Anthony Dean-Harris

Today has been a rather odd day. It's been a rather odd week. It's best not to go into it. You know what takes my mind off the oddity that is this week? Good music. Anat Cohen - Anat's Dance This song is a reminder to me to revisit Claroscuro later while I'm in this year-end analysis period. Cohen's album may be my surprise of the year. Karriem Riggins - Summer Maddness S.A. Takuya Kuroda Sextet - Jafro Just got this album, Six Aces , in today. I haven't even heard it yet. We're learning about this together. However, Kuroda has come up and fast. Dude has become quite a fascinating trumpeter. Miles Okazaki - Dozens I felt like coming back to Miles Okazaki this week. Just a whim. Karriem Riggins - daoooh!! Brad Mehldau Trio - Holland This song just makes me particularly happy. Jason Moran - Gangsterism Over 10 Years I'm trying to get into Moran's show in Austin at the Paramount on Thursday night , and you should, too. Christian Scott - Van Gog...

I didn't have many ideas for this show but going with the flow of things sort of worked out. Enoch Smith Jr. - A Misfit's Theme I'm making up for lost time with playing Misfits . dela - Get Busy Johnathan Blake - The Eleventh Hour We're streaming this album and Ben Wendel's Frame  at Nextbop the week before their February 21st releases on the Sunnyside label. Just keeping you on your toes. Thundercat - Is It Love? Sometimes the standout tracks on an album jump around. This track came up the other day and reminded me a lot of Stanley Clarke, which I guess is probably the point. RJD2 - Ghostwriter Enoch Smith Jr. - She Move Me Like I said, I'm making up for lost time. There's a groundswell that's building for Smith and I don't want to miss it. Stefon Harris / Dávid Sanchez / Christian Scott  - City Sunrise The computer picked this one, actually. Fortunately, this is my favorite track off Ninety Miles , so I kept it. Jack DeJohnette -  Ind...

This week has been challenging and that has keyed into tonight's show. Someone stole my iPod at work this week which means it won't be as easy coming up with what has stood out to me in a given week to pick for the show, but it's not like pouring over the music I get to decide what hits your ears has been a breeze. Add to the fact that the computer didn't feel like tabulating the time right until I was halfway done putting the show together and lets just say the nuisance continued. It's a labor of love and I make my way through no matter what. No need to get down about it, I just lean on Jesus, peace, and the music. Jason Moran - RFK in the Land of Apartheid I was watching the PBS documentary, RFK in the Land of Apartheid , the other night, largely because the score was by Moran. This is also my favorite track from Ten , as I've said quite often, so to the 1 spot this goes this week. Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey - Grandfather's Gun Nextbop is still streami...

It still took me an inordinate amount of time to put this show together. I'll get it together, though. Also, I give this current theme song a couple more weeks so get your input to me as soon as you can. Johannes Wallmann Brasstet - The Sweet Minute I kept three computer selections for this week's show. I put the first two at the top of the hour. Roxy Coss - Lately Since the computer picked this track, I don't have all that much to say. Kenneth Whalum III - It Was Written (feat. Common) I had two or three tracks from KWIII before he gave me his album this past weekend. After finally hearing the whole album, I realize he picked the tracks he sent me for a reason. The whole album fits together really well but "It Was Written" stands on its own very well. Shane Endsley and the Music Band - Big When I got the track for this, I had some... problems with it. Hopefully this plays alright. Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey - Black Wall Street From August 23 until it...

I don't think I have anything special to say about this show in its entirety except that I'm pretty happy with it. The songs, and my subsequent commentary on them, should speak for themselves. Christian Scott - Isadora It seemed befitting to start the show off giving congratulations to the fresh engagement of Nextbop's good friend, Christian Scott, to his beloved Isadora Mendez. We wish them all the best. Gerald Clayton - Snake Bite All this week, Gerald Clayton's new album, Bond: The Paris Sessions is streaming at Nextbop. Needless to say, we're quite happy to share this album with you. I figured giving you a taste of this would lead you to the rest of the goodness. Jason Moran - RFK in the Land of Apartheid By now, you know how it goes... A song comes up on my commute, I fall for it all over again, it makes it into that week's Line-Up. Second verse, same as the first. Becca Stevens Band - Weightless Last week, I played a couple of Stevens' c...

I rather like this show. There were some tracks that I managed to lose the night before that didn't make it in this week (really, there was one "oh, no he didn't" track that I wanted to play that would have fit perfectly but it dropped from my memory card so it will have to wait until next week) but I think this week's selections are particularly good. You be the judge. Matt Savage - Picturesque The computer picked it, but you know how I am about computer selections. We keep a good library for a reason. Jason Moran - RFK in the Land of Apartheid I'm often finding myself coming back to this song. It'll make me stop what I'm doing to dance and whistle to it. It's that serious. Rudresh Mahanthappa & Bunky Green - Eastern Echoes This is here largely because it seems like the logical fit for the following track. This whole set was formed around the new Vijay Iyer that follows these tracks. Vijay Iyer feat. Prasanna & Nitin Mitta - Dualit...

