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Gene Santoro

Gene Santoro

Gene Santoro was the author of several books, including Highway 61 Revisited, Myself When I Am Real: The Life and Music of Charles Mingus (finalist for the 2001 Ralph J. Gleason Awards as well as the 2001 Jazz Journalists Association Awards), Dancing in Your Head and Stir It Up.

He co-authored and edited The Guitar: The History, The Music, The Players. His essays also appeared in numerous collections, such as The Miles Davis Reader, The Show I’ll Never Forget, Best Music Writing of 2004, American Rebels, The Thelonious Monk Reader, The B.B. King Companion, The Jimi Hendrix Companion, Mass Culture and Everyday Life, and The Oxford Companion to Jazz.

He wrote about music for the New York Daily News and was a columnist at Chamber Music. He was a columnist at The Nation, 7 Days, Taxi, and Pulse!, and has written for The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, The Washington Post, New York Post, New Yorker, New York, Time, People, The Village Voice, Spin, Pulse!, Rolling Stone, Down Beat, Musician, Guitar Player, Discover, and Business 2.0, among others.

His first serious gig writing about music was as Senior Editor at Guitar World, where he interviewed legendary pickers like Keith Richards, Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy, Lonnie Mack, Ron Wood, Link Wray, Brian Setzer, and Leslie West; wrote 85% of a hugely successful special issue devoted to Jimi Hendrix; and authored "Wax Museum" columns about the music, techniques, and discographies of stellar historical pickers like Eddie Lang, Charlie Christian, James Burton, and Mickey Baker. As an editor-writer at Pulse!, he interviewed dozens of musical greats like Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, the Neville Brothers, the Rolling Stones, Keith Jarrett, Dwight Yoakam, the Blasters, Los Lobos, k.d. lang, and Astor Piazzolla.

His work was translated into German, Japanese, Brazilian, Spanish, Italian, and French. He started playing guitar when he was eight, and his career highlights included the chance to jam with childhood idols like Keith Richards.

Gene died April 27, 2022 from esophageal cancer.

A podcast interview with Gene from May 2018

98 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

Carlos Alomar, David Bowie: Carlos Alomar

Interview by Gene Santoro, Downbeat, November 1987

WE'RE SITTING in Bogie's, a neighborhood bar in Chelsea not far from Carlos Alomar's loft. The bartender is putting together a Long Island iced tea ...

Carlos Alomar, David Bowie: Carlos Alomar: Hard Driving Anchor Man For The David Bowie Show

Profile and Interview by Gene Santoro, Guitar World, January 1984

IMAGINE THE fairy-tale scene this way, since this is how it actually happened: It is 1973, the setting is RCA's recording studios in New York ...

Animal Collective is in a "Jam"

Report and Interview by Gene Santoro, New York Daily News, 28 September 2007

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE has been called psychedelic folk, indie noise rock and experimental folk electronica. ...

Chet Baker: James Gavin: Deep in a Dream – The Long Night of Chet Baker

Book Review by Gene Santoro, The Nation, 27 June 2002

IT'S EASY TO rephrase Tolstoy's opening to Anna Karenina so it describes junkies, who all share an essential plot line: Who and how to hustle ...

The Band's Long Waltz

Retrospective by Gene Santoro, The Nation, 16 May 2002

WHEN I FIRST saw The Last Waltz in 1978, I almost walked out, although I was a fan of both director Martin Scorsese and The ...

Jeff Beck: Twenty Years of Rock And Roll Power

Interview by Gene Santoro, Guitar World, January 1985

IT'S BEEN a long time since anybody's heard from Jeff Beck. With the exception of the ten-date ARMS tour of 1984, his last time on ...

Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, The Yardbirds: Jimmy Page: Of Yardbirds And The Shapes of Things to Come

Interview by Gene Santoro, Guitar World, July 1986

For a short time in the late sixties, Page and Beck were in one of the most happening bands to ever come out of England. Some say ...

Adrian Belew: Belew's Menagerie

Interview by Gene Santoro, Guitar World, March 1987

Inside the fertile mind of ADRIAN BELEW, master of sound mixology. ...

