Kevin Sun

Every weekday this month I'll be posting new content in observance of  Jazz Appreciation Month (J.A.M.) , so-designated by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History beginning in 2001.  International Jazz Day , so-designated by UNESCO in partnership with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, is on the last day of April, the 30th; it was first celebrated in 2012. Debating the relative merits of designating specific days or months for celebrating heritages, traditions, and the like aside, Jazz Appreciation Month is at the very least an excuse to dig into some material that I've been interested in for a while on the blog.  Friday's installment featured Johnny Griffin stretching out over Monk's "Let's Cool One." Tomorrow's will feature more about Teddy Edwards . †If you enjoy the content on this blog, please consider  supporting my band's homegrown effort to get our record through the final stages of mastering and production . It...

Every weekday this month I'll be posting new content in observance of  Jazz Appreciation Month (J.A.M.) , so-designated by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History beginning in 2001.  International Jazz Day , so-designated by UNESCO in partnership with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, is on the last day of April, the 30th; it was first celebrated in 2012. Debating the relative merits of designating specific days or months for celebrating heritages, traditions, and the like aside, Jazz Appreciation Month is at the very least an excuse to dig into some material that I've been interested in for a while on the blog.  Yesterday's installment featured Joe Henderson playing over the other "Passport." Tomorrow's will feature Johnny Griffin taking care of business with Monk . †If you enjoy the content on this blog, please consider  supporting my band's homegrown effort to get our record through the final stages of mastering and productio...

Every weekday this month I'll be posting new content in observance of  Jazz Appreciation Month (J.A.M.) , so-designated by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History beginning in 2001.  International Jazz Day , so-designated by UNESCO in partnership with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, is on the last day of April, the 30th; it was first celebrated in 2012. Debating the relative merits of designating specific days or months for celebrating heritages, traditions, and the like aside, Jazz Appreciation Month is at the very least an excuse to dig into some material that I've been interested in for a while on the blog.  Yesterday's installment featured Hampton Hawes's solo on "Crazeology" (other solos on the tune by Harold Land and Scott LaFaro ). Tomorrow's features liner notes I wrote on Curtis Nowosad's "Dialectics" release last month and a strange earworm of a phrase, "Neo-Hard Bop." †If you enjoy the cont...

Every weekday this month I'll be posting new content in observance of  Jazz Appreciation Month (J.A.M.) , so-designated by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History beginning in 2001.  International Jazz Day , so-designated by UNESCO in partnership with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, is on the last day of April, the 30th; it was first celebrated in 2012. Debating the relative merits of designating specific days or months for celebrating heritages, traditions, and the like aside, Jazz Appreciation Month is at the very least an excuse to dig into some material that I've been interested in for a while on the blog.  Yesterday's featured Eric Dolphy plumbing the depths of "Take the 'A' Train" on bass clarinet shortly before his tragic death. Tomorrow's will feature the other solo on "Crazeology," played by none other than Hampton Hawes (check out  Scott LaFaro's bass solo, too) . †If you enjoy the content on this...

Every weekday this month I'll be posting new content in observance of  Jazz Appreciation Month (J.A.M.) , so-designated by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History beginning in 2001.  International Jazz Day , so-designated by UNESCO in partnership with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, is on the last day of April, the 30th; it was first celebrated in 2012. Debating the relative merits of designating specific days or months for celebrating heritages, traditions, and the like aside, Jazz Appreciation Month is at the very least an excuse to dig into some material that I've been interested in for a while on the blog.  Yesterday's installment featured Bob Berg's face-melting cadenza on "I Loves You, Porgy" at the '95 Monterey Jazz Festival. Tomorrow's will feature Vijay Iyer playing over his composition "Actions Speak" from 2012's Accelerando ; he performs in Cambridge, Mass. at the Regatta Bar tomorrow night and Satur...

For my final project in the Bud/Bird class I took this semester, I decided to transcribe Bud's  astonishing chorus on 'Round Midnight from One Night in Birdland  (1950).  Ethan Iverson has already extensively discussed performances from this recording and Bud in general in his Bud Powell Anthology . As he asserts with italics : The piano chorus on "'Round Midnight" is the best  this song has ever been played except by the composer. A pretty weighty pronouncement, but I'd like to hear any contentions if the well-listened readers have them. Also, one caveat: consider the end-of-semester context of this assignment and forgive me for hasty mistakes etc . here. I've appended an "analysis" at the end of the transcription, but a lot of this was written last minute; the real stuff, as always, is on the record. C Bb Eb "Analysis" * * * * * “‘Round Midnight,” recorded live at Birdland, NYC, May 15-16-17 t...