One of the greatest, most unswervingly original, most incorrigibly sublime figures in the recent history of music died today, a few days after his eighty-ninth birthday. I got to see him several times in performance; the first time, in 1989, at the Western Front in Cambridge MA, was one of my indelible listening experiences. I made a poor attempt to write about him in 1998; I will let others sum up his magnificent career.
More: Ben Ratliff, Richard Brody, Ethan Iverson.