Adrian Belew, David Bowie, King Crimson, Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, Frank Zappa: Adrian Belew: Twang Bar King

Interview by Gene Santoro, Downbeat, December 1986

IN THE decade since he first burst into the big-time music world, guitarist Adrian Belew has persistently challenged and reshaped the boundaries of his instrument. ...

Adrian Belew, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Ornette Coleman, Bill Frisell, Jim Hall, Jimi Hendrix, Pat Metheny: Bill Frisell: Blindfold test

Interview by Gene Santoro, Downbeat, April 1987

BILL FRISELL'S eerily haunting voice on guitar has combined with his acute sensitivity and thorough training to make him one of the most in-demand of ...

Bill Frisell Quartet: Look Out For Hope (ECM)

Review by Gene Santoro, Spin, May 1988

BILL FRISELL IS the Clark Kent of the electric guitar. Soft-spoken and self-effacing in conversation, he apparently breathes in lungfuls of raw fire when he ...

Chuck Brown & the Soul Searchers: Any Other Way to Go?/Live at the Crystal Skate (Rhythm Attack)

Review by Gene Santoro, Spin, June 1988

LIKE ITS cousin hip hop, go go is a recent product of a tangled international genealogy. When U.S. R&B and soul music rode radiowaves to ...

James Brown, Bootsy Collins, Funkadelic: Bootsy Collins Effects the Funk

Interview by Gene Santoro, Musician, May 1991

Scouting bass hyperspace, speaking without words ...

James Brown, Funkadelic, Maceo Parker: Maceo, Blow Your Horn!

Interview by Gene Santoro, Pulse!, November 1990

James Brown's saxman of choice, Maceo Parker cuts two solo albums, one jazz, one P-Funk ...

Lenny Bruce

Book Excerpt by Gene Santoro, 'Highway 61 Revisited', 2004

THE SCENE: MIAMI in 1951. A 25-year-old strip show emcee initiates his first public demonstration of what would, decades later, be called performance art. It ...

Harold Budd, Brian Eno: Brian Eno: Musical Revolutionary

Interview by Gene Santoro, Pulse!, March 1989

Stellar producer; influential recording artist; pioneering shaper of sound: BRIAN ENO is all of those things and more. ...

Buffalo Springfield: American Buffalo

Retrospective by Gene Santoro, The Nation, 9 August 2001

UNSTABLE CHEMISTRY can cause spectacular effects – that's one way to think of Buffalo Springfield. Another is to consider the band an American musical smorgasbord ...

Solomon Burke: No. 1, at last

Report and Interview by Gene Santoro, New York Daily News, 2 March 2007

Solomon Burke's latest, Nashville, features guests like Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, Patty Loveless and Gillian Welch. ...

Don Byron: Of Romance and History

Essay by Gene Santoro, Chamber Music, February 2000

PUT ON Romance With The Unseen (Blue Note 7243 4 99545 2 6), the latest CD by clarinetist Don Byron, and you're stepping into dialogues ...

Larry Carlton: Mellow Madness

Interview by Gene Santoro, Guitar World, November 1986

LARRY CARLTON could sit on his laurels, coasting on his rep from countless albums and sessions. But he keeps pushing himself — and his guitar — to higher spaces. ...

Ray Charles, Robert Quine: Remembering Ray Charles and Robert Quine

Obituary by Gene Santoro, The Nation, 24 June 2004

After Ronald Reagan's death, Ray Charles's version of 'Amazing Grace', one of Reagan's favourite songs, kept popping up on radio and TV. Why not? ...

Clifton Chenier, Lightnin' Hopkins, Mance Lipscomb: Arhoolie Records: Do-It-Yourself Library Of Congress

Interview by Gene Santoro, Pulse!, February 1987

Arhoolie Records' Chris Strachwitz is Still Finding Great Music in Out-of-the-Way Places ...

Chet Baker

Book Excerpt by Gene Santoro, 'Highway 61 Revisited...', 2004

IT'S EASY TO rephrase Tolstoy's opening to Anna Karenina so it describes junkies, who all share an essential plotline: Who and how to hustle in ...

