Deep Focus

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6 days ago

Let's admit it: we love to talk about individual achievement in music.  
"You know this guy played the fastest."  
"Yeah, but that one played the highest, and THAT ONE was the loudest!"  
This conversation never ends.

But what does the group know that the individual doesn't?
What does the body know that the mind doesn't?  
What about group consciousness?  
What about ritual?
What would the Greek geometer Euclid say?
What would Milford Graves say?

This Monday...

Let's admit it: we love to talk about individual achievement in music.  
"You know this guy played the fastest."  
"Yeah, but that one played the highest, and THAT ONE was the loudest!"  
This conversation never ends.

But what does the group know that the individual doesn't?
What does the body know that the mind doesn't?  
What about group consciousness?  
What about ritual?
What would the Greek geometer Euclid say?
What would Milford Graves say?

This Monday on Deep Focus, host Mitch Goldman and his guest, musical thinker Henry...

When we were coming up, alto saxophonist Jackie McLean was one of the main cats.  He, along with friends like Sonny Rollins, Max Roach, and Art Taylor, had emerged in New York City revering Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk, yet he discovered his own unique sound.  We hunted for his well-worn Blue Note albums (not yet reissued at the time), and waited for him to play in NYC.  And waited, and waited.  

In 1968, Jackie McLean had started teaching at the Hartt School in Hartford, CT, beginning a long and influential career as an educator.  Sadly for those of us who...

When we were coming up, alto saxophonist Jackie McLean was one of the main cats.  He, along with friends like Sonny Rollins, Max Roach, and Art Taylor, had emerged in New York City revering Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk, yet he discovered his own unique sound.  We hunted for his well-worn Blue Note albums (not yet reissued at the time), and waited for him to play in NYC.  And waited, and waited.  

In 1968, Jackie McLean had started teaching at the Hartt School in Hartford, CT, beginning a long and influential career as an educator.  Sadly for those of us who...

When we were coming up, alto saxophonist Jackie McLean was one of the main cats.  He, along with friends like Sonny Rollins, Max Roach, and Art Taylor, had emerged in New York City revering Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk, yet he discovered his own unique sound.  We hunted for his well-worn Blue Note albums (not yet reissued at the time), and waited for him to play in NYC.  And waited, and waited.  

In 1968, Jackie McLean had started teaching at the Hartt School in Hartford, CT, beginning a long and influential career as an educator.  Sadly for those of us who...

This Monday's (8/17) Deep Focus is on pocket trumpeter and global troubadour Don Cherry, a dear, deeply missed friend of WKCR.  Back in the Eighties, Don was a frequent guest on Mitch Goldman's show.  Don would guest DJ, talk to the audience, bring guests... It was an ongoing Eighties NYC Don Cherry party.  And if there was a blank cassette handy, Mitch would make a recording.  The tapes got tossed in a box and ended up deep in storage.   
In January of 2024 and again in February of 2025, Mitch and his guest, the bandleader, trumpeter, cultural historian, and raconteur Steven Bernstein, blew the...

This Monday's (8/17) Deep Focus is on pocket trumpeter and global troubadour Don Cherry, a dear, deeply missed friend of WKCR.  Back in the Eighties, Don was a frequent guest on Mitch Goldman's show.  Don would guest DJ, talk to the audience, bring guests... It was an ongoing Eighties NYC Don Cherry party.  And if there was a blank cassette handy, Mitch would make a recording.  The tapes got tossed in a box and ended up deep in storage.   
In January of 2024 and again in February of 2025, Mitch and his guest, the bandleader, trumpeter, cultural historian, and raconteur Steven Bernstein, blew the...

This Monday's (8/17) Deep Focus is on pocket trumpeter and global troubadour Don Cherry, a dear, deeply missed friend of WKCR.  Back in the Eighties, Don was a frequent guest on Mitch Goldman's show.  Don would guest DJ, talk to the audience, bring guests... It was an ongoing Eighties NYC Don Cherry party.  And if there was a blank cassette handy, Mitch would make a recording.  The tapes got tossed in a box and ended up deep in storage.   
In January of 2024 and again in February of 2025, Mitch and his guest, the bandleader, trumpeter, cultural historian, and raconteur Steven Bernstein, blew the...

