Siddhartha Mitter

Find my work here, and here

It's not that I'm lazy... But I haven't updated this portfolio in a while. I'm relying more on web searches and on tools like Facebook to disseminate my work. In the meantime, here are two handy links.

For an archive of my reporting on culture and urban life for WNYC public radio in New York, click here.

For an archive of my writing on jazz, world music, and soul for The Boston Globe, click here.

Learning from the masters of jazz

Boston Globe, August 29, 2008

Jazz is saturated with hot talent fresh out of music schools. That's not a bad problem to have - it certainly proves to any doubters the music's continued appeal - but it makes it especially refreshing when a distinctive new presence on the scene belongs to a true autodidact. Characters who learned on the fly, came in on a tangent from other musical scenes, or simply didn't have access to expensive educations are central to the history of the music. Today, they remind us of its roots and its soul.

More than bliss

Boston Globe, August 29, 2008

Loungey, downtempo electronic music is everywhere these days; it's the international late-night sound of our time, at once product of a hyperkinetic global culture and antidote to its agitation. The swirling soundscapes, the layers of polyglot melodies riding supple rhythms, convey a kind of new cosmopolitan sensibility and feed the need for peace amid tumult that has turned "chillout" into a whole musical genre.

DJ Legend on a Dance Floor Mission

WNYC News, August 19, 2008

He's a legendary DJ from even before the days of disco. Now Brooklyn's own Nicky Siano has returned — on a mission — to bring the soul back to the dance floor. WNYC's Siddhartha Mitter reports.

He said it loud, and they're proud

Boston Globe, August 15, 2008

Hard to believe, but it's coming up on two years since the death of James Brown. The undisputed master of funk passed away Christmas Day 2006. And since then, there has been surprisingly little in the way of big-ticket musical tributes to the man, as if his influence and legacy were too monumental to be tackled in any one concert.

At Willets Point, resistance and resignation

WNYC News, August 12, 2008

Willets Point - Slideshow

Click here for slideshow accompanying the Willets Point radio story.

Beginning her career purely by accident

Boston Globe, August 8, 2008

Were it not for certain wrenching circumstances, it might sound like a run of absurd good fortune: A young woman from Philadelphia, an amateur musician with career aspirations elsewhere, writes and sings a few songs for personal use. Reluctantly she shares the recordings with a friend who, unbeknownst to her, sets up a MySpace page to show off her work. A gig ensues, and then another . . .

One nation under a beat

Boston Globe, July 25, 2008

NEW YORK - It's about three songs into a live performance by Nation Beat, the exuberant and inquisitive Brooklyn-based band that has pioneered a synthesis of music from northeastern Brazil and the American South, that you realize for good that this is no run-of-the-mill, hippiefied world-beat fusion project.

'Time' feels right with uplifting messages, smooth delivery

Boston Globe, July 22, 2008

"The River," the single from Noel Gourdin's "After My Time," his new debut album of assured R&B for grown folks, is one of those unhurried warm-weather numbers that grows on you on each listen with no need for a catchy hook or aggressive beat. It's a melancholy riff on childhood summers down in Mississippi, on teenage love found and lost, against a fresco of family and faith.

Fab Pre-Fab Buildings

WNYC News, July 18, 2008

With all the anxiety about mortgages and foreclosures, you might forget another part of the housing crisis: The need for affordable new housing in many parts of the country. A new exhibition at MoMA shows how some architects are working with prefabricated housing to come up with new housing solutions. WNYC’s Siddhartha Mitter has this profile of one such effort.

Through the storms

Boston Globe, July 18, 2008

It's been almost three years since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, but for the Hot 8 Brass Band, the hurt didn't end with the storm. When the band - one of the most popular in New Orleans, behind a revitalized sound that connects traditional brass with funk and hip-hop - takes the stage in the Museum of Fine Arts' Calderwood Courtyard on Wednesday, the timbre of its horns and the rumble of its drums will bear witness to fresh struggle and pain.

Father's rebellious spirit fills Kuti's songs

Boston Globe, July 4, 2008

Seun Kuti sets himself a high standard.

"In the true tradition of Afrobeat, you have to make every album like a classic," says the Nigerian singer and bandleader.