Chic, Nile Rodgers: Nile Rodgers of Chic: '80s Funk with 60s Roots

Interview by Gene Santoro, Guitar Player, November 1984

GUITARISTS SINCE Charlie Christian have spent a lot of time and effort trying to play guitar like a horn. Nile Rodgers does it differently; he ...

Ornette Coleman: This Maverick of Modern Jazz Doesn't Like to Be Pigeonholed

Interview by Gene Santoro, Pulse!, November 1986

MOST OF THE other horn-wielding giants who shook the foundations of jazz a generation ago — Coltrane, Dolphy, Ayler — are gone now. But Ornette ...

Albert Collins Puts The Blues On The Map

Interview by Gene Santoro, Guitar World, November 1987

THE MASTER of the Telecaster. The Ice Man. The Houston Twister. The Razor Blade. Those are just a sampling of the titles that have hung ...

Ry Cooder: Blues & Roots

Interview by Gene Santoro, Downbeat, August 1986

LATELY A lot of folks have been going back to school again studying the roots of the music they're making so they can grow their ...

The Cult: Cult returns with new CD

Report and Interview by Gene Santoro, New York Daily News, 9 November 2007

FIRST, THE GROUP tapped into punk and goth. Then they stirred in psychedelia on 1985's 'She Sells Sanctuary'. By 1987, the Rick Rubin-produced album Electric ...

Miles Davis: The Man With The Horn

Retrospective and Interview by Gene Santoro, Pulse!, June 1988

IT'S DRIZZLING on an unseasonably warm spring day in New York; even the huge bay windows in this suite on the upper reaches of the ...

Miles Davis, Marcus Miller, David Sanborn: Marcus Miller: Bass for All Seasons

Interview by Gene Santoro, Guitar World, June 1987

What is it about MARCUS MILLER'S eternal thump that makes him Miles' choice bottom and the Bee Gees' top choice? ...

Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk: Charles Mingus' Aces Back to Back and other jazz reissues

Review by Gene Santoro, The Nation, 18 February 1999

FOR THE PAST year and a half, I've been spending most of my time between 1922 and 1979 – the years of Charles Mingus's birth ...

Kimya Dawson is just peachy

Report and Interview by Gene Santoro, New York Daily News, 4 April 2008

THE LEFT-FIELD success of Juno didn't end at the movie box office. The Oscar winner's soundtrack went all the way to No. 1, making its ...

Derek B, Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde, Luther Ingram, The Leroi Brothers, Run-DMC: The Profile profile

Interview by Gene Santoro, Pulse!, 1987

Six years ago, Profile Records released six 12" singles. That was before Run-D.M.C. Now this thriving independent has some very major ambitions. ...

Ani DiFranco: Blowin' in a New Wind

Essay by Gene Santoro, The Nation, 26 November 2002

AS THE 2002 election results came in, I surfed through 100 cable channels with nothing on and hit an infomercial hosted by John Sebastian for ...

The Dixie Hummingbirds: Jerry Zolten: Great God a'Mighty! The Dixie Hummingbirds – Celebrating the Rise of Soul Gospel Music

Book Review by Gene Santoro, The New York Times Book Review, 16 February 2003

THE ''GOSPEL HIGHWAY,'' the church-based circuit toured by black preachers and religious entertainers, was paved largely by segregation, but it also meant to bypass the ...

Bob Dylan: Scene of the Crime: Bob Dylan at Newport

Essay by Gene Santoro, The Nation, 15 August 2002

EVERYONE KNOWS what happened thirty-seven years ago when Bob Dylan fronted an electric band at the Newport Folk Festival, which is why August 3 saw ...

The Firesign Theatre: Sixties Laugh-In: The Firesign Theatre

Retrospective by Gene Santoro, The Nation, 21 January 1999

"THEY'VE COME TO steal my dreams," whimpers a female voice. A series of male voices drifts past: "Get up, lady." "It's the trade of the ...

