News & Updates — avant-garde

Long a cult figure, the legend and appreciation of Arthur Russell only increases with time as more of his music gets issued and reissued and re-examined. His ability to cross from disco to minimalism to orchestral to hiphop to singer/songwriter material of unique personality is testament to his creativity. A lot of his worked was unfinished at the time of his passing but clearly brilliant and much of it sees release in a seemingly never-ending stream of fascinating documents. From Iowa, he was a hick with serious artistic aspirations, taking up piano and cello at an early age. He studied...

Great Texan saxophonist Dewey Redman is best known for his work with Ornette Coleman, the great "Birth" band (as I call it, after one of their great records) with Keith Jarrett, Old & New Dreams and his own fine output on Impulse!, Freedom, Actuel, ECM, Black Saint and others. He was self-taught and didn't lead a band until he was in his 30s. He was the nephew of famed pioneering swing jazz hornsmen/arranger Don Redman (known for his work with Fletcher Henderson and others). Dewey started as a kid on clarinet, playing in a church band, before picking up the...

"The Legendary Hasaan" Ibn Ali may be an obscure name in jazz but his notoriety in his local Philadelphia scene is not lost on the musicians of the time and place, not the least of which would be the Philly-reared saxophonists John Coltrane and Odean Pope, as well as fellow pianist McCoy Tyner. Max Roach, Clifford Brown, Henry Grimes, Miles Davis, JJ Johnson, Benny Golson have all played with him and Coltrane counted him as a big influence. To those that have heard him, his quick and unconventional rhythmic style and sense of harmony put him in a category with...

The English electronic music composer Delia Derbyshire may be best known for her eerie Doctor Who theme song but she held a creative chair at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop for over ten years, contributing to hundreds of productions. From Coventry, she played piano and violin as a child and expressed interest in mathematics and sound. After flat rejections from record companies that refused to hire a woman for the studio (ahem, Decca), she found some work with Luciano Berio in '62, as well as joining the BBC that year. There she and her colleagues composed for various science & learning...

The Canadian electronic music pioneer and instrument-builder/inventor Bruce Haack has a birthday today. An inspired creative person, the man participated in a wide array of projects. Early on he played jazz & Ukrainian folk music, participated in authentic pow-wows, hosted a radio show and got into tape & electro-acoustic music in the '50s. He also worked as a pop songwriter for the Dot & Coral labels, as well as composed for dance & theater. He built several musical toys including synths, samplers, a vocoder and music-playing robots that could perform in concert. He made several high-concept children's records, recorded electronic...