What makes us love the musicians we love?  They do something magical that no one else had ever thought of before.  Or the magical thing they do is so outlandishly demanding that, if anyone else had thought of it, they simply would not have been able to execute it.  Allan Holdsworth was another of the handful of conjurers who deserves the title, “guitarists’ guitarist.” He passed away at 70 the month of this broadcast, and we celebrate him with a Deep Focus featuring guitarists Vernon Reid, David Gilmore and Chris Buono.  History, mystery and surprise abounding.  Mitch Goldman is your host.  
...

What makes us love the musicians we love?  They do something magical that no one else had ever thought of before.  Or the magical thing they do is so outlandishly demanding that, if anyone else had thought of it, they simply would not have been able to execute it.  Allan Holdsworth was another of the handful of conjurers who deserves the title, “guitarists’ guitarist.” He passed away at 70 the month of this broadcast, and we celebrate him with a Deep Focus featuring guitarists Vernon Reid, David Gilmore and Chris Buono.  History, mystery and surprise abounding.  Mitch Goldman is your host.  
...

What makes us love the musicians we love?  They do something magical that no one else had ever thought of before.  Or the magical thing they do is so outlandishly demanding that, if anyone else had thought of it, they simply would not have been able to execute it.  Allan Holdsworth was another of the handful of conjurers who deserves the title, “guitarists’ guitarist.” He passed away at 70 the month of this broadcast, and we celebrate him with a Deep Focus featuring guitarists Vernon Reid, David Gilmore and Chris Buono.  History, mystery and surprise abounding.  Mitch Goldman is your host.  
...

This is a beautiful episode of Deep Focus, but unfortunately, only the middle portion of it was recorded successfully.  If you have the rest of it, please get in touch with us so we can post it. Enjoy!   How is it possible that no one has chosen Duke Ellington as a subject for Deep Focus? Maybe because it's just too daunting; no one has matched his brilliance as an orchestrator, his ability to lead a band, his supreme elegance. Well, that drought ends tonight. Keyboard monster Brian Charette and host Mitch Goldman have some sparklers from the archives for you, ev...

On Deep Focus this Monday (7/6), a celebration of the life and music of James Blood Ulmer (February 8, 1940 – June 3, 2026), with guest Vernon Reid.  Our hearts are heavy, but spirits will be flying.  Please join us.   Tune in this Monday (7/6) from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.     Or join us when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.  It will join over 450 promo-free episodes.  Subscribe right now to get notifications when new episodes are posted.  It's ad-free, all free, sponsor-free, totally non-commercial.  We won't even ask for yo...

On Deep Focus this Monday (7/6), a celebration of the life and music of James Blood Ulmer (February 8, 1940 – June 3, 2026), with guest Vernon Reid.  Our hearts are heavy, but spirits will be flying.  Please join us.   Tune in this Monday (7/6) from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.     Or join us when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.  It will join over 450 promo-free episodes.  Subscribe right now to get notifications when new episodes are posted.  It's ad-free, all free, sponsor-free, totally non-commercial.  We won't even ask for yo...

On Deep Focus this Monday (7/6), a celebration of the life and music of James Blood Ulmer (February 8, 1940 – June 3, 2026), with guest Vernon Reid.  Our hearts are heavy, but spirits will be flying.  Please join us.   Tune in this Monday (7/6) from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.     Or join us when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.  It will join over 450 promo-free episodes.  Subscribe right now to get notifications when new episodes are posted.  It's ad-free, all free, sponsor-free, totally non-commercial.  We won't even ask for yo...

