Category: Thoughts

Recent good music hangs – Chicago and Porter’s Birthday

I have noticed that the amount of music I am making is inversely proportional to the amount of time I spend writing here. I guess it is good that I haven’t written much lately, because that means I have been playing a lot.

On December 9th, I spent a very eventful 18 hours in Chicago. BoX3 played the Ears and Eyes Festival, and it was a blast. The festival also provided me the opportunity to hear Zing! and Matt Ulery’s Loom. I have already commented on the Zing! CD, and I picked up a copy of the Matt Ulery’s Loom disc “Music Box Ballerina”, and the James Davis Quintet’s “Angles of Refraction” at the fest. There may be more comments on these CDs later.

Later that night I heard Aram Shelton at the Hungry Brain. The first set was solo Aram with alto sax and laptop. He did a nice job of integrating the two and having it make some sense, which can be very difficult. The second set was Aram with Josh Berman on cornet, Jeff Parker on guitar, Jason Roebke on bass, and Frank Rosaly on drums. They sounded great. I had had a long day and Dan was pouring quickly, so I can’t offer too many specifics, but it was an enjoyable listen, and good to see and hear some friends that I don’t get to see or hear often enough.

Every year on December 26th, George Porter, Jr. has a birthday gig at The Howlin Wolf. This year it was quite a production in honor of George’s 60th year. A Who’s Who of New Orleans music was in attendance, and it seemed like half of them showed up on stage at some point. The Runnin’ Pardner horn section joined PBS for a few tunes from the new CD. At one point I looked over and Ivan Neville had jumped on the vacant B3 that was stage left, and Stanton Moore was on the second drumset. Johnny Vidacovich played, as did Raymond Weber. At one point later, Russell left his drums and went to the B3 and Stanton and Raymond were left at the two drumsets. It was a fun jam, and most of it was pretty musical. George is a special cat, and it was nice to be able to be part of acknowledging that on his 60th birthday.

Richard Kamins | See! Hear!: Mr. Miscellany

The following very eloquent statement from Richard Kamins caught my attention. I don’t have much to add, it was just so well said, that I wanted to do my share to see that it is read by as many people as possible.

Richard Kamins | See! Hear!: Mr. Miscellany:

“One thing to keep in mind as the New Year arrives, the creative arts have a tough time surviving without support. That does not mean one has to buy every CD or DVD or book that’s released but really the creative arts needs an audience. … Musicians, poets, performers, as well as directors, authors and set designers need feedback (and not just good or bad reviews in the papers or on blogs.) Applause is important, box office earnings help a lot, yet there’s nothing like stepping out on stage and seeing people in the seats.”

Our responsibility as performers

Yesterday I had a great hang with Thollem McDonas, who is in town to perform on the Open Ears Music Series tonight. The conversation turned to audience development at one point, and we were discussing ways to connect audiences and music that might not know they like each other yet. This led to thoughts about our responsibilities as performers, mainly the idea that we have the responsibility to always give honest and convicted performances. We can’t decry a lack of audience for our music, if we aren’t giving those audiences the real deal every time.

I am sure this isn’t anything we don’t already know, but it was on my mind…

How Educated Must an Artist Be?

How Educated Must an Artist Be? – ChronicleReview.com: “However, the first goal has yet to be achieved — can anyone name a great Ph.D. artist of our time? — and the second merely indicates what is wrong in academe, which is that it elevates credentials over everything else.”

This article is about art, but could be applied equally to music. I think part of the issue is that the university has replaced the aristocracy as the sponsor of the arts and artists. We can’t be on the court of the Arch-Duke any longer, so we are on the faculty at the local college.

I say all of this as I plan to start work on a DMA next fall…

(Via ArtsJournal.)

RIP George Brumat – Owner of Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro

From Jason Patterson, who books Snug Harbor (New Orleans’ premier jazz room):

To all the Friends of Snug Harbor,

Owner George Brumat died yesterday peacefully in his sleep of an apparent
heart attack. This has been a huge shock to everyone associated with the
Snug but we know George would want us to keep on keeping on. So the business
will remain open even though there is a big hole in all our lives now
without his presence. If you want to make a testimonial of any length about
George, please e-mail it to Jason@snugjazz.com. We will announce
arraignments for funeral and memorial event as they are confirmed. Thanks
for your thoughts and prayers.

Yours in overcoming adversity,

Jason

Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro

George was a great club owner. I know that is hard to believe that any club owner could be great, and I know that none of them are perfect, but George was the greatest I have ever dealt with. He always treated the musicians with respect. He listened to what we did. He gave the musicians financial guarantees. I always knew the minimum amount of money I would get when we worked for George. On good nights there was more than I expected in that little brown envelope, but there was never less, even if the club was near empty.

I remember when Snug reopened after Katrina. It was one of the first times I thought things might eventually be ok. I am sure George lost loads of money in those first months, but he was open, and still paying the bands, because that was what he could do to help the city. And it definitely helped lots of folks spirits. George was a class act, and I will miss him.