This week's New Year's Eve episode of The Line-Up, the last episode of 2010, is a recap of Nextbop's Best Jazz Albums of 2010 list . So it's going to be a little difficult coming up with an entirely different set of words after all the writing I've done this week. Nonetheless, this is a show that depicts what we believe to be the best cutting edge jazz of the last year. I figure a few more works to back up this music would be worth it. Jason Moran - RFK in the Land of Apartheid I can whistle this song all day. Seriously. Yesterday, I was walking around in the 79°F temperatures on the Riverwalk , just soaking in the unseasonably warm weather (yes, I'm gloating), and whistling this tune. The beat and melody is just so catchy. This is likely the catchiest tune on the album. Taylor Eigsti - Daylight When Seb sent me this album, he used this song as its selling point. True enough, this is a very good song, but as I said in my write-up for this list, it's the...

Once again, it's time for the KRTU pledge drive, so I'm making the call to head to the site and donate to become a member of the station to keep great music like this on the air. Marco Benevento - You Know I'm No Good I figure it's good to start off with some great energy and this song certainly has some great energy. Jason Lindner - Seven Ways When I was putting together this week's show, I had a good idea for what the set at the end would be but not necessarily the rest of the show. This Lindner track sort of found its way in here. I'm not mad at it. Aaron Parks - Peaceful Warrior I'm terrible at fulfilling requests. I'm seriously bad at it, but from time to time, I'll follow through... a week or two later. Jason Moran - Crepuscule With Nellie When it was announced that Jason Moran won a MacArthur grant this week, I knew I had to mention it. Suddenly, an idea crept into my head about how to put together a set of interconnected music...

While I may have been spreading my interests around musically, I always come home to roost with The Line-Up. It may be a good thing because for this week, I'm playing some folks I haven't even thought about for a while and I'm playing some other folks who just caught my eyes and ears. I rather like how this week's episode was put together. There are a few folks here tonight who I've wanted to play for a little while but just couldn't find a good place to play them until now. Tonight, one could say this is the episode in which the chickens come home to roost. Avery Sharpe Trio - My Favorite Things Yep, the computer picked it. This episode also has another live selection. I don't quite know how well they work and were edited for radio, but the performances are sound and I'm standing by them. Pat Metheny - Orchestrion From time to time, I'll put the show together and I'll wonder when's the next time I should play something from...

Yet again, I have three hours of programming here and boundless opportunity. Oh, I have a new post up over at Nextbop that folks are liking. Give it a read. Otherwise, let's see if this week is any good, shall we? Dr. Lonnie Smith - Mellow Mood I got his last album and thought it was pretty good. It was sort of shocking to see another one so soon but the man is a professional. Terence Blanchard - Byus feat. Dr. Cornel West From time to time, I'll come up to the station and JJ will somehow mention Blanchard's Choices album. Then I think about how much I like what I hear. It happened again today. Etienne Charles - Lala Who? This is another one of those tracks the computer picks but I keep it because it sounds sort of funky. Jason Moran - Blue Blocks Moran's new album, Ten , is proving itself to be quite impressive. The Bad Plus - Comfortably Numb feat. Wendy Lewis If there's anyone I should be playing on this show more often, it's The Bad Plus. Their ...

Hey, jazz lovers. I'm back after missing a week due to station maintenance. Did you miss me? This week's show is a sort of showcase for last week's Winter Jazz Fest in New York. You may have heard a bunch about it from folks like Nate Chinen , Ben Ratliff , Alex Rodriguez and others. Peter Hum also put together a few videos from the event in case you want that whole visual aspect. I wish I could have been there for a jazz festival with that kind of energy but clearly, that's not the case. So, I figure I'll bring that kind of energy to The Line-Up this week. Rudresh Mahanthappa & the Indo-Pak Coalition - Apti Vijay Iyer - Mystic Brew Darcy James Argue's Secret Society - Phobos Dr. Lonnie Smith - Pilgrimage Lionel Loueke - Seven Teens Ben Allison & Man Size Safe - Man Size Safe Jason Moran - Gangsterism on Stages Gretchen Parlato - In a Dream Oh, and one more thing. If you didn't know by now, I've started writing for the upstart jaz...

Tonight's episode is all about collaborations.  This was a late realized concept but I sort of like how it worked.  I've been playing Gretchen Parlato's In a Dream  pretty constantly lately and I've become so engrossed with it that I wanted to share a few of my favorite tracks on the show, so this is really a big excuse for me to play a lot of her new work.  But what really got to me was noticing that Robert Glasper arranged her cover of SWV's "Weak" and that she sang backup for Esperanza Spalding and Justin Vasquez and that Aaron Parks did all the piano work on her album.  This little cluster fascinated me and since many of them are getting their attention in the modern jazz scene lately, I figured I'd play that cluster tonight. This type of collaboration is pretty common. Joe Sample is often produced by Tommy LiPuma. He'll work with George Benson, Michael Franks, Anita Baker, and others often.  Folks will move from album to album and quite ofte...