This episode of Deep Focus does not have a spoken introduction. It starts immediately after the previous episode ends.     The moment you invoke the name of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda, the widow of John Coltrane, you open a door into other ways of understanding.  She was part of her husband's last working band, but after his death, and for the next 40 years, her music became suffused with her spiritual practice and mystical experiences.  Her conviction was so thorough that some listeners found it alienating, but others were compelled by it.  Although she is no longer with us, her music remains a deep w...

The moment you invoke the name of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda, the widow of John Coltrane, you open a door into other ways of understanding.  She was part of her husband's last working band, but after his death, and for the next 40 years, her music became suffused with her spiritual practice and mystical experiences.  Her conviction was so thorough that some listeners found it alienating, but others were compelled by it.  Although she is no longer with us, her music remains a deep well of discovery.   Pianist Vijay Iyer has explored her music richly.  What has he found in it? What influenc...

The moment you invoke the name of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda, the widow of John Coltrane, you open a door into other ways of understanding.  She was part of her husband's last working band, but after his death, and for the next 40 years, her music became suffused with her spiritual practice and mystical experiences.  Her conviction was so thorough that some listeners found it alienating, but others were compelled by it.  Although she is no longer with us, her music remains a deep well of discovery.   Pianist Vijay Iyer has explored her music richly.  What has he found in it? What influenc...

When they go deep, we go deeper.     We have been thinking about Miles Davis in anticipation of his centennial (May 26).  How about we explore a dark corner of his vast touring history, his so-called "Lost Quintet"?  We have so many questions about it, but who to ask?  How about the guy who literally wrote the book on the subject?     On this week's Deep Focus, host Mitch Goldman welcomes musician/professor/author Michael E. Veal.  His book, Living Space: John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Free Jazz, from Analog to Digital, opens a door to Miles' confounding and underdocumented 1969 group, whose members all became hugel...

When they go deep, we go deeper.     We have been thinking about Miles Davis in anticipation of his centennial (May 26).  How about we explore a dark corner of his vast touring history, his so-called "Lost Quintet"?  We have so many questions about it, but who to ask?  How about the guy who literally wrote the book on the subject?     On this week's Deep Focus, host Mitch Goldman welcomes musician/professor/author Michael E. Veal.  His book, Living Space: John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Free Jazz, from Analog to Digital, opens a door to Miles' confounding and underdocumented 1969 group, whose members all became hugel...

When they go deep, we go deeper.     We have been thinking about Miles Davis in anticipation of his centennial (May 26).  How about we explore a dark corner of his vast touring history, his so-called "Lost Quintet"?  We have so many questions about it, but who to ask?  How about the guy who literally wrote the book on the subject?     On this week's Deep Focus, host Mitch Goldman welcomes musician/professor/author Michael E. Veal.  His book, Living Space: John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Free Jazz, from Analog to Digital, opens a door to Miles' confounding and underdocumented 1969 group, whose members all became huge...

Fela Kuti has been the subject of at least half a dozen documentaries, a Broadway play, a shelf of books, and at least one richly lauded podcast series.  It's hard to imagine a time when Fela would have been considered an obscure musician from a largely unknown continent.  But that was very much the case in the seventies when bassist Melvin Gibbs heard his music blasting out of a record store on Nostrand Avenue in his native Brooklyn.  The number of  Americans who had even heard of Fela, already a superstar in his homeland, Nigeria, was vanishingly small.   But a penny dro...

Fela Kuti has been the subject of at least half a dozen documentaries, a Broadway play, a shelf of books, and at least one richly lauded podcast series.  It's hard to imagine a time when Fela would have been considered an obscure musician from a largely unknown continent.  But that was very much the case in the seventies when bassist Melvin Gibbs heard his music blasting out of a record store on Nostrand Avenue in his native Brooklyn.  The number of  Americans who had even heard of Fela, already a superstar in his homeland, Nigeria, was vanishingly small.   But a penny dro...

