I was working on a paper, and ending up (re)discovering this video. It is the documentation of one of my two public performances on conch shell. The piece is Concerto Grosso by Stephen David Beck, who plays shofar in the video. Enjoy!
Author: Jeff Albert
‘It Can’t Be Done’: The Difficulty Of Growing A Jazz Audience : A Blog Supreme : NPR
I disdain the use of the word “Jazz” as a reference to a monolithic cabal with a singular focus, but the article linked below contains some noteworthy insights, in spite of that J word usage.
‘It Can’t Be Done’: The Difficulty Of Growing A Jazz Audience : A Blog Supreme : NPR: “Jazz simply needs to continue doing what made it great in the first place: engage with popular culture in an intelligent, nuanced and sophisticated manner, as some successful groups are doing today. If there is any hope of audience building, this is where it lies. It must be organic, visceral and culturally relevant, qualities which cannot be consciously conjured by an audience development committee.”
(Via @tedgioia.)
Music Universe, Music Mind
Solo/duo video
I love the way Google Alerts sometimes alerts me to video of myself of which I have previously been unaware. Here is one of them.
This is from the Search & Restore NOLA Round Robin Duos concert. I like the fact that once Helen comes on stage I am heard more than seen.
Sounds familiar
I offer the following without further comment.
Search & Restore New Orleans
Some of you are probably familiar with the NYC based organization called Search and Restore. It is run by a tireless man named Adam Schatz. Well, Adam is bringing his ever-excited craziness to New Orleans via a three night festival in New Orleans on the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of Jazz Fest.
Search And Restore: New Orleans is a 3 day festival (April 30th-May 2) celebrating the incredible new jazz musicians, creative composers and improvisers operating in New Orleans today, organized by Adam Schatz (founder of Search & Restore), Justin Peake (founder of the Merged series @ the Dragon’s Den) and Jeff Albert (founder of the Open Ears series @ the Blue Nile)
There is a Kickstarter campaign in place. I know I am always curious about how the Kickstarter money will be used. Your donations will help us guarantee a fair fee for every musician performing in the festival, with equal pay going to every artist in an effort to truly value the work. This financial security will allow us to go above and beyond with promoting the event, so that we can expose bigger and newer audiences to this vital community, and we hope you will be a part of it too!
Please pledge at the $600 level. It is the only way my wife will let me have my favorite summer hair style…
George Porter Tribute & Lifetime Achievement Award
This past Friday, offBeat Magazine had their annual Best of the Beat Awards show. George Porter Jr. was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award. George invited many of the old & current Runnin’ Pardners to play that night, and like every gig with George, it was great. His daughter Katrina also put together an all star tribute band that did a couple of tunes. I am thankful that I got to play in that group as well, and thankful that someone from offBeat had a camera.
Horn section (l to r): Brian Graber, Khris Royal, Tracy Griffin, Mark Mullins, Jeff Albert. Front row (l to r): Art Neville, Dr. John, Cyril Neville, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, David Berard, Stanton Moore, Papa Mali, & Brint Anderson (out of picture to the right).
What Does Practice Look Like for You? – ProfHacker – The Chronicle of Higher Education
Thoughts on music practice, adapted to other practices, which made me think about my music practice.
What Does Practice Look Like for You? – ProfHacker – The Chronicle of Higher Education:
“At the heart of Newport’s writing is the simple idea that success doesn’t require courage, it requires working hard in the right way. There are a number of ideas that follow from that: for example, you have to “become so good that they can’t ignore you” and becoming that good requires “hard focus.” The idea I’ve found most helpful is that to become good you have to practice deliberately.”
Instigation Quartet recording session
Here are some behind the scenes pics from my Instigation Quartet recording session on November 21, 2011. The musicians involved were Kidd Jordan, Hamid Drake, Joshua Abrams, and me. Zack Smith took the pictures.
I should have info about the release of the music some time soon(-ish).
Like much of the day, I was talking, and Kidd was practicing. Or maybe he was just trying to drown out my talking.
When he wasn’t practicing, he was laughing, or making us laugh.
Here we are with Wesley Fontenot, our fabulous recording engineer, checking out some playback.
Co-producer Benjamin Lyons and Hamid in (I’m sure rather deep) discussion.
We did actually record some music too. There are more action photos here.
Sometimes you have to dance, or music with social meaning
I’ve been meaning to write this for a while, but other things have been interrupting. They have been good interruptions, like a fabulous day in the studio recording with Hamid Drake on drums, Joshua Abrams on bass, and as the Godfather of New Orleans’ free jazz, Kidd Jordan on tenor saxophone. Eventually I’ll have solid news on when that will get released.
But the post that has been waiting to get written was actually instigated by an interview with Nicholas Payton on The Jazz Session. If you are unfamiliar with Nicholas or The Jazz Session (hosted by Jason Crane), go ahead and click through that link. It will be worth it.
In the interview, they were talking about Nicholas’ New Orleans roots, and he mentioned playing for dancers. I don’t know that I agree that “none” of the young jazz musicians have played much for dancers. I think anyone who has tried to make a living as a musician and isn’t a nose-in-the-air purist or jazz snob has had to play for dancing at some point. I know I spent large portions (read “almost all”) of my early career playing for dancing. Of course most of my career has been in new Orleans, so maybe I am making Nicholas’ point.
I do completely agree with his point however, that playing for dancers changes the way we play and the way we view what we do. This is in line with a view that has been articulated to me by others whom I also respect greatly.
At the 2006 Chicago Jazz Festival, I was walking from the Velvet Lounge to the festival hotel, with Dutch cornetist Eric Boeren. We were making small talk, and I asked what else he did. He asked what I meant. I said, “what other sorts of things do you play?” He responded that he didn’t do anything else. He was paid by the Dutch government to write and perform his own music. I said I was jealous, and I did all sorts of weddings, and anything else to get paid. He casually commented, “I sometimes wonder if I am missing out on something.”
My friend and colleague Benjamin Lyons has often stated that he feels like the musicians in New Orleans have an interesting take on improvised/creative/free/whatever music because we all do other things as well. We all play music that has a social meaning that can outweigh the pure musical meaning. Second line parades, jazz funerals, weddings, parties, etc. in New Orleans all have music as an integral part of the overall social meaning, but it isn’t so much about the music, as the music is about the event. The fact that we expect music to have this more important social meaning in these contexts, affects the way we make music in our more artistically centered endeavors. Even when we are being artists, we want to see people move.
I am sure that this is not a phenomenon unique to New Orleans, but it is definitely present here. If we all understand how to make a booty shake, or as Jimbo says “make the party happen” then we will all have a better idea of how to make art that connects with and moves people.