Dizzy Gillespie

A year after the Smokehouse Creek Fire, recovery is still underway

Concerns are growing about a measles outbreak in West Texas as some legislators push to rollback vaccination requirements.
It appears the threat of cutbacks from the federal government may already be having an effect on health services for veterans.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted targeted enforcement actions in Austin last month, and Hispanic business owners say the impact has been immediate.
And: Nearly one year ago, downed power lines sparked wildfires that ultimately burned more than 1 million acres in the Texas Panhandle. The recovery effort is ongoing today.

Jon Faddis (7.24.16)

Jon Faddis is an American jazz trumpeter who is known, in part, for his collaborations with Charles Mingus, early in his career, and later with Dizzy Gillespie. Faddis, not only continues to re-imagine their works, but also to educate musicians on the importance of using jazz as a tool to communicate in our time.

In this edition of Liner Notes Rabbi and jazz historian Neil Blumofe talks about what the life and work of Jon Faddis can teach us about working within tradition to evolve, to discover, and to develop as we move through the world each day.

V&B – Jazz & The Atomic Age

In this episode of Views & Brews, KUT’s Rebecca McInroy joins Rabbi/Jazz Historian Neil Blumofe and a live jazz ensemble (Sam Penke – bass, Ephraim Owens – trumpet, Andre Hayward – trombone, Scott Laningham – drums, Mike Malone – saxophone) in a discussion about jazz, post-war paranoia, and the Atomic Age, with a focus on the music of mid-century America, highlighting the work of Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington. Beyond the old duck and cover drills of the Cold War, how do we cope with the constant threat of existential disaster? How does our music reflect our hopes and our anxieties? How do we distinguish between the treacle of intoxicating propaganda and the ineffable wonder that transforms our soul? What truly, conquers our fears?

Red Rodney (9.27.15)

Red Rodney was an American bebop and hard bop trumpet player who made came up with mentors like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. In his lifetime he saw much hardship, including the loss of his wife and daughter in a car accident, and the loss of many of his contemporaries in the jazz world.

In this edition of Liner Notes, Rabbi and jazz historian Neil Blumofe talks about what it means to be a “survivor”, and how jazz, and specifically bebop, allows us to confront oppression through resistance, revolution, and reckoning.