The Firesign Theatre

Book Excerpt by Gene Santoro, 'Highway 61 Revisited...', 2004

IN THE LATE 1960s, millions of us walked around with alternate visions of reality dancing in our heads. No, it wasn't just drugs and the ...

Bill Frisell: Blues Dream (Nonesuch)

Review by Gene Santoro, Chamber Music, June 2001

WITH BLUES DREAM (Nonesuch), an album that interprets the blues as the foundation for jazz, bluegrass, Thelonious Monk, soul, Western Swing, heavy metal, and other ...

Danny Gatton: Picking Danny Gatton's Brain

Interview by Gene Santoro, Musician, February 1991

Some of the tricks that make the world's greatest unknown guitarist great ...

Grateful Dead: The Grateful Dead

Book Excerpt by Gene Santoro, 'Highway 61 Revisited...', 2004

"Frenesi took her hand away from Flash's and they all got back to business, the past, a skip tracer with an obsessional gleam in its ...

Woody Guthrie

Book Excerpt by Gene Santoro, 'Highway 61 Revisited...', 2004

ON APRIL 16, 1944, a slight, wiry-haired man with a guitar and harmonica wandered into Moe Asch's little recording studio on West 46 Street off ...

Charlie Haden, Lee Konitz: Questioning Cool, Chamber, & Third Stream: Lee Konitz, Charlie Haden, and Brad Mehldau

Comment by Gene Santoro, Chamber Music, April 2000

FOR THE LAST TWO columns, we've ridden in the Wayback Machine to peer into how jazz has in practice been a kind of chamber music ...

Daryl Hall & John Oates, G.E. Smith, Tom Waits: With Hall & Oates: G.E. Smith — "Call me a contemporary commercial pop-rock guitar player."

Interview by Gene Santoro, Guitar Player, February 1986

"IF THERE'S anything worth writing about me, it's that I'm a guy like most of the people who read Guitar Player," insists G.E. Smith. "I'm ...

Emmylou Harris: Born to Run: Emmylou Harris' Red Dirt Girl

Review by Gene Santoro, The Nation, 12 October 2000

THE SOUND OF Wrecking Ball (Elektra), Emmylou Harris's 1995 album produced by former Brian Eno/Neville Brothers associate Daniel Lanois, drew me back toward her. ...

Roy Haynes: Birds of a Feather (Disques Dreyfus)

Review by Gene Santoro, Chamber Music, 2002

WITH BIRDS OF A FEATHER (Disques Dreyfus), 75-year-old drummer Roy Haynes has forged a scintillating tribute album to bebop icon Charlie "Bird" Parker. His quintet ...

Richard Hell, Robert Quine, Lou Reed: Robert Quine: Newark's Reverent Iconoclast

Interview by Gene Santoro, Guitar Player, January 1986

"YOU'VE GOT to hear this," insists Robert Quine, as he finds what he's looking for on a wall full of shelves sprouting thousands of records. ...

Jimi Hendrix: Alan Douglas Builds A Castle Made of Sand

Interview by Gene Santoro, Guitar World, September 1985

The record producer had Jimi's ear just before the end. Now he's re-packaging it for the masses. As Told To Gene Santoro ...

Jimi Hendrix: Eddie Kramer: The Wizard Of Woof-Woof

Interview by Gene Santoro, Guitar World, September 1985

If Jimi wanted to hear guitar played underwater, Eddie Kramer would turn on the faucet — and get it all down on tape. As told to ...

Jimi Hendrix: Jimi's Army Buddy Bass Player

Retrospective and Interview by Gene Santoro, Guitar World, September 1985

Billy Cox was the only sideman Jimi could trust. He says the world is still catching up to what Jimi played fifteen years ago. As ...

Jimi Hendrix, Curtis Knight: Jimi Hendrix: Curtis Knight's Encounter With The Divine Light

Interview by Gene Santoro, Guitar World, September 1985

As told to Gene Santoro ...

