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Last night I had the honor to be a guest at Jeb Bishop’s 50th Birthday Blowout at The Green Mill in Chicago. I sat in with the quartet of Jeb, Jeff Parker, Joshua Abrams, and Hamid Drake. We did some material from Hamid’s Bindu-Reggaeology project.
There were other sets by Jeb’s trio and The Engines.
More fun tonight, when I get to guest with the trio.
I am involved in a new organization that will be presenting improvised music in New Orleans. Our first concert is December 12.
Running The Voodoo Down: WRITE A SONG:
“Speaking as a consumer and a jazz fan, I gotta say, with all due respect…f–k you guys. You wanna know why jazz albums don’t sell for shit? Because labels release recordings of lazy, entitled old-timers coasting on name recognition, sleepwalking through tunes everyone who’s into jazz has already heard 500 times before. “
Don’t hold back, Phil. Tell us how you really think.
Please, read the whole thing.
This weekend I will be in Texas performing as a guest with The Log Ladies. Check out the poster below, or go here for more details: http://jeffalbert.com/schedule/
It is again an honor to have made the Rising Star Trombone list in the 2012 DownBeat Critics Poll. These polls can sometimes be awkward, and just downright silly at other times, but I must treat any list that puts my name in such good company as an honor.
The wonderful blog destination:Out is celebrating its 6th birthday with a great post. Good reading and great listening. Even for those of us who listen to “free jazz” often, it is a good read. If we all approached our friends and potential audience members with this attitude, the world would be a better place.
» SIX YEARS OF DEST: OUT Our Beginner’s Guide to Free Jazz destination: OUT:
“2. I DON’T KNOW HOW TO LISTEN TO FREE JAZZ.
OR: HOW DO YOU TELL THE GOOD STUFF FROM THE BAD?
Relax and trust your instincts. Most people automatically assume that there’s something in Free Jazz they’re not getting. Like you need conservatory training to appreciate what the musicians are doing. Or that there’s some secret content you’re not privy to. Nonsense: It’s just sound. Sometimes complex and abrasive, sometimes funky and buoyant. There’s no code to be broken.”
From June 11 through June 19, there was quite a bit of improvised music with visiting musicians happening in New Orleans. Tim Daisy played 3 shows in New Orleans and one in Lafayette, each with a different combination of musicians.
On Monday June 11, we played at The Big Top in New Orleans, as a trio with Tim on drums, Justin Peake on sampler, and me on my trombone/computer/sci-fi instrument rig. There are video of excerpts of that show here: http://jeffalbert.com/tim-daisy-jeff-albert-justin-peake/.
My computer/trombone/etc rig
Tim also played at Open Ears with dave Cappello, Ray Moore, and myself; at the AllWays Lounge with Brad Walker and Helen Gillet; and at Cité des Art in Lafayette with Josef Butts, and myself. Audio documentation of some of these gigs may appear at some point.
On Friday, Tim got schooled at Wii tennis by my daughters.
On Monday June 18, Rob Cambre, of Anxious Sounds, put together a show of ad hoc improvisations at the AllWays Lounge featuring Joe McPhee and the members of The Thing with some local musicians, including Will Thompson, Rob Cambre, Donald Miller, and me. It was a lot of fun, and Rob did a great job of grouping musicians in a way that made for a good show.
The set list for Monday June 18.
On Tuesday June 19, The Thing and Joe McPhee performed on the Open Ears Music Series. It was the last gig of the tour, and they brought it hard. It was a fabulous close to a busy but musically rewarding 9 days.
l to r: Paal Nilsson-Love (behind cymbal), Ingebrigt Håker-Flaten, Mats Gustafsson, & Joe McPhee
Flutin’ High: Improvisation: Freedom and Responsibility: “How do you exercise responsibility within this freedom? Well, in music, it is relatively easy, just listen. “
(Via @musikFabrik.)
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!
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.)