Comments on: Sometimes, it’s not what you play, but who you have played it with

By: Jeff Albert

Jeff Albert — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 20:42:23 +0000

You said ,”It may be worthwhile to listen to any musician, period. But without some context, forget it.”

That’s my point. We as listeners all demand some context or recommendation before we will give something a chance. We often don’t judge things solely on their musical effect on us. I think we all (myself included) miss out on lots of good music because of that.

There are any number of great players here in New Orleans, that haven’t played with any one well-known, and receive little or no press coverage (because the press is even worse than the listeners for needing people to be well known before they will cover them). Most people wouldn’t walk in off the street for a no cover gig to hear these guys play, because they have never heard of them…and they would miss out on great music. I am sure the same is true in most cities.

BTW, Miguel, thanks for reading and participating. It is nice to know that people that think about music and are willing to voice their thoughts about music are reading Scratch My Brain. I’m not trying to be argumentative, I am just trying to get us all to gamble a little in our listening habits.

By: Miguel

Miguel — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 20:27:11 +0000

I never said at the exclusion of any other musicians. It may be worthwhile to listen to any musician, period. But without some context, forget it. For more modern musicians, my context is a local gig, some live music recordings, mp3 clips at an mp3 store or musicians’ web sites, referral by a friend or colleague on and offline, newspaper articles, radio. I don’t see the situation as either/or, just that it’s valuable to know who they played with.

By: Jeff Albert

Jeff Albert — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 12:11:16 +0000

You are making my point when you say, “it tells me that, on the level of seriousness, it may be worthwhile to listen to”.

I think there are lots of artists that are “worthwhile to listen to” that haven’t played with some marquee name.

If all of us as writers and fans would deal with people’s music, instead of their resumes, maybe more of thses lesser know musicians would get heard, and the fans would be able to enjoy more good music that they were unaware of.

By: Miguel

Miguel — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 06:28:38 +0000

It’s a valuable piece of information to know who the musician played with. Knowing that musician X played with Coltrane vs. having played with the Basie Band. That tells me how adventurous the musician probably is/was, it tells me that, on the level of seriousness, it may be worthwhile to listen to, it gives me some indication as to whether I might be interested.

It’s a piece of information that *can* be abused, but mostly in marketing. I don’t get the sense that it’s that abused in jazz writing.