Articles by Daniel Mège
Sun Ra: Heimstad--Sun Ra Meets Pierre Boulez
by Daniel Mège
Most will remember John Cage Meets Sun Ra (Meltdown Records, 1987), drawn from a June 8, 1986 concert at Coney Island, at the initiative of producer Rick Russo to promote his new label. Cage did not know Ra, Ra barely knew Cage, and by most accounts the encounter was a non-encounter. A similar experience brought Ra and Pierre Boulez together that same year. The tapes were lost, recovered, and remastered in 2024: yielding the album Heimstad: Sun Ra Meets Pierre Boulez.
Continue Reading...and in three months' time, Cecil Taylor freed jazz
by Daniel Mège
In the 1950s, while jazz explored its coolness far out west, Cecil Taylor, freshly back from Boston, took up the Thelonious Monkian revolution in jny: New York City. Three years younger (1929) than John Coltrane and Miles Davis, he launched two kids, Archie Vernon Shepp (1936) and Steven Norman Lackritz (1934)--better known as Steve Lacy--whom he drew from dixieland. Then he fired them because they could not keep up. Taylor's compositions at that time were complex objects with spikes distantly ...
Continue ReadingVincent Peirani: Magnetic Dancing on the Cliff
by Daniel Mège
There exists a mystery to melody. For example, “Left Alone," composed on a cross-country flight by Mal Waldron and Billie Holiday. In a few hours, the melody and the chords were established, an absolute compositional masterpiece, full stop. So much beauty served by implacable writing rigor: giants achieve it. Vincent Peirani achieves it. “Physical Attraction," released on Living Being IV (Time Reflections), ACT Music, 2025), consists of a few notes composed by Peirani and rendered by Emile Parisien, another giant. Five, ...
Continue ReadingPatrick Watson: Peter, The Wolf, And The New Orleans Bayou Ghosts
by Daniel Mège
Is Patrick Watson a jazz musician? Lennie Tristano said that jazz is defined by feeling. Having seen Patrick Watson on stage in 2025 in jny:Lausanne and 2026 in Winterthur, Switzerland, he definitely has it, plus very cool vibes. He deserves the title. Since its release, “Peter and the Wolf" from Uh Oh (Secret City Records, 2025) has been stuck in my head. I thought I should (try to) exorcise it here. It is a simple twelve bar melody ...
Continue ReadingTuva Halse: Reconnection
by Daniel Mège
Reconnection is one of the projects (and second quintet album) of violinist and composer Tuva Halse. Tuva who? OK, you are not in Norway (that is your right). The entire Norwegian music scene, from jazz to folk, rap and contemporary music, even Eurovision, knows Tuva Halse. She stopped critics in their tracks in a duo with Joshua Redman last summer, which they described as historic. Three years after graduation at the prestigious jazzlinja at the Norwegian University of ...
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