Category: Music

Andrew Hill: One Man’s Lifelong Search for the Melody in Rhythm

A nice article/listening session with Andrew Hill from the NYT.

Andrew Hill: One Man’s Lifelong Search for the Melody in Rhythm – New York Times

As a jazz composer, Andrew Hill is as original as they come. From the start he has had only a modest following. He arrived in New York in 1960, to join Roland Kirk’s group. When he started making his own records for Blue Note a few years later, he didn’t make a great public splash, as Ornette Coleman had in 1959, or even keep a working band to establish a presence in the clubs. Instead, he played the college circuit, taught and applied for arts grants. At one point, in a 1966 interview in Down Beat, he encouraged each of his listeners to send him a dollar.

Hill was hip to micropayments in 1966. I wonder if it worked any better for him then, than it does now?

February eMusic scores

These are my February eMusic pickups. I haven’t delved deeply into all of them yet. I will write more as I do.

Chris Potter – Underground


This one is great. No bass player and it grooves hard. Very interesting and rewarding music.

George Russell -Stratusphunk

I haven’t previously done much listening to George Russell. I had a perception that his stuff was thought to be a little heady and better for analyzing than listening, but I don’t find that on this album. I’m digging it. It is cool to hear David Baker on trombone on this one.

Raul de Souza – Colors

Sonny Rollins – Without a Song (The 9/11 Concert)


Steve Swell / Perry Robinson
– Invisible Cities

Musician’s comments on new tunes vs standards – Jazzcorner’s Speakeasy

The Speakeasy at jazzcorner.com is having an interesting discussion about new tunes and standards in jazz.

Musician’s comments on new tunes vs standards – Jazzcorner’s Speakeasy

It started as a question about where the new standards might be coming from, but has developed into an originals/standards as performancee practice discussion.

I prefer to hear a group play original tunes. Classic jazz tunes are next on my list of preferences, with the Great American Songbook tunes following that. Ideally a mix of all three would be played.

My quartet book is mostly originals by me or friends of mine, with a healthy dose of classic jazz tunes like Monk, Mingus and Shorter compositions, with some more obscure tunes as well by Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Grachan Moncur, Joe Lovano, and the like. I do have about a dozen Great American Songbook tunes for times wheen they would be a ppropriate, but they aren’t a regular part of most Jeff Albert Quartet performances.

If I go out to hear music and catch a group playing Stella or All The Things You Are, it has to be super happening to keep my attention, whereas a passable performance of an original will keep me tuned in. I am sure to some extent that is simply a taste issue.

What do you prefer to hear people play?

Greenleaf Music on AAJ

Check out this All About Jazz article on Greenleaf Music.

Greenleaf began its life more traditionally, with a distributor and a shelf presence in brick-and-mortar music stores for its first two records, including Douglas’ Mountain Passages with his Nomad ensemble. But as 2005 progressed, Friedman sensed that online retail – the right to which he reserved in Greenleaf’s contract with its distributor – was increasingly the way most effectively to reach Greenleaf’s audience. The strange result is that the Grammy-nominated Keystone became available in stores only subsequent to its nomination.

Besides Mountain Passages and Keystone, the other two records in the Greenleaf catalog are Kneebody’s self-titled debut and the Douglas quintet’s Live at the Bimhuis, from its 2002 European tour. The latter is the first in Greenleaf’s Paperback Series, which, Douglas said, “involves recordings that ought to be out there but that would very rarely get a chance to see the light of day, because of marketing and promotion constraints.” The Paperbacks are professionally recorded, but feature minimalist packaging and are sold only online and at a reduced price ($9 for one set, or $15 for both sets of Live at the Bimhuis).

New York Philharmonic to Make Concerts Available for Digital Downloading – New York Times

New York Philharmonic to Make Concerts Available for Digital Downloading – New York Times

The fact that the NY Phil is entering the legal download world is cool, but the very exciting thing is the recording of new works.

Mr. Mehta also announced another recording deal, an arrangement with New World Records to release two CD’s a year of new works commissioned and played by the Philharmonic in their world premieres. Those recordings, too, will be available by download, said the orchestra’s spokesman, Eric Latzky.

If you want to download another recording of Mozart 40, that’s fine, but the fact that new works by living composers are getting recorded is the real excitement for me. That is the kind of development that can help the arts continue to thrive.

Art, life, money, art…

If you have any interest in the intersection of the life of an artist, the business of art, and the simultaneous creation of art and a decent lifestyle, you must read this article: PopMatters | Columns | Will Layman | Jazz Today | Making the Music Play for You

Will Layman looks at these issues through musician Rudresh Mahanthappa and Pi Recordings owner, Seth Rosner.

“The first time my name showed up in the Downbeat Critic’s Poll,” Mahanthappa tells me (referring to the highly respected poll of top talent in the nation’s most august jazz publication), “I couldn’t afford to buy the magazine.”

Mahanthappa also provides an eye opening view of what the music business can do to people, and what can happen when one holds onto one’s love of music.

“The summer after my first year at Berklee, I got a cruise ship gig that was a big eye-opener. Almost every musician on the ship had forgotten the reason they started playing,” Mahanthappa tells me. “No one cared about music any more. They were just drinking, living the life on the ship. And I thought, if that’s what making a living as a musician is about, then I want no part of it.”

So, to be even a moderately aspiring jazz musician is to be a poster-child for struggling artists everywhere. You have to love what you’re doing and forget about the money. …

For the rest of us, the folks sitting around the hip little tables at the Jazz Standard (making out or just listening), Mahanthappa’s love of the music is palpable.

Change or die

A look at the relationship between composers, orchestras, and their audiences, by Stephen McNeff.

Guardian Unlimited | Film & Music | Change or die

Most importantly, I want to persuade audiences that new music need not be intimidating. Last summer, a short work premiered at the orchestra’s outdoor concerts was heard by a staggering – for new music – 38,000 people. The BSO’s principal conductor, Marin Alsop, is not only committed to new music but is a skilled communicator who likes to introduce works personally. Ahead of the premiere of my new work Heiligenstadt last November, she and I spoke about it, while the orchestra played extracts.

The audience’s response convinced me that this was extraordinarily valuable in helping people be involved with what they were about to hear.