Kevin Sun

This is one of those really, really famous solos.  So, for the uninitiated, a few testimonials to let you know what you're in for: “When I heard Paul Bley’s piano solo, a whole new universe of harmonic possibilities opened up from me.  All these decades later, I still of it as one of the greatest solos in jazz history.    Even a non-musician can sense something amazing is happening. On one level what he’s doing is very complex, but it’s also completely accessible, very open. Bley simply allows each musical idea to go to its natural conclusion — and in the end, something very personal becomes very universal"  — Pat Metheny, speaking to Doug Fischer, as told by Peter Hum Mr. Metheny calls the solo "the shot heard 'round the world," in terms of its aftereffects in subsequent jazz, especially through Keith Jarrett. He describes Mr. Bley's solo as having an "inevitability."   "His relationship to time," Mr. Metheny said, "is t

It's hard to believe that almost a year has passed since I picked up the special acid-free paper at the stationer's and turned in my thesis, a collection of creative nonfiction essays on jazz and my thoughts on it as a young, immature artist. On the occasion of the New Year, I thought I'd share another brief essayette from the thesis—this time on the controversial "J-word" (I previously posted another mini-chapter, "Vibe" ). This year marks the Year of the Goat/Sheep/Ram, which also happens to be my zodiac year. The last time my zodiac year came around was about the time I first discovered jazz through Stan Getz, and here I am now. Thanks for reading. “Jazz” 1. jazz (d ʒ æz), n. a.     A loose set of musical sensibilities most commonly heard in the background, as in cocktail receptions, sensually lit restaurants, elevators of swanky buildings, etc.: “This jazz is really nice, isn’t it, honey? It’s a shame we don’t put it on during dinner mo

Charles Ives, ca. 1913 (Wikimedia Commons) Last semester, I had the pleasure of taking a semester-long survey of the life and works of Charles Ives with  John Heiss , a New England Conservatory elder statesman with an encyclopedic knowledge of Ives's music. My term paper was an 1800-word late-night ramble on Ives's idiosyncratic writing style in "Essays Before a Sonata," particularly regarding his penchant for aphorism, epigram, and apothegm. I thought I'd share it here. * * * * * Charles Ives and Aphorism “Read where you will, each sentence seems not to point to the next but to the undercurrent of all”  — Charles Ives,  Essays Before a Sonata  (xvii)             Charles Ives was a master aphorist. A skill that was possessed by a select few in the history of letters, aphorizing is a combination of wit, insight, and poetic disposition. This tendency toward aphorism and proverb in Ives’s prose is perhaps not unrelated to his t