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https://www.amazon.com/Just-Today-Ed-Luhrs/dp/B0F9P9V1Z9

The Golden Key to the Secret Treasury

This story had its beginnings in 1997. I added recent details to give it humor.

Read the tale on Google Docs.

— Brother — Sweetgum — Remembers —
Bonus Article by Richard Pindell (In Memoriam)

I was inspired to be creative by Libby Tucker, Richard Pindell, and so many other faculty members that I had in my student days at Binghamton University. Professor Pindell gave me the nickname "Brother Sweetgum" in class, which I got for correctly identifying the name of a tree, and Professor Tucker taught me the value of studying folklore.

Using Logical Perspective to Shape a Jazz Essay

Sidney Bechet (1897-1959)

This is an essay within an essay, the inner one being about music and the outer about strategies one can use to shape a topic. The two are meant to work together to show how academic purpose can be matched with resources that suit the writing. I hope it to be of equal utility to writers and music enthusiasts as it is for discussion in a class.

Read the essay on Google Docs.

In making this essay I maintained a focus of musical choices in connection to  the narrative. I made a point to emphasize musicians that hail from New York, but as you see, the music covers a wide variety. Some names have yet to be mentioned that can become part of the picture. A student suggested Allan Holdsworth to me, and I went home to discover The Sixteen Men of Tain (2000). Brilliant. I can add others, trombone players — Frank Rosolino (1956), “I May Be Wrong (But I Think You’re Wonderful).” Hiroshi Suzuki gets slick in Cat (1975). Then Albert Mangelsdorff,  a German trombone guru, did something unique and coupled a folk song from the northern reaches of the New World with free jazz in “Icy Acres” (1969). Sure there are others yet: feel free to mention any favorite performers that you have in the comments.

Sotirios Chianis

Here is a short film (1968/1972) made in cooperation with SUNY, Discovering the Music of the Middle East, featuring a music professor I had at Binghamton, an ethnomusicologist who also taught a course about the Romantic Era. (We learned, among other things, that Debussy heard gamelan music at the World's Fair and that Mahler had a fondness for Chinese poetry, then had a great feast at the end of the semester.) Here he is performing at the opening, Dr. Sotirios (Sam) Chianis, a scholar of musical traditions and brilliant performer of traditional music.