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Kurt Gottschalk

Kurt Gottschalk doesn't have a favorite Derek Bailey album, but he does have a favorite Chuck Berry song.

About Me

I have been fascinated by music for as long as I can remember. I still can recall being lifted up to a jukebox by my father--I was 3 or 4--to put a coin in and push buttons at random. I didn't understand that the buttons correlated with the song you'd want, but my dad told me when my song came on. It was something by the Partridge Family, and I was excited not only because I knew them from TV, but because I was responsible for everyone in the room hearing it.

I remained interested in songs over singers until I was 8, when a new friend--Eric, with whom I'd remain close my entire life--played a KISS record for me. The power of the music and the theatricality thrilled me. For several years after, they weren't just my favorite band, they were the only band I listened to.

Since then I've plunged into punk, new wave, country, jazz, blues, electronica, experimental and to a lesser degree classical.

The first time I was published was when I was 12 and wrote a letter about David Bowie to Trouser Press magazine. The following year, I began writing a record review column for the Waverly Journal, a small central Illinois paper. I went on to earn a Master's degree from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, and cover local politics for daily papers in Connecticut, where I was twice recognized by the Connecticut Society for Professional Journalists for Best Feature Writing.

My arts journalism has been published in the Village Voice, The Wire, All About Jazz, Signal to Noise, and other outlets, and I write the column New York is Now that appears in Coda (Canada), ImproJazz (France), Jazz.pt (Portugal) and Jazz.ru (Russia). I also host The Brother Lucy Show on WFMU.