Pieces of Silver

KSDS-FM Jazz 88.3 San Diego | Jazz88.org

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Hi, I'm Matt Silver. Welcome to “Pieces of Silver,” my new column telling stories about jazz—its awe-inspiring history and larger-than-life personalities; its mythology and urban legends; its triumphs and tragedies; its promising future and the gift that is its present.

Expect stories both heavy and light, earnestness and irony, highbrow and low, with gratuitous pedantry and punditry kept to a minimum. If you love Broadway or the blues, jam bands or hip-hop, Motown or rock ‘n’ roll, or even (perhaps especially) classical, but jazz has always felt inaccessible to you—too cultish, too esoteric—welcome in. You’ve been on jazz’s front porch this whole time; “Pieces of Silver” will walk you through the door and let you luxuriate under the big tent.

If you’re a metallurgist, a prepper hoarding hard currency for the end of the world, a hot-shot trading in precious metals futures, or a hostess-with-the-mostess looking for a new set of fine cutlery, you’ve arrived here in error. But Google’s error might be your gain; “Pieces of Silver” could well be that combination of fancy and fanatical you’ve been looking for, situated between the gravitas of the pound sterling and the humility of the silver medal, just downwind of excellence.

The metallurgy and monetary puns are here while supplies last, the jokes will be here as long as I am, and the music, of course, never stops.