It’s not jazz. At least not as I would usually define it. It’s all in one key. There are no chord changes, no sliding away into dissonance and distraction. It is improvised, but the composer’s original theme, his “prime” motive, is ever-present.
Read MoreAs we celebrate Juneteenth for the second year as a national federal holiday — now on Sunday AND Monday—amidst the block parties, barbecues, festivals, concerts, and civic events, I continue to ponder the meaning and implications of this day. My ambivalence about commemorating the occasion of the constitutional right to freedom for African-Americans being reluctantly accepted by the last holdouts is balanced by what I imagine were the jubilant hopes and dreams embodied by those first celebrations, as our people claimed their birthright as free human beings at long last.
Read MoreI imagined the Albina Arts Salon as a place that could be both refuge and beacon, as a haven for ideas and honest conversation, and a place where Art could shape community, shedding light on both the truth of the past and the possibilities for the future
Read More
