Gary Fukushima
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garyfukushima.bsky.social
Gary Fukushima
@garyfukushima.bsky.social
150 followers 260 following 30 posts
Jazz pianist

Jazz educator at CalState Northridge and Pasadena City College

Jazz Journalist, regular contributor to DownBeat Magazine

I write notes and words

www.garyfukushima.com

https://downbeat.com/site/author/gary-fukushima
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garyfukushima.bsky.social
Yeah for sure George, thanks. I know we are all helping to get our friends back to wholeness and making music again soon.
January 23, 2025 at 11:37 PM
garyfukushima.bsky.social
It’s been a fun year of writing about jazz. Here’s to more stories in 2025!
January 1, 2025 at 9:44 PM
garyfukushima.bsky.social
8. Lastly, altoist Devin Daniels: Tracing his journey from a free after-school program in Inglewood to prestigious schools overseas and at the Hancock Institute, to trading solos onstage at the Hollywood Bowl with Herbie himself:

downbeat.com/news/detail/...

#Jazz
#JazzSky
#JazzMusic
#AllAboutJazz
Devin Daniels: From Inglewood to Hancock
“I kind of wasn’t expecting me not liking gentrification,” Devin Daniels says, stroking his beard as he looks away from the screen. The alto saxophonist is referring to his hometown of Inglewood, C...
downbeat.com
January 1, 2025 at 9:43 PM
garyfukushima.bsky.social
7. Herbie Hancock: His Hollywood Bowl Headhunters reunion, and how winning the 2024 DB Critics Poll (Keyboard) helps in part to offset decades of being snubbed by the writers, and the now-classic albums he made during that span:

downbeat.com/news/detail/...

#Jazz
#JazzSky
#JazzMusic
#AllAboutJazz
Herbie Hancock: On Top Where He Belongs
On April 12 of this year, Herbie Hancock turned 84. How many people do you know in their 80s who are still working full time — and a lot more effectively than some candidates in this year’s U.S. presi...
downbeat.com
January 1, 2025 at 9:34 PM
garyfukushima.bsky.social
6. Trombonist Ryan Porter: On growing up in the inner city with Kamasi Washington, and how a chronic illness rendered him homeless even as his career soared as a member of the West Coast Get Down—portrayed in Resilience, a film about his life:

downbeat.com/news/detail/...

#Jazz
#JazzSky
#JazzMusic
Ryan Porter: Resilience and Optimism
On a warm June night at the annual Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival, where nearly 18,000 people packed onto the benches of the historic Los Angeles-based amphitheater for nearly 16 hours of music over two...
downbeat.com
January 1, 2025 at 9:06 PM
garyfukushima.bsky.social
5. Kenny Garrett, marching on: how he finally turned back to fusion four decades after working with Miles Davis, thanks to Who Killed AI, a collaboration borne out of a long friendship with an electronic artist:

downbeat.com/news/detail/...

#Jazz
#JazzSky
#JazzMusic
#AllAboutJazz
Kenny Garrett & Svoy: What’s Next Is Now!
It’s 8:30 in the morning, and Kenny Garrett is walking. He does this most mornings, on a track near his home in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, about 45 minutes outside of New York City. “Hold on, let me f...
downbeat.com
January 1, 2025 at 8:54 PM
garyfukushima.bsky.social
4. Bassist Brian Bromberg: Always loving and wanting to play straight-ahead jazz despite the diversity of his musical life, and how a serious health challenge actually helped him with LaFaro, his tribute to the legendary bassist.

downbeat.com/news/detail/...

#Jazz
#JazzSky
#JazzMusic
#AllAboutJazz
Brian Bromberg: Of LaFaro and Reinvention
Driving into the San Bernardino National Forest, some 40 miles east of Los Angeles, the two-lane road snakes through the suddenly steep cliffs blanketed by lush green pines. Reaching the humble town o...
downbeat.com
January 1, 2025 at 8:44 PM
garyfukushima.bsky.social
3. Jon Irabagon: His penchant for being elusive to define as an artist, along with “absurdist” tendencies in his projects, elucidated by his double album release, Recharge the Blade and Survivalism:

downbeat.com/news/detail/...

#Jazz
#JazzSky
#JazzMusic
#AllAboutJazz
Jon Irabagon’s Absurdist Tendencies
If ever there were an artist who has earned the label “enigma,” it would be saxophonist Jon Irabagon, whose hyper-genre career has warped repeatedly between the narrow straight ahead paths and wide-op...
downbeat.com
January 1, 2025 at 8:35 PM
garyfukushima.bsky.social
2. Drummer/composer Ches Smith: His musical origin story out of Sacramento and the Bay Area, reconciling his love of jazz, classical and punk rock, his work with John Zorn and his latest, genre-busting album, Laugh Ash:

downbeat.com/news/detail/...

#Jazz
#JazzSky
#JazzMusic
#AllAboutJazz
Ches Smith: ‘A Fearless Seeker’
Cities and towns, large and small, through their geography, culture, cuisine and dialect, possess unique, compelling qualities. In California, a plethora of such places abound: Los Angeles, San Franci...
downbeat.com
January 1, 2025 at 8:27 PM
garyfukushima.bsky.social
1. A look into the Los Angeles jazz club Sam First, and their designs on becoming the “Village Vanguard of the West” through their new label featuring high quality live recordings of their performances:

downbeat.com/news/detail/...

#Jazz
#JazzSky
#JazzMusic
#AllAboutJazz
Musicians 1st at Sam First
The back entrance opens into a cozy, darkened room, leather-cushioned benches snaking around the irregular, rounded perimeter walls. The furniture and decor are elegantly crafted, as if it were a feat...
downbeat.com
January 1, 2025 at 8:16 PM
garyfukushima.bsky.social
Thanks to @simplythee.bsky.social for reminding me about this article!
November 26, 2024 at 5:07 PM
garyfukushima.bsky.social
Of note is his Frankensteinian commingling of the tiny soprillo with hunting game calls to produce sounds that are at one compelling and rather disturbing. Check it out if you dare:

jonirabagon.bandcamp.com/track/w-r-o-l
W.R.O.L., by Jon Irabagon
from the album Survivalism
jonirabagon.bandcamp.com
November 26, 2024 at 5:04 PM
garyfukushima.bsky.social
We touched on his humorous absurdist tendencies in his writing and playing, and how exploring the forests and survival bunkers in South Dakota-along with binging some dark fiction-helped him cope with the pandemic.
November 26, 2024 at 5:03 PM