2026.03.16 William Hooker and Ahmed Abdullah on Old and New Dreams - 1 of 3

About this episode

William Hooker and Ahmed Abdullah discuss the music of Old and New Dreams and the journey of improvisation in jazz.

Throw away the map. Now, how are you going to find your way to your destination? You will probably find many more answers than you may have thought you'd find when you were looking at that folded-up piece of paper. The band Old and New Dreams didn't have to follow chord changes, disregarded time signatures, but their music was full of story-songs, each with a beginning, a middle, and an end. It's four members-- saxophonist Dewey Redman, trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Ed Blackwell-- each sang his song in full voice. And when you heard them together, you never wondered if or when you would arrive. You just hoped the journey wouldn't end too soon, even if you knew that it would. Sonic navigator/drummer William Hooker has chosen Old and New Dreams for this week's episode of Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus, and Ahmed Abdullah as his surprise guest. Will Mitch find live, unreleased recordings of the band in the WKCR archives? The day will come when his spotless record is going to get besmirched. Oh, let's just hope it's not this week! I guess there's only one way to find out. Tune in this Monday (3/16) from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org…

People in this episode

Host: Mitch Goldman

Guests: William Hooker, Ahmed Abdullah

Topics covered

• music
• improvisation
• storytelling
• jazz
• live recordings

Keywords

• Old and New Dreams
• William Hooker
• Ahmed Abdullah
• jazz
• improvisation
• live recordings
• WKCR

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: WKCR

Books & works: Old and New Dreams

Places: NYC

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