Jason Moran aggravated me when he released From the Dancehall to the Battlefield on January 1. Issuing what at the moment seemed like 2023’s album of the year on New Year’s Day took much of the suspense out of the artistic horse race.
Inspired in part by the life and music of James Reese Europe, Moran refreshes the music made by the groundbreaking bandleader more than a century ago. Respectful but forward-thinking, he filters pre-jazz “syncopated” music through the subsequent innovations of Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk, Albert Ayler, Randy Weston and Henry Threadgill.
I heard an entirely different version of the American music of World War I on Wednesday, June 7. Frederick Hodges’ 50-minute "Music Will Win the War" fascinating presentation at the National World War I Museum and Memorial focused on the sound of Tin Pan Alley.
Yes, that’s me lurking in the back during the second half of the concert. I was driven from my seat by a man with an ominous cough. I hope I don’t miss an opportunity to catch a performance of From the Dancehall to the Battlefield before succumbing to whatever I may have picked up at the museum.