Fela Kuti has been the subject of at least half a dozen documentaries, a Broadway play, a shelf of books, and at least one richly lauded podcast series.  It's hard to imagine a time when Fela would have been considered an obscure musician from a largely unknown continent.  But that was very much the case in the seventies when bassist Melvin Gibbs heard his music blasting out of a record store on Nostrand Avenue in his native Brooklyn.  The number of  Americans who had even heard of Fela, already a superstar in his homeland, Nigeria, was vanishingly small.   But a penny dro...

Throw away the map.  Now, how are you going to find your way to your destination?  You will probably find many more answers than you may have thought you'd find when you were looking at that folded-up piece of paper.     The band Old and New Dreams didn't have to follow chord changes, disregarded time signatures, but their music was full of story-songs, each with a beginning, a middle, and an end.  It's four members-- saxophonist Dewey Redman, trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Ed Blackwell-- each sang his song in full voice.  And when you heard them together, you nev...

Throw away the map.  Now, how are you going to find your way to your destination?  You will probably find many more answers than you may have thought you'd find when you were looking at that folded-up piece of paper.     The band Old and New Dreams didn't have to follow chord changes, disregarded time signatures, but their music was full of story-songs, each with a beginning, a middle, and an end.  It's four members-- saxophonist Dewey Redman, trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Ed Blackwell-- each sang his song in full voice.  And when you heard them together, you nev...

Throw away the map.  Now, how are you going to find your way to your destination?  You will probably find many more answers than you may have thought you'd find when you were looking at that folded-up piece of paper.     The band Old and New Dreams didn't have to follow chord changes, disregarded time signatures, but their music was full of story-songs, each with a beginning, a middle, and an end.  It's four members-- saxophonist Dewey Redman, trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Ed Blackwell-- each sang his song in full voice.  And when you heard them together, you nev...

This episode of Deep Focus has been decades in the making.  Deep Focus host Mitch Goldman started DJing Monday nights at WKCR in 1985.  At that time, he alternated Mondays with fellow WKCR programmer Ethan Singer.  Mitch and Ethan soon discovered that they both loved a lot of the same music and both loved the live music experience.  They merged forces and started producing a show with live sessions called "Monday Live" (a format and name first created by Andy Caploe several years earlier).  Together, Mitch and Ethan produced dozens and dozens of live sets that still populate the WKCR archives.   All wa...

This episode of Deep Focus has been decades in the making.  Deep Focus host Mitch Goldman started DJing Monday nights at WKCR in 1985.  At that time, he alternated Mondays with fellow WKCR programmer Ethan Singer.  Mitch and Ethan soon discovered that they both loved a lot of the same music and both loved the live music experience.  They merged forces and started producing a show with live sessions called "Monday Live" (a format and name first created by Andy Caploe several years earlier).  Together, Mitch and Ethan produced dozens and dozens of live sets that still populate the WKCR archives.   All wa...

This episode of Deep Focus has been decades in the making.  Deep Focus host Mitch Goldman started DJing Monday nights at WKCR in 1985.  At that time, he alternated Mondays with fellow WKCR programmer Ethan Singer.  Mitch and Ethan soon discovered that they both loved a lot of the same music and both loved the live music experience.  They merged forces and started producing a show with live sessions called "Monday Live" (a format and name first created by Andy Caploe several years earlier).  Together, Mitch and Ethan produced dozens and dozens of live sets that still populate the WKCR archives.   All wa...

The music, the people playing it, and the audience are all in a state of total oneness.  It's a spontaneous improvisation as delicate as an eggshell.  You're almost afraid to breathe lest this moment dissolve, and we are all dropped back to the cold earth.  Then you open your eyes to see that the bassist is Charlie Haden, and you know that this moment will not end until its time has come, because Charlie Haden practically discovered this sense of the sublime in music for us. He seems to create it at will.     Steve Slagle knows this experience well. He played i...

The music, the people playing it, and the audience are all in a state of total oneness.  It's a spontaneous improvisation as delicate as an eggshell.  You're almost afraid to breathe lest this moment dissolve, and we are all dropped back to the cold earth.  Then you open your eyes to see that the bassist is Charlie Haden, and you know that this moment will not end until its time has come, because Charlie Haden practically discovered this sense of the sublime in music for us. He seems to create it at will.     Steve Slagle knows this experience well. He played i...

