Category: Music

I couldn’t resist posting on the closing of CBGB, once I thought of the title of this post And, no, I’m not talking about CDBG–community development block grants. The first time I heard my friend Derek Greene talk, in his fast paced voice, about CDBG I couldn’t quite figure out what a club on the Bowery in New York had to do with housing programs in Philly. I actually didn’t go to CBGB that often. And I saw some so-so bands there: Dead Boys and Steel Tips, for example. But twenty years ago it was a fun place to hang out. And I saw one absolutely transcendant show there, Television in its prime. Verlaine and Lloyd already didn’t seem to care for one another. But they clearly enjoyed playing together, as they redefined what two lead guitars can do in a rock and roll band. Continue reading

I am of the age where young people in their late teens and twenties, and especially my students at Temple, ask me for general advice about life. I can give plenty of advice, but most of it would take a long time to explain and I save it for articles and books I write. Here is the one piece of advice I can give quickly: choose the music you listen to when you are young—that is, when you are falling in the love for the first time—wisely because that is going to be the music that rocks you for the rest of your life. These days, the music I listen to is mostly jazz. I love the classics-Duke, Parker, Monk, Trane, Sonny, Ornette and, most of all, Miles. But I also spend time exploring new avant garde jazz made by people whose names are not widely known and who, in… Continue reading