Pieces of Silver

- RSS feed of the latest articles by the selected blog name.

Some Thoughts on Music and the Human Condition

To Mark the Occasion of Breaking Jazz’s 50th Broadcast

By Matt Silver

By my rough count, this past week’s broadcast was the 50th distinct episode of Breaking Jazz to air here on KSDS. I hope you’ve found the programming to be fresh yet familiar, comfortable yet adventurous, clever yet heartfelt, athletic yet soulful. 

I hope you’ve encountered here virtuosity that’s more than just an intellectually stimulating exercise in sound. Virtuosity in service of tuneful music making. Music to help you better grasp for a moment’s peace or excitement or transcendence or whatever makes life awe-inspiring or worthwhile for you personally. 

A Brief Review of Seth McFarlane's New Recording of LOST Sinatra Arrangements

Don't miss SING! SING! SING! on Sat., June 28 at 10 a.m. PT, when Seth McFarlane joins host Will Friedwald.

Anyone who’s watched Seth McFarlane’s “Family Guy” knows his love for both the Sinatra and Great American Songbooks runs deep. It also comes as no surprise that such a brilliant voiceover artist is one heck of a singer!

By Matt Silver

With his new album, Lush Life: The Lost Sinatra Arrangements, Seth McFarlane walks the musical roads Sinatra left untaken, singing a dozen charts that were originally written for the Chairman — by Nelson Riddle, Billy May, and Don Costa — but never recorded. Anyone who's ever watched Family Guy knows of McFarlane's abiding love for and encyclopedic knowledge of 20th century music and culture, most particularly popular song and dance. But, for as much recognition as he receives for brilliance as a producer, actor, illustrator, comedian, and voice actor — all of which is deserved — McFarlane might also reasonably be called one of the most astute pop cultural historians and commentators of our time.

Major Programming Alert: Seth McFarlane to Join Will Friedwald on Sing! Sing! Sing! THIS Saturday, June 28, at 10 a.m. PT

It's true! It's true! It's all true! Hollywood icon and notorious Sinatraphile Seth McFarlane to sit for wide ranging interview with SING! SING! SING! host and Wall Street Journal contributor Will Friedwald.

Don’t miss SING! SING! SING! THIS Saturday morning, June 28, at 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET, when host Will Friedwald interviews the brilliant writer, actor, comedian, and vocalist Seth McFarlane.

Seth McFarlane, the brilliant writer, actor, illustrator, voiceover artist and comedic mind behind Family GuyTedThe Orville, and A Million Ways to Die in the West, also happens to be a wonderful vocal interpreter of American popular song.

A One-Time Jazz Messenger, Terence Blanchard has Arguably Been Most Impactful Delivering Jazz through Film

Terence Blanchard has composed original music for over 80 motion pictures; for his efforts, he’s been nominated for two Academy Awards.

By Matt Silver

Versatility is one thing; possessing the aptitude to match a boundless musical curiosity is another. Leonard Bernstein had both; Terence Blanchard also has both. Bernstein’s jazz-infused compositions for stage and symphony orchestra bridged jazz and classical music in boundary-breaking new ways, lending credence to his senior thesis at Harvard, in which he asserted that “jazz is the universal basis of American composition.” Blanchard, in a career now in its fifth decade, has consistently expanded upon Bernstein’s thesis, riffing on classical motifs with his Grammy-winning jazz ensembles and enlivening operas, symphony orchestras, and scores upon scores of (film) scores by reminding audiences that jazz is not just an idiomatic musical language; it’s also, in the right hands, an unforgettably moving narrative tool.

Blue World: The 1964 Session Between CRESCENT and A LOVE SUPREME We Didn't Know About Until 2019

And the only film for which John Coltrane ever recorded music.

”Le Chat Dans Le Sac” is a 1966 French Canadian film in the style of the French New Wave, in part about the disintegration of a young couple's relationship. With music by John Coltrane.

By Matt Silver

At just 37 minutes, and comprising eight takes of only five distinct tunes, it’s hard to categorize John Coltrane’s Blue World as an album, per se.

That doesn’t make it any less spectacular.

Issued by Impulse! Records in Sept. 2019, Blue World constitutes previously unreleased recordings from John Coltrane and his classic quartet at the very peak of the their powers and cohesiveness as a unit.

April 30 is International Jazz Day, a Time to Celebrate Jazz as it Exists Today

As a living, adapting, evolving musical language with no trade deficit; it imports as much as it exports...and that's a good thing.

On Wed., April 30, Jazz 88 will celebrate International Jazz Day 2025 by spinning selections illuminating the truly global reach of jazz. Matt Silver got a head start on the April 27 edition of “Breaking Jazz.”

Hello! This is Matt Silver. I host a new jazz release show on Sunday evenings called "Breaking Jazz," where, each week, I bring you the music and musicians of the moment — jazz as it’s being played today. This past Sunday evening, on "Breaking Jazz," I celebrated International Jazz Day 2025. I realize I was three days early to the party, but "Breaking Jazz" is but a humble weekly program; wait 'til next week, and, by then, the ship's way too far out of port.

Remembering James Moody

...and celebrating his centennial birthday.

Moody with Dizzy Gillespie.

Today (Mar. 26, 2025) we celebrate the centennial birthday of James Moody. Moody, a prolific saxophonist and flutist with a career spanning eight decades, passed on here in San Diego in late 2010. He led an extraordinary life, and would've turned 100 years old today.

Read full article at: Remembering James Moody

How Does a Jazz Radio Station Pick This Year's Super Bowl Winner?

We ask YOU! Which is the better jazz city, Philadelphia or Kansas City?

On MLK Day 2025, a Civil Rights Era Flashback

Eulogizing the four young girls killed in the Sept. 1963 bombing of the 16th St. Baptist Church in Birmingham, MLK decried not just racism but a soulless worldview.

The 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. Photo by Ted Tucker, Greater Birmingham Convention & Visitors Bureau.

By Matt Silver

On this MLK Day, we honor not just Dr. King’s words and actions but those of the broader struggle for civil rights. And we do so, in our small part, by pairing the stories of that era with the artistic response they incited.

Undoubtedly, the tragedies of that period shaped artistic expression as much as the triumphs, if not more so. The 1963 bombing of the 16th St. Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. is no exception. We invite you to read a bit about the tragedy below and engage with the following musical statements, handpicked by our on-air hosts for this MLK Day.

John Coltrane’s “Alabama”

Charles Mingus’s Town Hall Concerts

Ramsey Lewis’s “Wade in the Water”

George Adams’s “Going Home”

Babs Gonzales’s “We Ain’t Got Integration”

Max Roach’s “Let Thy People Go"

The King of Love is Dead: Nina Simone's Unforgettable Live Performance Just Days after King's Assassination

Simone’s ’Nuff Said! Offers ‘Some Kind of Something’ on This and Every MLK Day

Nina Simone took the stage at Wetsbury Music Fair on Long Island in April 1968, three days after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.

By Matt Silver

Over the last several years, America has had to reckon with issues of race, class, civil rights, opportunity, and dignity in a way it hasn’t since Nina Simone first sang protest songs.

Perhaps as a byproduct of the moment, there’s been a resurgence of both popular and critical interest in Simone, the High Priestess of Soul and a civil rights icon. That’s why, on this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I’m compelled to revisit Nina Simone’s ’Nuff Said!