The Motif: Re-Imagine a Jazz Sensibility

Back in the day when Congo Square is the epicenter of artistic expression. When music's exclusive role is to interrogate myriad moans, chants, cries, and  people tropes in an integrative moment of protest, spirituality, and healing. Voices and souls from the Underground, th... Read more

The British Invasion to the United States changed the course of pop, rock, and contemporary music in the sixties. Moving forward the four British lads responsible created a songbook unrivaled. And that sunrise in post modernity caught the attention of the Jazz artist. Tune ... Read more

The reverence the disc jockey holds for jazz radio is legend. During KBOO membership drive The Motif explores the legacy created on Portland airwaves, and beyond.                             photo by Brandy Kayzakian-Rowe Photography Read more

Recent history of black oral music (1995 to present) betrays the evolution and convergence of story telling and social movement(s) historically held (Reconstruction to the 1980s), and told through a communal lens. Sadly, a tradition that has witnessed the rise of materialis... Read more

A slow burning controversy is reignited with a generational, conflated debate: White musician morphs, masquerade, or transgressions into Black music forms. From pop dual The Righteous Brothers and their 'blue eyed soul', to Jeff Lorber's jazz fusion, and Bruno Mars and Just... Read more

The Gospel of Jazz: The Fine Line Between Secular and Religious Music. The music known as jazz evolved from songs of spirit,faith, labor, urban life, and protest. These complex music transfers migrate across music genres, and over the passage of time, accumulate in the sou... Read more

When Pianist Joe Sample passed a few years ago, it also signaled the end to a turbulent relationship with some jazz critics and his music output.   With the heat of criticism now ambers to ashes, a real time rigor of his remarkable skill and versatility at the piano can now... Read more