Scratch My Brain

I am writing this on Monday, August 30 in Sant’Anna Arresi, Sardegna, Italy, although depending on the internet connection scene, it might not actually get posted until I get back to the States. I am here to perform with Hamid Drake’s Bindu Reggaeology band. This post is labeled Day 1 (for me), because it was my first day here, even though it was the seventh day of the festival.

I arrived in Sant’Anna Arresi yesterday afternoon, after 24 hours of travel from New Orleans to Chicago to Rome to Cagliari (all by plane) then a van ride from Cagliari to Sant’Anna Arresi. Riding through the beautiful but very hilly Sardinian countryside in a van on very little sleep and nothing but airplane food in the previous 15 hours isn’t all that pleasant, but once I got to the hotel and had a shower and a few hours sleep, I felt much better.

I got to hear the festival concert last night, which was a wonderful performance. It was Conduction® No. 192 “Possible Universe” by Butch Morris. He had an all-star cast on hand. It was essentially a double orchestra and was placed on the stage in stereo, with one of each instrument to each side. The only musician without a double was Alan Silva on synthesizer. The guitarists Jean Paul Bourelly and On ka’a Davis were on either side of Silva with Chad Taylor and Hamid Drake on percussion to the outsides of the guitarists. Silvia Bolognesi played bass on Hamid’s side, and Harrison Bankhead was near Chad. The horns on the Taylor/Bankhead side were Meg Montgomery (trumpet), Greg Ward (alto sax), David Murray (tenor sax & bass clarinet) and Tony Cattano (trombone). On the Drake/Bolognesi side, they were matched by Riccardo Pittau, Pasquale Innarella, Evan Parker and Joe Bowie.

I had never seen a Butch Morris conduction before, and it is quite an experience. Initially it was similar to some electroacoustic concerts in that I was seeing things happen on stage but was not completely connecting the actions with specific sounds. As the music progressed, I began to be able to connect Mr. Morris’ signals with the musical behaviors that they instigated. He exacts very specific and subtle control over the musicians. When it works ideally, the ensemble becomes on instrument that Butch plays, but that instrument still contains all of the personal sounds of Evan Parker, and David Murray, and Joe Bowie, etc. It was refreshing to see so many world class soloists forego their egos and submit to being part of a beautiful and organic sound that was completely controlled by someone else. It seemed to me that this system requires large amounts of trust going each way, from Morris to the musicians, and from the musicians to Morris. I’ll save the blow by blow description of the music, and simply say that it covered a lot of ground from the quite noisy to the quite accessible, and I enjoyed it greatly.

The pre and post gig hangs were great. I made some new Italian musician friends. Trombonist Tony Cattano (col lenga?) is a great hang and a great musician. Silvia Bolognesi also plays in the Italian band of Marcello Bennetti, who also has a New Orleans based band in which I play. Tony, Silvia, Pasquale and I explored the ways that musician jokes do and don’t translate across languages. I had the requisite trombonist gear chat with Joe Bowie, who is a warm and personable cat, and got to hear David Murray lay some of his unique “zen” ideas on us. I also got to spend some time talking to Greg Ward. Greg played one gig with a Chicago version of my quartet a couple of years ago. I really enjoy his music and company. He has a new CD that is about to be released, and he laid a preview copy on me last night. I’ll be sure to post something about it, once I have given it a few listens.

It was a great evening last night, and I am looking forward to getting to play tonight.

(Added 1 Sept) Originally I thought there would be a second post in the series for this trip, but there won’t be. Too much school stuff to do. I’ll leave it with, our gig was great fun, Ernest Dawkins and crew sounded great after us, Butch Morris is a very interesting dude and a nice cat to hang with, it takes 24 hours (for real) to get from Sant’Anna Arresi to Mandeville, LA, and the caprese salad in the Rome airport isn’t bad.

One more note: beware of the man in the hat. His name is Mack, and he runs a cool little bar, and apparently likes to get musicians loaded. Approach with care.

Jeff Albert Music, Tour Diary

The idea for the post you are reading was in part instigated by this post by Andrew Durkin about this post by Anthony Dean-Harris, and the procrastination inertia was broken by these two tweets by Lucas Gillan.

To summarize quickly, in case you didn’t read all the stuff I just linked above: Anthony is afraid to play Nels Cline on his radio show, because he thinks it will drive away listeners, and Lucas linked to a video of Christian Scott on Jimmy Kimmel Live and then asked, “I really wonder what the studio audience and viewers at home, most of whom probably don’t even know who Thelonious Monk is, thought of it.”

