hard bop

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.

Yusef Lateef (6.8.14)

Yusef Lateef was an American jazz mufti-instrumentalist, composer and educator who extended the possibilities of what it meant to understand and expand in the jazz genera with a universal sensibility. In this edition of Liner Notes Rabbi and jazz historian Neil Blumofe illustrates what the music and legacy of Lateef and his music can teach us about moving past our own ideas of fulfillment, beyond any limitations, to understand the possibilities and richness in the present moment.

Miles Davis (5.25.14)

Miles Davis is considered one of the most innovative and influential musicians of the 20th century. He added his voice to the narratives of our culture at significant points, and offered a perspective which considered the sanctity of silence in each moment. In this edition of Liner Notes Rabbi Neil Blumofe acknowledges what Miles Davis can teach us through this approach, not only in music but in our daily lives.