Recent writing

5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Sarah Vaughan, in the New York Times

On Aidan Levy’s Sonny Rollins biography, in the New York Times

On Sylvia Rexach, in the New York Times

On 1961 (Coltrane, Baraka, Jacobs, Beckett, Ono, Pachanga, Twist, etc.) in Washington Post

On John Coltrane’s early Prestige records, in Bandcamp

On Jimmy Giuffre, in Tidal

On Julius Hemphill, in 4Columns

On ZZ Top’s First Album, in Tidal

On Uwe Johnson, and Patrick Wright’s The Sea View Has Me Again, in 4Columns

Conversation with Marisa Anderson in Presence zine

On Elvis Presley’s “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” and Edward Yang’s A Brighter Summer Day, in Criterion’s The Current

McCoy Tyner, 1938-2020, in the New York Times

On the Fall, in Affidavit

On Stereolab, in 4Columns

On Kim Kashkashian, Bach’s Cello Suites, and the violaness of the viola, in Affidavit

On speaking and dreaming in Cassette, in npr.org

João Gilberto, 1931-2019, in the New York Times

On Lennie Tristano’s relationship to American visual artists (Robert Ryman, Frank Stella, Bruce Nauman) and various kinds of assumed relationships between jazz and visual art in the  mid 20th c., in Ursula

On listening bars and LA’s In Sheep’s Clothing, in the New York Times

Liner notes for Ornette Coleman’s The Atlantic Years LP box set (excerpt in Jazz Times)

On Ryuichi Sakamoto and background music in restaurants, in the New York Times

Liner notes (excerpted) for a reissue of The Max Roach Trio Featuring the Legendary Hasaan, for Vinyl Me Please

On John Coltrane’s Two Directions at Once, in Pitchfork

On Neil Young’s music in Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man, for the Criterion Collection

On Liz Harris/Grouper, in Pitchfork

On Tristan Perich’s Drift Multiply in Red Bull Music

Cecil Taylor, 1929-2018, in the New York Times

On Kate Briggs’ This Little Art and translating, in 4columns

“Mere Virtuosity,” an essay in VQR, Spring 2018 issue (an update and revision of the 2017 Una’s Lecture at University of California, Berkeley)

On encountering music’s past, in npr.org

Liner notes for a reissue of Miles Davis’ Sorcerer, for Vinyl Me Please

A conversation with Mark Turner, in Music & Literature

On Keiji Haino, in 4columns