Dave Holland: Bass Is the Place: Dave Holland and the Jazz Bass

Retrospective by Gene Santoro, Chamber Music, December 2001

NOT FOR NOTHIN' (ECM) is bassist Dave Holland's latest CD, and the laconic title could sum up the man himself, his instrument's history, and the ...

Interpol on duty at Madison Square Garden tonight

Report and Interview by Gene Santoro, New York Daily News, 14 September 2007

THEY NEVER CAUGHT quite as much mainstream attention as other modern New York bands like the Strokes or the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. But now, Interpol ...

Keith Jarrett: Exploring Inner Worlds with Keith Jarrett

Interview by Gene Santoro, Pulse!, March 1987

To This Musician/Composer, Music is a Mystical Experience ...

Jerry Jemmott: Session Bassist — The Groovemaster: Jerry Jemmott

Interview by Gene Santoro, Guitar Player, May 1984

WHILE HIS name may not ring any bells, you've heard his bass before, setting the groove for Aretha Franklin, B.B. King, Wilson Pickett, Roberta Flack, ...

Jimi Hendrix: Eddie Kramer: The Wizard Of Woof-Woof

Interview by Gene Santoro, Guitar World, September 1985

If Jimi wanted to hear guitar played underwater, Eddie Kramer would turn on the faucet — and get it all down on tape. As told to Gene ...

Jimi Hendrix: James Marshall Hendrix: Undisputed Master of the Electric Guitar

Interview by Gene Santoro, Guitar World, September 1985

Every guitarist today — from Coryell to Steve Stevens — has been marked by the stamp of Purple Haze genius. Sixteen axmen explain Hendrix' influence in their ...

Billy Joel, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Loup Garou, Paul Simon: Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Loup Garou: Indian Field Ranch, Montauk LI

Live Review by Gene Santoro, Musician, November 1990

Still Ethnic After All These Years ...

Grace Jones: Inside Grace Jones

Interview by Gene Santoro, Pulse!, February 1987

A Story About Film, Fashion and Fresh New Sounds. ...

k.d. lang: fi interview: k.d. lang

Interview by Gene Santoro, Fi, September 1997

IN POSTWAR America, pumped with the energy of victory and prosperity and the conflicts of changing social attitudes, pop culture opened up new frontiers. The ...

The Last Poets: Hip-Hop's Secret Historians

Profile and Interview by Gene Santoro, Pulse!, July 1991

Rap's godfathers the Last Poets drop some truth on the gangsta ethos. ...

Bill Laswell, Material: No Barriers. Tags. Frontiers. Trends. Jean Karakos' Celluloid Label Is Truly Independent

Interview by Gene Santoro, Pulse!, May 1987

SMALL RECORD labels usually concentrate on one particular musical style, or a related set of styles. Not Celluloid Records, which has sought from the beginning ...

Living Colour: Blindfold Test: Vernon Reid

Interview by Gene Santoro, Downbeat, December 1987

VERNON REID first hit the scene in Ronald Shannon Jackson's swaggering harmolodic adventure, the Decoding Society, where his role rapidly expanded as he evolved different ...

Los Lobos: By The Light Of The Moon (Warner Bros 1-25523)

Review by Gene Santoro, Downbeat, April 1987

BY NOW it should be pretty damn clear to anybody with ears that these guys are no novelty act ready to fade back into the ...

Los Lobos: Hour Of The Wolves

Interview by Gene Santoro, Downbeat, April 1985

FROM THE beginning, the real "news" about rock & roll has been the way it's ransacked, revitalized, and rearranged the musical styles that gave birth ...

Louis Armstrong

Book Excerpt by Gene Santoro, 'Highway 61 Revisited...', 2004

FROM 1925 TO 1928, Louis Armstrong made an astonishing series of recordings, the jazz-creating legacy of his Hot Fives and Hot Sevens, a succession of ...

Lonnie Mack: Double Whammy

Interview by Gene Santoro, Guitar World, January 1986

If you consider yourself a vibrato-bar player, you owe a huge debt to Lonnie Mack ...

