News & Features

Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis has been a touchstone in the ‘what is jazz’ debate for more than three decades now. After growing up in a jazz family – his father is pianist Ellis Marsalis – Wynton came up through the ranks with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers and then did a stint with Herbie Hancock’s VSOP before striking out on his own. Soon Wynton was simultaneously winning Jazz and Classical Grammy Awards, and record labels were signing jazz artists to recording contracts again. He has maintained a high profile – and been very vocal with his opinion of music –…

Composer Steve Reich, along with Terry Riley and Philip Glass, form the core driving force in the modern classical music genre of ‘minimalism’. In the music the harmonic structure and density are sparse and relatively simple, with shifting elements and slow thematic development. Much of the action in minimalism is with the slowly evolving polyrhythms, which are deceptively straightforward but in reality menacingly complex and intriguing. This week marks Steve Reich’s 75th birthday, so I wanted to share a few memorable video clips. The sheet music at the top is for his 1972 piece ‘Clapping Music’, an intriguing study in…