Alex W. Rodríguez

A person walks in front of grafitti written over a whitewashed wall, reading "Seguir Luchando" ("Keep Fighting")

Known Unknown Territory

As my 39th trip around the sun gets underway this week, the next steps with Somewhere Else!!!! are making themselves apparent. I'm planning a trip to Chile in January to finally use the plane tickets I bought almost three years ago. Nico and I are setting up performances in Santiago

A pink lotus flower blossoming on a lake surrounded by lilypads

Healing in Public

"Music is the Healing Force of the Universe" is one of saxophonist Albert Ayler's transcendent contributions to the 1960s free jazz movement, with lyrics penned and sung by Mary Maria Parks. I found myself revisiting it as I prepared to write today's update, as I began to understand the discomfort

Close-up of a drumset in blue lighting

Somewhere Else!!!! Starts This Weekend

Preparing for the first rehearsal with drummer Rodrigo Recabarren

A Brooklyn side street with a view of the Brooklyn Bridge between two brick buildings

Without a plan

This month's update has been a bit more challenging to conjure than usual ... in part, I think, because there is a shift underway that involves letting go of something to create space for something new that I am just barely beginning to taste. Last month included two big events: first,

An abstract expressionist on a black canvas with pointillistic paint splatters in yellow, orange, and white

Abolishing the Terms of Unison: Ornette Coleman's Aesthetic Marronage

Presented at the Rhythm Changes Jazz Studies Conference in Amsterdam, Netherlands on August 26, 2022 Today, I'll be engaging in an exploration of jazz as politics through the musical practices of Ornette Coleman, the visionary midcentury alto saxophonist, composer, and improviser who unabashedly set the tone for much of the

A large statue of the Buddha sitting in lotus position and showing the Bhumisparsha mudra

Crash Landing the Bhumi Starship

In the last post on my old blog, written at the end of 2020, I mused that I appeared more and more to be inhabiting a role I called "Professional Buddhist." That took the form of essentially subsuming my professional capacities into the formation of new kinds of sangha, or

Jazz Governance?

Jazz Governance?

Throughout a decade in music journalism and academia, I've conducted dozens of interviews. (A few of my favorites: Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter, Fred Wesley, Erwin Díaz.) Yesterday, I was reminded of how much I missed those conversations when I found myself on the other side of the interviewer's chair. Alongside

The Andes Mountains peer through clouds

Somewhere Else!!!!

So this is finally happening ... last week, I spoke with three beloved Chilean jazz co-conspirators to confirm their participation in making my debut album, Somewhere Else!!!! / ¡¡¡¡En Otro Lugar!!!! Yes, that's a lot of exclamation points—that flourish is inspired by one of my musical heroes, Ornette Coleman, whose 1958

The front Entrance to Thelonious jazz club, with green walls and a lit portrait of Thelonious Monk above the front door.

Introducing Jazz Anthropology

May 2022 update launching the monthly newsletter

A light-colored stone sculpture of Jesus Christ with arms outstretched, blue sky and white clouds in the background.

Dehonkifying Christ: A Fool's Errand

Forget the Anti-Christ—the Honky-Christ is the biggest obstacle to the potential for human liberation through the Gospel.

Another trip around the sun

Another trip around the sun

It's my birthday today, marking the beginning of my 38th trip around the sun. In stark contrast to the one where I ended up in Siberia five years ago [https://lubricity.wordpress.com/2016/11/03/where-in-the-world-am-i/], this year has had me largely in one place—my current home on

Schoenberg Jr. High

Schoenberg Jr. High

This post points to the one piece of music of mine that is currently available online: Schoenberg Jr. High, recorded live with a fantastic trio of Chileans for a concert that I wrote about here [https://ethnomusicologyreview.ucla.edu/content/improvising-global-connection]. Schoenberg Jr. High by Alex W. Rodriguez [https://arodjazz.

To Touch the Earth, Build a Spaceship

To Touch the Earth, Build a Spaceship

Hello, Bhumi Starship! I'm trying on an experiment of doing a little bit of writing at the beginning of my work-day to document and share what I've learned and am learning as an early Core Organizer and now General Coordinator for the Bhumisparsha sangha [https://www.bhumisparsha.org/]. If you're