Geoffrey Himes

Nov 29, 2024 | pastemagazine.com | Geoffrey Himes

Listen to this article Your browser does not support the audio element. I have a theory about jazz history: The conceptual breakthroughs, the new ways of playing, are created by horn players. But those breakthroughs are then fleshed out into new harmonic systems by pianists. In the ‘20s, New Orleans trumpeter King Oliver invented a new way of combining ragtime, blues and march music into a syncopated sound soon called “jass,” then jazz.

Nov 26, 2024 | pastemagazine.com | Geoffrey Himes

Listen to this article Your browser does not support the audio element. On the islands off the coast of Georgia, the Gullah Geechee culture of ex-slaves was isolated from the rest of the world by seawater and a thick dialect and thus retained a music closer to Africa than anywhere else in the United States. When we hear that music today, it’s as if we’re closer to that crucial moment when West African and Anglo-Celtic music began to mix and created the American music we have today.

Oct 31, 2024 | pastemagazine.com | Geoffrey Himes

I’ve interviewed more than a few aspiring artists who have bubbled with frustration over the business types in Nashville who have told them they were “too country for country radio.” This will seem like an oxymoron only to those who have never listened to contemporary country radio or who have only listened to that format. Contrary to what the industry’s apologists claim, country music is not just a marketing strategy.

Oct 22, 2024 | pastemagazine.com | Geoffrey Himes

When English acts such as the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Kinks and Who revitalized rock ‘n’ roll in the early ‘60s, they earned the name of the British Invasion. So why didn’t north-of-the-border acts such as Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and the Band, who did something similar in the early ‘70s, earn the name of the Canadian Invasion? Some rock historians portray the pre-punk portion of this decade as a rock ‘n’ roll wasteland—a view that is only possible if you ignore the work of these Canadians.

Sep 30, 2024 | pastemagazine.com | Geoffrey Himes

Kris Kristofferson, who died Saturday at age 88 in Maui, Hawaii, had not one but two successful careers: the first as a country-music songwriter and the second as a movie actor. But he probably wouldn’t have had either if he’d made a different decision in the late summer of 1965. He had just turned 29, and he seemed to be settling into the family pattern of working for the U.S. Army.