News & Updates — Jerry Garcia

I must give respect to that counter-cultural icon of The Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia, on his day of birth. I was never a big fan of the Dead, although they certainly have their fine moments and I have a lot of respect for what they built and accomplished. But one of the best aspects of the band had always been Jerry's presence and his beautiful psychedelic guitar style. He could play also pedal steel and banjo, had a distinct singing voice, and his love for music allowed him to dip into many different styles, from folk-rock to garage punk, free...

Happy birthday to the harmolodic genius Ornette Coleman! His saxophone crying and unique compositional style were as groundbreaking on the avant-garde jazz front as John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor & Sunny Murray, Sun Ra and Albert Ayler were in that new freedom era that started in the late '50s and caused an avalanche of free-jazz in the '60s. In fact, it was Coleman's "double-quartet" album, Free Jazz -from '60, which gave name to a whole genre to follow. The musical revolutionary grew up poor in Fort Worth TX and learned to sight-read and started teaching himself alto sax at 14, right...