BAM Kicks Off Afro-Punk Festival

WNYC News, July 4, 2008

They used to be misfits, but now they're a flourishing cultural movement. A festival in Brooklyn showcases Afro-punk - the growing scene of mostly black young people who aren't afraid to rock out. WNYC's Siddhartha Mitter reports.

Finding his way back home again

Boston Globe, June 20, 2008

One of the privileges of stardom is the ability to concoct and pull off projects that color outside the lines. In the past few years Sergio Mendes, the superstar Brazilian keyboardist and bandleader and longtime ambassador of bossa nova, has drawn freely on this license.

Large crowds, big names

Boston Globe, June 15, 2008

By general consensus it's the world's biggest jazz festival, and it stubbornly refuses to stop growing. Now in its 29th year, the Montreal Jazz Festival, which runs from June 26 to July 6, is richer than ever, with 15 indoor venues and an abundance of outdoor programs, many of them - in the festival's finest tradition - absolutely free.

His annual event keeps city hopping

Boston Globe, June 15, 2008
Back in 1980 Andre Menard cofounded what would become the Montreal Jazz Festival with a modest series of concerts that aimed to liven up a sleepy summer scene. The nights are sleepless now: Montreal is an uncontested global summer music epicenter. Menard offered his own preview of this year's festival.

At JazzFest, Pops will revive Dizzy's spirit

Boston Globe, June 6, 2008

It's growing into one of Boston's new rites of summer: For the third year running, the Boston Pops this month is holding its annual JazzFest, a series of special concerts in which leading lights of jazz partner with the orchestra in the delicate exercise of merging symphonic and improvisational sensibilities.

This year's program will find the spirit of John Birks Gillespie - known to all as Dizzy Gillespie, trumpeter extraordinaire and a central figure of jazz history who died in 1993 - hovering benevolently over Symphony Hall as a passel of his most distinguished apprentices honor the stage.

The South Comes Up North

WNYC News, May 30, 2008

Up from the Deep South...all the way to Brooklyn. A two-week festival is underway that celebrates the culture of the Mississippi Delta. WNYC’s Siddhartha Mitter reflects on the birthplace of the blues.

Art and Satire in Iran

WNYC News, May 24, 2008

Ardeshir Mohassess: Art and Satire in Iran is the first major U.S. retrospective of Mohassess's work. The self-taught artist presents 70 monochromatic ink drawings that comment on Iran’s social, political and cultural life before and after the 1979 revolution.

Making a statement

Boston Globe, May 23, 2008
Jazz bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding is on the express track. At 23, she's not only a Berklee College of Music alumna, but already on the school's faculty, and she's gigging amid the jazz elite, from backing Joe Lovano or Pat Metheny to hitting the top festivals like Newport. Her new self-titled record marks another career jump, as she has left the European indie label of her 2006 disc, "Junjo," for Heads Up, with its well-regarded roster of established jazz, blues, and world artists. The new record came out this week, and Spalding plays a CD-release show at the Regattabar Thursday.

Bringing about a reunion of fusion pioneers

Boston Globe, May 18, 2008
A ritual of summer takes on a jazz flavoring this year, as perhaps the season's most anticipated reunion tour is the one featuring the classic lineup of Return to Forever, one of the most iconic jazz units of the '70s.

Sax man likes to go with the flow

Boston Globe, May 16, 2008
NEW YORK - When he was about 12 years old, Pete Robbins knew he wanted to learn a wind instrument so he could play in his school band. And he worried that his original choice, the clarinet, simply wasn't cool.

Artists Trek to East Williamsburg

WNYC News, May 09, 2008

The East Williamsburg industrial area is one of the remaining manufacturing districts in the city. But, it’s also the latest refuge for arts organizations and artists fleeing high rents in Manhattan. WNYC’s Siddhartha Mitter reports on a group of international artists who are making the neighborhood their base.

Haale's sound stretches from New York to Iran

Boston Globe, May 6, 2008
Call her Persian. Call her a New Yorker. Call her a rocker. Call her a poet. Even call her a mystic, if you must. But please, don't call Haale exotic.

Audio slideshow: A Walk Down 125

WNYC.org, April 25, 2008
A narrated photo essay accompanying my radio piece on 125th Street that aired the same day. Photos by Annie Shreffler.