The music, the people playing it, and the audience are all in a state of total oneness.  It's a spontaneous improvisation as delicate as an eggshell.  You're almost afraid to breathe lest this moment dissolve, and we are all dropped back to the cold earth.  Then you open your eyes to see that the bassist is Charlie Haden, and you know that this moment will not end until its time has come, because Charlie Haden practically discovered this sense of the sublime in music for us. He seems to create it at will.     Steve Slagle knows this experience well. He played i...

Improvisation is considered a high art form for an instrumentalist, but what about for a composer?  Is it even possible to create a piece of music for an ensemble, and to hear it performed in real time?  How would you go about that? You would have to have an entire group imagining together.  Lawrence "Butch" Morris did it by creating a compositional language that allowed him to convey musical ideas using physical gestures.     His system, which he called "Conduction," was immediately transformative.  He created compositions in real time that were shaped by the musical language and the performances of the partici...

Improvisation is considered a high art form for an instrumentalist, but what about for a composer?  Is it even possible to create a piece of music for an ensemble, and to hear it performed in real time?  How would you go about that? You would have to have an entire group imagining together.  Lawrence "Butch" Morris did it by creating a compositional language that allowed him to convey musical ideas using physical gestures.     His system, which he called "Conduction," was immediately transformative.  He created compositions in real time that were shaped by the musical language and the performances of the partici...

Improvisation is considered a high art form for an instrumentalist, but what about for a composer?  Is it even possible to create a piece of music for an ensemble, and to hear it performed in real time?  How would you go about that? You would have to have an entire group imagining together.  Lawrence "Butch" Morris did it by creating a compositional language that allowed him to convey musical ideas using physical gestures.     His system, which he called "Conduction," was immediately transformative.  He created compositions in real time that were shaped by the musical language and the performances of the partici...

Improvisation is considered a high art form for an instrumentalist, but what about for a composer?  Is it even possible to create a piece of music for an ensemble, and to hear it performed in real time?  How would you go about that? You would have to have an entire group imagining together.  Lawrence "Butch" Morris did it by creating a compositional language that allowed him to convey musical ideas using physical gestures.     His system, which he called "Conduction," was immediately transformative.  He created compositions in real time that were shaped by the musical language and the performances of the partici...

Meet me at Edge City.  Isn't that place where worlds collide the only one where new ideas are ever generated?  Saxophonist Jim Pepper knew all about these cultural collisions. His band Free Spirits was arguably the first to combine rock and jazz elements, and his oft-covered song Witchitai-To is perhaps the only hit to feature an authentic Native American chant in the history of the Billboard pop charts (we sure can't think of another one; can you?).  Yes, this man changed the world, at least twice!   This spirit of discovery and of sharing culture is what this episode of Deep Focu...

Meet me at Edge City.  Isn't that place where worlds collide the only one where new ideas are ever generated?  Saxophonist Jim Pepper knew all about these cultural collisions. His band Free Spirits was arguably the first to combine rock and jazz elements, and his oft-covered song Witchitai-To is perhaps the only hit to feature an authentic Native American chant in the history of the Billboard pop charts (we sure can't think of another one; can you?).  Yes, this man changed the world, at least twice!   This spirit of discovery and of sharing culture is what this episode of Deep Focu...

Meet me at Edge City.  Isn't that place where worlds collide the only one where new ideas are ever generated?  Saxophonist Jim Pepper knew all about these cultural collisions. His band Free Spirits was arguably the first to combine rock and jazz elements, and his oft-covered song Witchitai-To is perhaps the only hit to feature an authentic Native American chant in the history of the Billboard pop charts (we sure can't think of another one; can you?).  Yes, this man changed the world, at least twice!   This spirit of discovery and of sharing culture is what this episode of Deep Focu...