The Honest Broker

Ted Gioia
A trustworthy guide to music, books, arts, and culture
Created 24 Feb 2021
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  • The 10 Most Popular Posts on The Honest Broker
    21 Oct 2021 • 1 day ago • 2 min read • 10 7
    This is a partying day for me—it’s both my birthday, and also (by pure coincidence) the 6-month anniversary of the launch of The Honest Broker. Both these occasions give me an excuse to look backward,...
  • My 50 Favorite Brazilian Recordings (Part 2)
    18 Oct 2021 • < 1 min read • 5 2
    This is the second installment (out of three) of my survey of great Brazilian albums. Here’s a link to part one. Below are another 15 recordings on my list of 50 essential albums, presented in alphabe...
  • The Music Critic Who Tried to Disappear
    15 Oct 2021 • 17 min read • 23 9
    I’m deeply gratified to receive the 2021 Virgil Thomson Award for Outstanding Music Criticism—announced yesterday by ASCAP. But it’s especially pleasing to get this award for an essay celebrating one ...
  • 12 Predictions for the Future of Music
    14 Oct 2021 • 4 min read • 56 45
    Let me peer into my crystal ball, and predict the next decade in music. I’m brave (or foolhardy) enough to tell you what I see—but you may want to sit down first. If you earn your living from music, s...
  • The Jazz Origins of James Bond
    11 Oct 2021 • 4 min read • 13 5
    A few minutes into the new film No Time to Die, Daniel Craig’s final outing as James Bond, our gallant superspy flirtatiously comments to actress Léa Seydoux: “We have all the time in the world.” That...
  • My 50 Favorite Brazilian Recordings (Part One)
    10 Oct 2021 • < 1 min read • 13 6
    Here’s a special feature for paid subscribers to The Honest Broker—a guide to my 50 favorite recordings of Brazilian music. I plan to publish this survey in three installments. Here are the first 20 t...
  • The Most Expensive Music Career of All Time
    06 Oct 2021 • 4 min read • 7 7
    Housekeeping update: Paid subscribers will be receiving a few special features in the coming weeks. First, I’ll be sharing a survey of the 50 best Brazilian albums of all time—which will arrive in thr...
  • A 1944 US Espionage Guide to Disrupting Organizations
    03 Oct 2021 • 3 min read • 28 2
    I’ve learned a surprising amount from government documents over the years. When I was writing my book Delta Blues, I submitted a Freedom of Information request for any government files on folk song co...
  • Drone Attacks: The New Sound of Contemporary Music
    29 Sep 2021 • 9 min read • 18 13
    The drones are everywhere. And, no, I’m not talking about those flying contraptions that technocrats want to use to deliver pizzas and Amazon packages. Those bad boys are everywhere too, but I’m a mus...
  • 10 Rules for Musicians (and Everybody Else) on How to Deal with Criticism
    26 Sep 2021 • 7 min read • 34 19
    Even I felt awkward about this. An interviewer recently asked Rickie Lee Jones to respond to something I wrote about her. I’m grateful that the journalist quoted some of the more positive things I’d s...
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