Joe Vanderford

Just on the Saturday side of midnight on the corner of 7th Avenue and 57th Street, I spied saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, the round-faced son of the legendary John Coltrane, excitedly rapping to a friend. A short glance a dozen paces to the east revealed another saxophonist, Lee Konitz, one of the last survivors of Miles […]

I’ve never been a fan of the Eagles’ lame hybrid of wimp-rock and pretend-country. Yet I’ve often admired the poetic zinger slung by former-Eagle Don Henley, the famous one inspired by a fleeting glimpse of a Grateful Dead bumper sticker on an aging Fleetwood. “Don’t look back,” he warned his fellow baby-boomers. “You can never […]

Q: When do they start playing Christmas music at the mall? A: “Oh, the day after Thanksgiving,” you state with certainty.

Since the famous pianist Herbie Hancock rarely visits our li’l Triangle burg, it’s a bona fide lock that his upcoming Nov. 15 show in Durham will be special. The entourage of the eternally youthful 62-year-old king of the keyboard will include a royal band of thirtysomething improvisers, featuring whirlwind drummer Terri Lynne Carrington, big-toned saxophonist […]

Imagine a colorful chronology of jazz piano, starting in 1970 and concluding in the present day. Keith Jarrett marks square one: romantic, flamboyant, self-indulgent. Flash to 2002, where young Brad Mehldau combines experimentation with the genre-defying appeal of a budding pop star. Without apparent compromise, the adventurous Mehldau, just like Keith Jarrett a generation ago, […]

Once upon a time, John Scofield was the Peck’s Bad Boy of jazz, a cat who could rough up a polite bebop session with a smirk and a squealing six-string. His salty guitar-playing, flavored with fatback and steeped in deep blues, spiced up Miles Davis’ rollicking bands of the mid-’80s. Sco–that’s what his friends still […]

If you consider yourself a serious listener with a high-falutin’ notion that jazz is somehow governed by the tenets of good taste, well, sorry ’bout that. You’re wrong: Jazz ain’t nothin’ special. Accept the truth: The success of jazz in the marketplace is ultimately a booty thang. For example, when a jazz singer emerges with […]

Will Christmastime 2001 erase the memory of Sept. 11? Of course not. What the holiday will do, however, is allow America a moment to pause and catch its breath. Our families will gather, talk and touch. We’ll sing the blues, say a prayer and collectively sip from the cup of redemption. Accordingly, I propose a […]