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.  Here's the first installment: Henry Threadgill playing "Weeping Willow Rag" with Air, 1979. Tomorrow's will feature Billy Hart's favorite John Coltrane bootleg . † 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 produ...

A lot of "brilliant" in one place This past weekend, an exciting two-part series took place in New York that I unfortunately missed out on (mostly): Very Very Threadgill , a celebration of the work of Henry Threadgill curated by Jason Moran. Fortunately, I was able to hear the master himself talk about some of his work in conversation with Moran and Brent Edwards, a scholar at Columbia University currently working with Threadgill on a forthcoming memoir. Some hastily jotted notes: The Introduction of the Tuba When asked about his use of the tuba in Sextett, Threadgill averred that he'd already been thinking about and working with the tuba for some time. He mentioned the significance of X75, one of Threadgill's working band that existed in Chicago in between the more famous Air and Sextett bands, which featured six bassists, four reeds, and occasionally a vocalist or percussionist. During that time, he thought a great deal about the difference between bass an...