[Cross-posted at Z Word.] Can you imagine a journalist for a liberal newspaper referring in neutral, even vaguely congratulatory terms to an artist's "provocatively anti-gay rhetoric," or "provocatively anti-black rhetoric," or "provocatively anti-Arab rhetoric"? Well, have a look at John Lewis's pr...

Mark Turner is in excellent form, and blessedly soon after his gruesome accident. Tonight (last night) he played Cachaca with monster guitarist Gilad Hekselman (Joe Martin on bass, Marcus Gilmore drums). If anything Mark sounds hungrier and more technically together than I recall. Gilad's tunes were...

The NY Times reports that Caryl Churchill's short play "Seven Jewish Children" might be headed from London to New York, thanks to the New York Theater Workshop — all but assuring a repeat of the "My Name Is Rachel Corrie" controversy. I haven't seen Churchill's play, but apparently Howard Jacobso...

[Cross-posted at Z Word.] I take no pleasure from the fact that right-wing pundits are lashing Helen Thomas over her two-part question to President Obama last night. And yet Thomas deserves to be upbraided. The fact that she's held up by liberals as a paragon of courage is an embarrassment. Drifting...

This review appears in the February 2009 print edition issue of All About Jazz-New York. --- Keith Jarrett/Gary Peacock/Jack DeJohnette, Live In Japan 93/96 (ECM DVD) Bill Carrothers, Home Row (Pirouet) Lowell Davidson, Trio (ESP-Disk) David R. Adler The bass is something like the spinal column of a...

— From the NY Times, it has come to light that the hunted Nazi war criminal Aribert Heim was living under an alias in Cairo until his death in 1992. The piece of scum died slowly and painfully, thank goodness. He was "accused of performing operations on prisoners without anesthesia; removing organ...

We already knew that there's a place of honor in the contemporary Catholic Church for serial child molesters. Now, by reinstating Richard Williamson as a bishop, Pope Benedict XVI has made clear that Holocaust denial is also welcome. According to the NY Times, Williamson just last week "said he did ...

Words fail. Although Barack Obama's words certainly didn't. Congratulations, Mr. President. We fought hard for your victory and we'll fight for your continued success. God bless....

A fitting economic metaphor for our times, from the famous 1963 speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the great moral teacher of the American 20th century. Black Power icons such as Assata Shakur, so hallowed by today's politicized hip-hop artists and others, have worked hard to discredit King's vi...

Glenn Greenwald links, with some caveats, to this piece by Nir Rosen as a "must-read" on the Gaza conflict. "...[Rosen's] generalized explanation about how the concept of 'terrorism' is distorted and exploited by stronger countries can't be emphasized enough." What can't be emphasized enough is that...