “Commercial”; Anti-Pop Consortium, “Monstro City”
7. Classical piece. Maurice Ravel, “Gaspard De La Nuit/Le Gibet”; Charles Ives, Piano Sonata No. 2: “Concord, Mass., 1840-60”
8. Smash hit. Cee Lo Green, “Fuck You”
9. Studio jazz album. Henry Threadgill’s Zooid, “This Brings Us To…, Vol. 1”; Miles Davis, “Bitches Brew”; Ellington/Mingus/Roach, “Money Jungle”
10. Live jazz album. John Coltrane Quartet, “In Europe”; Bill Evans Trio, “Paris Concert”; “Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall”
11. Non-American folkloric group. Burhan Sukarma; Prassana
12. Book on music. “Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich”
13. Music documentary. “Solos: The Jazz Sessions”, “Cecil Taylor: All the Notes”, “Sun Ra: Space is the Place”
BONUS QUESTIONS:
A) Name a surprising album (or albums) you loved when you were developing as a musician, something that really informs your sound but that we would never guess in a million years: Wilco, “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot”
B) Name a practitioner (or a few) who play your instrument that you think is underrated: Craig Taborn (p), Don Pullen (p), Josh Berman (tp), Ralph Alessi (tp)
C) Name a rock or pop album that you wish had been a smash commercial hit (but wasn’t, not really): Amon Tobin, “ISAM”; Koushik, “Out My Window”
D) Name a favorite drummer, and an album to hear why you love that drummer: Marcus Gilmore, Vijay Iyer Trio’s “Accelerando”; Tony Oxley, Cecil Taylor’s “Ailanthus/Altissima”; Rashied Ali, John Coltrane’s “Interstellar Space”; Dafnis Prieto, Henry Threadgill’s “Up Popped the Two Lips”