A Walk Down 125th Street

WNYC News, April 25, 2008

Changes are coming to 125th Street. Plans to rezone Harlem’s main artery look headed for approval in the city council, after a compromise to limit the height of new buildings to 19 stories. The amount of affordable housing in the plan has also been increased. While the look of 125th Street will change, it’s less clear what will happen to its identity.

A life in between worlds

Boston Globe,  May 2, 2008
NEW YORK - It's your basic immigrant success story, really: A young man grows up in a faraway country, feels the call of a challenging vocation, sets his eyes upon a dream. He works with relentless purpose and finds his way to America where, under the tutelage of masters in his field, he becomes, at just 35, a master in his own right.

Remembering a world-music giant

Boston Globe, April 4, 2008
Last October, Andy Palacio, a brilliant musician and activist from Belize, capped a landmark year by standing on a stage in Seville, Spain, to accept world music's highest tribute: the WOMEX Award.

Victor Wooten trades his funky soul for a spiritual one

Boston Globe, March 28, 2008
Mystical visitations are much on the mind these days of Victor Wooten. In addition to a new album, "Palmystery," out next week, the Nashville-based contemporary bass guitar hero is also releasing a book, a work of fiction titled "The Music Lesson," in which a young player learns wisdom well beyond musical technique alone from a chance encounter with a spiritually advanced stranger.

New York's Clergy Talk Politics

WNYC News, March 23, 2008

Today is Easter Sunday and many New Yorkers are headed to Church. Last Tuesday Democratic Candidate Barack Obama talked about the conflicts he as a congregant has had with some of what his pastor, the Rev Jeremiah Wright has said in the past. WNYC’s Siddhartha Mitter spoke with some New York clergy about how they handle potentially divisive topics when addressing their congregations.

Surviving a rough patch

Boston Globe, March 21, 2008
Last year was a time of transition for the Drive-By Truckers, the Athens, Ga., band with the dual gift for high-octane rocking and magisterial front-porch storytelling. Personnel flux and a sense of fatigue led the group to pare down its sound, perform acoustic gigs, and take time out to serve as backing band on a soul-music project.

An Iraqi Musician in New York

WNYC News, March 19, 2008

Five years after the US invasion of Iraq, an Iraqi-American musician is preserving the classical music of Baghdad here in New York. WNYC’s Siddhartha Mitter reports.

Prezens is all over the map -- and that's the point

Boston Globe, March 14, 2008
One of the most interesting recent albums to beam back from the frontier where jazz, rock, electronica, and free improvisation intersect was David Torn's "Prezens." It's a digitally enhanced quartet led by a guitarist-producer whose career has taken on the most abstract projects as well as some of the most commercial, as a composer of Hollywood soundtracks or a session musician on major pop and R&B releases.

Arab Music Thrives in New York

WNYC News, March 10, 2008

A major festival of Arab music is taking place in Brooklyn all this month. After 9/11 there were fears that funding and opportunities for Arab artists would dry up. Siddhartha Mitter reports on the thriving scene for Arab music in New York.

A banjo, a piano, and two willing masters

Boston Globe, February 29, 2008
In four decades exploring seemingly every nook and cranny of straight-ahead jazz, Latin jazz, and fusion, the pianist Chick Corea has exemplified versatility and spirit of adventure to as great an extent as any musician today. But even omnivorous curiosity has limits. So when asked how much interest he had ever taken, until recently, in working with a banjo as accompanying instrument, Corea's reply is frank and succinct: "Zero."

Structure and roughness

Boston Globe, February 24, 2008
In the Japanese tradition, the ronin is the masterless samurai. The consummate free agent, he rejects conventional authority and moves through the world with defiance and dignity. In jazz today, Ronin designates something no less rigorous and idiosyncratic. It's the name that Swiss pianist Nik Bärtsch chose for his quintet, a one-of-a-kind unit that performs what Bärtsch calls Zen-funk - a cerebral music influenced by minimalism, yet blessed with head-nodding, foot-tapping rhythmic tendencies, and an exhilarating sense of pacing that makes each composition a fascinating adventure.