Marcus Miller, Miles Davis: Marcus Miller: Bass For All Seasons

Interview by Gene Santoro, Guitar World, June 1987

What is it about MARCUS MILLER'S eternal thump that makes him Miles' choice bottom and the Bee Gees' top choice? ...

Laura Marling: Folk-rock's Laura Marling, a star in U.K. at 17, hits New York Friday

Report and Interview by Gene Santoro, New York Daily News, 18 January 2008

IN 2006, LAURA Marling, a 16-year-old Brit from Hampshire, started heading to London every week, looking for clubs to play and flats to crash at ...

Pat Metheny Trio: Live

Review by Gene Santoro, Chamber Music, April 2001

THE GUITAR is arguably the most eclectic and democratic of instruments. Some form of it appears in nearly every society. Anyone can learn to play ...

Charles Mingus: Growing Up Absurd

Book Excerpt by Gene Santoro, 'Myself When I Am Real' (Oxford University Press), 2000

THE BABY, barely three months old and pudgy but with bright eyes and an inquiring air, was the center of attention as he fussed on ...

Charles Mingus: Town Hall Train Wreck

Retrospective by Gene Santoro, The Village Voice, 6 June 2000

IN MID-1962, Charles Mingus made a deal with United Artists. He wanted to lead a big band, but he wanted to record it live, before ...

Jason Moran: Modernistic

Review by Gene Santoro, Chamber Music, December 2002

HERE AT THE beginnings of the 21st century, jazz faces several dilemmas, some creative, some commercial. After an often vitriolic and demoralizing period of consolidation ...

Willie Nelson At 70

Book Excerpt by Gene Santoro, 'Highway 61 Revisited...', 2004

ON APRIL 30, 2003, Willie Nelson turned 70, and celebrated with the release of his latest Greatest Hits collection. The Essential Willie Nelson (Columbia/Legacy), a ...

Greg Osby: Musical Archaeology: Greg Osby's Performances/Recordings from Duke to Monk and beyond

Review by Gene Santoro, Chamber Music, June 2000

NEW JAZZ FANS often have well-intentioned questions I dread, like, "What records should I listen to?" One of my stock answers: "Thelonious Monk Plays Duke ...

Oscar Peterson: A Jazz Odyssey: The Life of Oscar Peterson

Book Review by Gene Santoro, The New York Times Book Review, 14 July 2002

SINCE SEPTEMBER 1949, when he made his debut at Carnegie Hall as a member of the all-star troupe called Jazz at the Philharmonic, the pianist ...

Les Paul: The inimitable Les Paul: retired since 1979, the Master Tinkerer is back in the groove

Interview by Gene Santoro, Pulse!, September 1984

LESTER POLFUS may not be a name to conjure with, but Les Pau! certainly is. Among his many accomplishments: the invention of the Les Paul ...

Porcupine Tree branches out

Report and Interview by Gene Santoro, New York Daily News, 12 October 2007

WHEN PORCUPINE TREE started in 1987, they were a Spinal Tap-style flight of multi-instrumentalist Steven Wilson's imagination. ...

Prince: Sign 'O' The Times (Paisley Park 25577-1)

Review by Gene Santoro, Downbeat, July 1987

DESPITE ALL the hyped-up mystery and intrigue that the media machine swirls around him, like smoke around a Gene Kelly dance routine, the fact is ...

Django Reinhardt: Djangologie/USA Vols. 1-7 (DRG/Swing Records)

Review by Gene Santoro, Spin, April 1988

GYPSY GUITARIST Django Reinhardt offers an early modern (read post-phonograph) example of how pop music travels from its native habitat, is heard through alienated ears, ...

Keith Richards: Talk Is Cheap (Virgin 1-90973)

Review by Gene Santoro, Downbeat, January 1989

IN A WEIRD but fulfilling way this is just about the record everyone — every diehard Stones freak, that is — hoped Keith Richards would ...

Joe Satriani:Wailin' With The Alien

Interview by Gene Santoro, Guitar World, December 1987

JOE SATRIANI is the eternal student of guitar. That's why he's such a great teacher ...

