For decades Benny Goodman and his clarinet popped up just about everywhere, and when they did, just about everyone knew it. Goodman, who would have turned 100 on May 30, defined for most people the swing era that dominated popular American music for much ...

If Tom Stoppard and Almost Free Theatre could play a 15-minute Hamlet to cut out the prevarications and welcome the masses in the 1970s, we can do the same for jazz in 2008. So here's how to translate jazzspeak, follow the plot, and nod in the right places. First, you need a storyline, which goes roughly like this: In ...

I'm still trying to get on with the blasted novel, over which I have been procrastinating for several years now. Though there are occasional exhilarating hours when it proceeds apace, there are others when I sit at my desk, drinking cold coffee and smoking roll-ups, when I conclude that, on balance and all things considered, I'd rather slash ...