For saxman, it's all adding up

Boston Globe, February 15, 2008
NEW YORK - He's a self-described egghead, a numbers nut who could have become a mathematician or economist. He's a science-fiction fan who loves William Gibson's "Neuromancer" and is liable to zone out to sci-fi reruns on TV. But when Rudresh Mahanthappa takes the stage, it's with an alto saxophone, not chalk and blackboard, that he burrows into theorems and explores alternate planes, in a musical language so vivid and complex that hard-bitten jazz arbiters have dared to compare him to Ornette Coleman or John Coltrane.

An avant-garde thinker takes a turn with a trio

Boston Globe, February 8, 2008
Improvised music never happens in a vacuum. It's the product of an encounter, when musicians listen and respond together in a way that none could have achieved alone. The deeper the encounter, the more fully present the players, the greater the liberties they can take with conventions and still produce beautiful music.

Campaign Theme Songs: A Tough Balance

WNYC News, February 02, 2008

It’s not exactly the Grammys, but as the presidential field winnows down, so does the list of campaign theme songs that might – come November – be crowned the Winning Presidential Anthem of 2008. WNYC’s Siddhartha Mitter evaluates the contenders.

Playing around with nature's soundtrack

Boston Globe, February 1, 2008
Jazz and the great outdoors aren't commonly associated with each other, but for bassist and bandleader Jason Davis, they've been the twin poles of an emerging career that's as much - pardon the pun - about timber as it is about timbre.

Spanning, spinning global beats

Boston Globe, January 30, 2008
NEW YORK - She's as conversant in the arcana of classic, early-'90s hip-hop as she is in the folk music of her family's native Punjab, India. Spinning on her turntables today, you might find Bollywood anthems, baile funk from Brazil, or neo-Balkan brass-band grooves from her adopted Brooklyn.

Spirit guides Moses on his journey

Boston Globe, January 25, 2008
When John Coltrane passed away in 1967, he was just a few years into the spiritual quest that his later albums document, with titles like "Om" and "Interstellar Space," and the liberation they reflect from conventions of jazz form and expression. Coltrane was only 40 at his death, and no one knows where his music might have gone had he lived longer. It's been left to his collaborators and others whom he inspired to imagine this invisible yet compelling legacy.

Dr King's Impact on Political Oratory

WNYC News, January 20, 2008

In this election year, political oratory is back in the spotlight. WNYC's Siddhartha Mitter sat down with one of New York's best known orators to talk about the art of the speech forty years after Dr. Martin Luther King.

All-American hybrid

Boston Globe, January 11, 2008
The song opens with a banjo furiously strumming, the lines tumbling out like torrents down an Appalachian mountainside as warm fiddle notes poke out. Soon the drums kick in and - wait, is that a saxophone?

A Gangs-Eye View of the Bronx Streets

WNYC News, January 9, 2008

Street gangs have always been a part of life in New York City; in some neighborhoods they’re a constant fact of life. WNYC’s Siddhartha Mitter spent time in the Bronx with a teenager to get a street level view.

Interpreting anew the King's rich repertoire

Boston Globe, January 4, 2008
The songs of Elvis Presley aren't commonly considered fare for jazz interpretations, particularly for jazz with highbrow aspirations. But such limits of taste or curiosity don't apply to Cyrus Chestnut, the accomplished pianist who visits Scullers this weekend to open the new year on the jazz scene.

The torchbearer

Boston Globe, December 21, 2007
Of all the great expressive traditions in jazz, the male vocal is one that has had difficulty maintaining its position in the music's evolving marketplace. The shortage of prominent male singers is especially pronounced when it comes to African-American voices. For all the reinvigoration of jazz today, few if any inheritors of Nat King Cole or Johnny Hartman have emerged, and there's a case to be made that something important beyond the music itself is thereby threatened.

Top CDs of 2007

Boston Globe, December 16, 2007
Below is my list for the Boston Globe's year-end roundup feature. The copy is here. The multimedia version with audio commentary is here. The whole package with picks from my colleagues (highly recommended!) is here.

From the Philippines to Upstate

WNYC News, December 14, 2007

Two percussionists, making a life together and building a family to the rhythm of dozens of drums. She is Filipino-American, he is Cuban-American and they make music that combines both their cultures - and many others. WNYC’s Siddhartha Mitter spent time with Susie Ibarra and Roberto Rodriguez for our ongoing series about musicians, The New Americans.