One shouldn't really need an excuse to embed this fantastic performance by Thelonious Monk, but now there is one: NIDCD researchers believe that they have identified the cognitive neural substrate of jazz improvisation.

On Saturday Hisae and I visited an installation by Ben Roberts, a British sound artist who lives in Madrid. At Radio Aporee, a gallery / living room on Bürknerstrasse, near our house, Ben had assembled some old cassette players fitted with wand-mounted VCR heads capable of reading -- turning into gloopy sound -- any kind of information stored on magnetic tape: the stripes on credit cards, the backs of metro tickets, old computer spools, and of course audio tape.

Fast takes on rock, blues, roots, jazz, world and more.

Official Miles Davis Site

Official John Coltrane Site