There are so many places to go with this, but I’ll start with, why do we insist on underestimating our audiences? People like honest music, even if they don’t know it already, or know or understand the history behind it. As one piece of evidence, I offer up this man. It is not at all uncommon for me to talk to people at the Open Ears Series that will tell me that they don’t really know jazz, and just wandered in to the club, but enjoyed what they heard. (NB- Open ears usually programs fairly left of center, and sometimes just downright weird stuff) Audiences sense honesty and react to that. One doesn’t have to know Monk or his music to get into a young man making a passionate musical statement. BTW Scott’s tune on Kimmel wasn’t all that out. It was just a guy wailing over a simple harmonic vamp, while the drummer went nuts. If he played guitar instead of trumpet, we would have called it classic rock.

It is our job as musicians, radio programmers, bloggers, and friends to spread the word about good music. It is not our job as musicians to guess what people want to hear, it is our job to make the music that we hear, and do it honestly. It is not the job of radio hosts to pander to some perceived infantilism in the audience, it is the job of radio hosts to play good music. We don’t need to pander to audiences, or even nurture audiences. Good music will do the nurturing, all we have to do is let people know that they are welcome to come and listen and make of the music what they will. We just have to invite them in. They’re grown ups, they can listen for themselves.

Jeff Albert Music, Thoughts

Meet The Jazz Audience: Michael Jones : A Blog Supreme : NPR:

“I’ve never heard anything like it. This is what jazz should be about. No programs—just all heart. I’m so happy that I can’t describe it.”

NPR’s jazz blog has been doing these cool “Meet the Jazz Audience” pieces, and I love this one. The audience member we meet is named Michael Jones, and he is being interviewed during the Powerhouse Sound set at this year’s Newport Jazz Festival. His reaction should be the goal of every performer.

Jeff Albert Music, Thoughts

I try not to be too trombone-centric in my listening or writing, but this post is about new music from two trombonist led trios.

Jeb Bishop has just released a CD by his new trio that features Jason Roebke on bass, and Frank Rosaly on drums. Jeb was one of my favorite trombonists before he became a close friend, collaborator, and colleague. I think this is some of his best recorded work. I was honored that Jeb asked me to mix and master this CD (or at least turn the virtual knobs and faders until he liked what he heard). I spent lots of time with this music in my ears throughout the mixing process, and I still like to listen to it. That’s a pretty strong endorsement. You can hear samples at CD Baby.

In other trombone trio news, Jacob Garchik has posted a recording of his trio that was made at Ibeam in Brooklyn on April 10, 2010. There is a zip file of 256k mp3s, and youtube video of the entire concert as well. Check it out here.

Jeff Albert Music, Recent Listening, Recommendations/Reviews

(h/t Jazzfamoose)

Jeff Albert Music, Personal

In the past couple of days, I have been extensively quoted, and not quoted all over the internet.

Jeff Albert Personal

Here are a few albums I have been enjoying recently:

The covers each link to the album’s eMusic page, where you can hear samples, etc.

Jeff Albert Music, Recent Listening, Recommendations/Reviews

There have been many more eloquent tributes to Fred Anderson by people who knew him much better than I did.

I did not know Mr. Anderson very well, but I did have the pleasure (and honor) of performing at his club several times, and hearing him perform a number of times. The first time I heard Fred play, he was with Kidd Jordan, William Parker, and Hamid Drake at the Blue Nile in New Orleans. It was one of those life changing nights. Sometimes we hear a performance that reveals a new path, or lights our way, or simply inspires us deeply, and that was one of those nights for me.

I played at the Velvet Lounge a few times with the Lucky 7s as well as a Chicago version of the Jeff Albert Quartet. Every time I was there Fred spent some portion of the evening listening, and each time offered sincere encouragement for what we were doing. He was an inspiring man in every way.

We should all keep close our memories of his great music and the inspiration he gave so many of us, and pray for comfort for his family and many friends in this time of loss. Many people will dearly miss the man that my friend Hamid called Baba Fred.

Last September, I was in Chicago for the Jazz Fest. I was in the crowd listening to Nicole Mitchell at the Jackson St stage, and Kidd Jordan and Fred Anderson walked up. I said hello, and started a short conversation (asking Kidd why I had to come to Chicago to hear him). As Kidd and I talked, Fred took a couple of steps away from us and turned towards the stage. He wasn’t there to see or be seen, he was there to hear the music.

Jeff Albert Music, Personal

Kyle Gann takes an honest look at his motivations: http://www.artsjournal.com/postclassic/2010/06/almost_all_is_vanity.html

These are questions that all artists (and scholars) must be willing to ask and answer. It is refreshing to see it done so openly.

Jeff Albert Business, Music, Personal

I just caught most of a set of the Moutin Reunion Quartet at Snug Harbor. I had heard about this band, but had not heard them. They are definitely worth checking out. Former New Orleans resident Rick Margitza plays saxophone with the group. It was really nice to hear Rick in that room again. Much of my college time was spent listening to Rick, and often in that room. They are there tomorrow night as well, so go hear them.

Jeff Albert Music, Recommendations/Reviews