Joseph Spence: The King Of Sling

Discography by Gene Santoro, Guitar World, April 1987

THE VERY bedrock of an entire school of folk and rock guitar is the idiosyncratic work of Bahamanian guitar great Joseph Spence.  ...

Bruce Springsteen: Hey, He's Bruce

Essay by Gene Santoro, The Nation, 29 August 2002

WHEN BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN and the E Street Band, reunited to tour behind The Rising, came to Madison Square Garden on August 12, they juxtaposed '41 ...

Spyro Gyra: The Spyro Gyra Interview

Interview by Gene Santoro, Downbeat, September 1986

ALMOST A dozen years ago, a small sign appeared outside a Buffalo club announcing, "Tuesday Night — Jazz Jam." In effect, it was also announcing ...

Sun Ra: Into The Stratosphere

Profile and Interview by Gene Santoro, Pulse!, September 1987

Sun Ra and the Arkestra Inhabit a Cavernous Musical Cosmos ...

Cecil Taylor: Blue Light Special

Profile by Gene Santoro, Spin, May 1990

FOR THE uninitiated, a Cecil Taylor performance can be like sitting in the middle of a breaking tidal wave on a leaky rubber raft. He ...

Richard Thompson: Rockin' Guitar In The Celt Tradition

Interview by Gene Santoro, Downbeat, February 1985

IT'S NOT that he's unknown, exactly. Time magazine featured him and then-wife Linda in its August 30, 1982 issue, saying that his music "has the ...

Henry Threadgill: Into another world

Interview by Gene Santoro, Pulse!, April 1988

Reedman/composer Henry Threadgill rips down the barriers of jazz with uncompromising, challenging music. ...

U2: The Joshua Tree (Island 90581-1)

Review by Gene Santoro, Downbeat, August 1987

YOU CAN'T say they don't tell you what they feel. And in fact, what they've been feeling over the last couple of years has become ...

Dave Van Ronk: Folk's Missing Link

Retrospective by Gene Santoro, The Nation, 4 April 2002

I WAS IN HIGH school in the 1960s when I first saw Dave Van Ronk at the Gaslight, one of those little cellar clubs that ...

Tom Waits: Guthrie's Heir?: Tom Waits' Mule Variations

Review by Gene Santoro, The Nation, 6 May 1999

TOM WAITS IS an imaginary hobo. He cruises the oddball corners of American pop culture, collecting the deft and moving and loopy short takes he ...

Mary Lou Williams: Linda Dahl: Morning Glory – A Biography of Mary Lou Williams

Book Excerpt by Gene Santoro, 'Highway 61 Revisited...', 2004

MARY LOU WILLIAMS was the first girl who really made it into the boys' club that was (and mostly still is) jazz. Sure, girl singers ...

Hal Willner: Alone in the Dark

Interview by Gene Santoro, Musician, October 1992

SIXTY YEARS ago the Marx Brothers shot Animal Crackers in Astoria, at Paramount's East Coast studios. Last spring, Master Sound Studio, part of that now-refurbished ...

John Zorn: Quick-Change Artist Makes Good

Interview by Gene Santoro, Downbeat, April 1988

"WHAT'S COMING out of this scene down here is definitely hybrid music: it's the result of people growing up through the '60s and '70s, listening ...

List of genre pieces

All That Jazz: Ken Burns

Film/DVD/TV Review by Gene Santoro, The Nation, 12 January 2001

LET'S CUT TO the chase on Ken Burns's Jazz, which rolled out on PBS January 8, by invoking Wallace Stevens. ...

George Wein: Myself Among Others – A Life in Music

Book Review by Gene Santoro, The Nation, 26 June 2003

NOT MANY PEOPLE can say they changed the world and make it stick. In Myself Among Others: A Life in Music, George Wein does. Without ...

Sweet Soul Music: Gerald Posner's Motown – Music, Money, Sex, and Power

Essay by Gene Santoro, The Nation, 23 December 2002

As Trent Lott struggled to "repudiate" segregation fifty years after it was outlawed, about the only point he left out of his incoherent counterattack is ...

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