Anthony Dean-Harris

Hey, everybody. How was your day? Mine was fine and sort of productive but the afternoon left me in a funk. If only there were some cool music to put me in a good mood again. Oh, wait. There is... Brad Mehldau - John Boy In the ongoing saga that is Retro exclaiming his overwhelming approval of Highway Rider , tonight's Line-Up starts with this song. Freddie Hubbard - Little Sunflower On Tuesday, I was at work and using Pandora.FM on one of the computers when I heard a Christian McBride cover of this song. I had forgotten how much I love this song. I knew I would play it on the show. Unfortunately, the station didn't have the album in the library, but it does have Hubbard's rendition. Trio of Doom - Para Oriente Trio of Doom (John McLaughlin, Jaco Pastorius, & Tony Williams) is a combo I never knew existed before last.fm . I was wowed at a combination of such genius in its time. Tonight, I figured I'd remind folks who forgot about such a short-lived powerhous

A couple of weeks ago, Esperanza Spalding performed at the Carver Community Cultural Center and I reviewed her great performance. This past Friday, April 17th, may have been known throughout the Alamo City for a soggy “A Taste of New Orleans” and Oyster Bake, but it also brought about a spectacular show by the very talented Ms. Esperanza Spalding. Spalding certainly put up no front about the person she was. She has a tendency to bring elegance and gravitas to her very casual, carefree nature. Early on in the first set, she kicked off her recently acquired vintage heels (of which she was certain to inform the audience of her purchase) and lost a hair clip. If anything, she was preparing the audience for an evening full of histrionics as she wailed on her acoustic and electric basses. Head to African-American Reflections and read about that awesome concert you wish you could have seen .

I suddenly realized I should probably link y'all to other stuff I write when they come up. I do have a weekly column over at Nextbop . My work there does go back quite far . I'll try to make a larger effort to connect my work and make this a catch all for most things I write on the web. So to start things off, my most recent column was on the challenge of publicizing crossover artists. There is a certain challenge in commenting about genre bending. What may sound at the start like an overt novelty like [ELEW] or a sincere curiosity like the heavily lauded [Rusconi] can ultimately sound extremely difficult to describe to others for the purpose of recommendation. Would one’s rock-oriented friends like to hear jazz versions of Sonic Youth songs? Will others be as moved to head bang to a piano? One can never be certain about these sorts of things. Extrapolate this idea to a much larger scale. I’m having a hard enough time doing this sort of thing as a writer to a modest audienc

Today's challenge in writing the accompanying playlist involves writing this post in IE6 since my computer is going through its death rattle. Still, tonight's show is great and has little to do with my computer woes. I listened through the webstream on my BlackBerry again, though. Anyway, tonight's playlist... Joe Locke - The Shadow of Your Smile feat. Kenny Washington I didn't really know anything about this song but the computer picked this song for the top of the set. Kenny Washington's spectacular vocals are why I decided to keep it. I was really impressed. Brad Mehldau - Into the City I wanted to play something else from Highway Rider this week so that's why this is here. Joe Sample - Fly With Wings of Love Ever since the Joe Sample show a couple of months ago, there's been a bunch of Joe Sample music that I added to the system. Much of it didn't play for that show specifically for a case like this. Christian Scott - K.K.P.D. Now that the

So I know I've been slacking lately with the descriptions regarding the playlists. I apologize for that. Although, right now my computer lacks the internet so it's sort of weird that the extra material for this post is composed with my trust BlackBerry. Anyway, once again we have a show that's a bit of a hodgepodge due to my wanting to recognize Jazz and Poetry Appreciation Month, tomorrow night's Esperanza Spalding concert at the Carver Community Cultural Center, and my desire to play a song I've wanted to play since I first got this show. Hopefully, it all worked. Herbie Hancock - Rockit Last week, when I put together my Herbie Hancock episode, I told my mother about it. She asked me if I played "Rockit." I said no because I frankly hate this song. She joked that she would have listened if I played "Rockit." So, like I did with Joe Sample Day, I have a show of Herbie Hancock before the birthday and start the next week's show with Hancock

I'm not as big about Herbie Hancock as I am about Joe Sample but I still love the guy and will at least dedicate a show to him. Robert Glasper - Maiden Voyage/Everything In Its Right Place Miles Davis - Sanctuary Gretchen Parlato - Butterfly Herbie Hancock - Watermelon Man Freddie Hubbard - Red Clay Gerry Gibbs & The Thrasher Big Band - Maiden Voyage Herbie Hancock - All Apologies

Christian McBride & Inside Straight - Where Are You? Madlib - Montara Brad Mehldau - The Falcon Will Fly Again The Gerry Gibbs Sextet & Ravi Coltrane - In a Sentimental Mood Guillermo Klein - Miula Grover Washington Jr. - Dolphin Dance Roy Hargrove - A Day in Vienna Vijay Iyer - Galang Christian Scott - Isadora