Settled In Shipping: Shattered dreams and shuttered doors

Settled In Shipping: Shattered dreams and shuttered doors

Montreal based musician/blogger David Ryshpan writes about the closing of an open minded Montreal performance space.

Unfortunately, the recent opposition to our request for the Salle de Spectacle permit by principally one local resident is causing our existence as a cultural centre to be called into question.

and

Noise complaints on St Laurent are fallacious, to me; if you have a place on St Laurent, you should know what that entails. Peace and quiet are to be found on many other streets in the city; The Main isn’t one of them.

It’s like deja vu all over again. It seems to me that the smaller more progressive musical venues are the ones that get shut down by this one noise complainer/permit shuffle because the small venues that book fringe music don’t have the cash to grease the system. The venue dilemma has been getting attention with the recent closing of Tonic in NY, and Marc Ribot’s very public stance on the subject. There has also been an interesting thread on the Chi-Improv mailing list dealing mostly with the qualities needed for a successful venue. One side says low rent is the highest priority, and the other side says cheap funky dives are demeaning to the artists and patrons. Both sides are right to some extent.

Many are supporting public funding of performance venues, and that would be cool, but even public support in the form of clear and stable permits and zoning would be enough to make it possible to run a non-mainstrem venue. The greatest injustice in all os this is that these venues can be allowed to operate (for years sometimes) with no problems, then when one person complains, the government says that the area is not zoned or permitted for that use, but that use has been allowed for long periods of time prior to the complaint. If it wasn’t legal before stupid Leo started complaining, why was it allowed to operate. It makes it look like our cities are selectively enforcing our laws, and that’s not good.

Do I know enough to like this?

Here I am linking to, and commenting on, Brian Olewnick’s blog, Just outside, and it isn’t to weigh in on his Vision Fest criticism.

He posts to recommend a couple of Korean music recordings, but does so with exceedingly prominent caveats. Actually the caveats take up more space than the recommendation.

I don’t know the first thing about traditional Korean music. Well, maybe I know a thing or two, but not very much and certainly not enough to even remotely tell whether a given performance is up to snuff.

I will say that I understand the urge to disqualify oneself before making an aesthetic judgement. If I say, “I like this,” then I open myself up for someone else to say, “but that stinks and you are an idiot.” If I say “I think I like this, but don’t really know enough to judge it,” then I am immune from any possible “you don’t know a kodo from a hole in the ground” comments.

So, if I report to some interested acquaintance that this music is “great”, it’s with the nagging knowledge that I’m basing this judgment entirely on my own history, my own superficial knowledge of the genre, not in any understanding of the music or culture from which it arose.

My own history is the only thing I can base any judgement on. If I don’t know the culture that produced a music, I can still enjoy the music, and there is no need for me to feel guilty for enjoying it without proper pedigree, or even recommending it without having completed my “Korean music for white guys” course.

Why do we feel that we need to be qualified to make a personal value judgement on art. If the art moves us, then it is good, at least to us. I have heard very spirited and very technically sloppy musical performances that were great, because of their spirit and soul, not because of the performers perfected skills. The whole New Orleans brass band industry survives on this theory (and much of the rest of the scene too).

This idea that we need to “understand” art to enjoy it properly is very dangerous. It is the perpetuation of this idea that keeps busy folks from the suburbs from discovering lots of great music and art. They are afraid that they will be called out as frauds because they haven’t done their time in the study hall of Bird, or Braxton, or whoever, when in reality those who desire to put up the walls of qualification are often the most fraudulent in terms of actually getting the real spiritual connection of the art.

I challenge us all to explore something we know nothing about, and go into it with open eyes and ears. Let the spirit of the creation get into you, and don’t be afraid to like it, even if you have no idea where it comes from or how it is made. Don’t worry about whether or not the insiders think it is up to snuff, just enjoy it, or don’t enjoy it, but know that your own taste qualifies you to make that judgement for yourself.

Apple criticized for embedding names, e-mails in songs

From C|Net:

…according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The consumer watchdog group, which focuses on the Web, claims Apple has left information belonging to customers of the new iTunes Plus service exposed. Music purchased from iTunes Plus is embedded with unencrypted customer names and e-mail addresses.

An Apple spokesman declined to comment.

Apple has for a long time included a customer’s name and e-mail address within song files purchased from iTunes. But the personal information was encrypted. On Wednesday, the company launched iTunes Plus, a service that features music without controversial copy-protection software.

In these songs, names and e-mail addresses were unencrypted, according to Fred von Lohmann, an EFF attorney. He pointed out that data could easily be compromised if an iPod is lost or stolen.

First off, it is nice to see the beginning of the mainstream move away from useless DRM. As for the name and email, if Apple sold umbrellas and engraved your name and email address on the handle, it would be seen as wonderful customer service and added value. 😉 This way, if you lose your new Norah Jones download, and later find a very similar looking AAC file hanging out on your hard drive, you can make sure it is yours.

Promo budgets, blogs, and weird submissions

Either people are actually reading this blog, or someone thinks people are reading this blog. In the last week, I have gotten 7 or 8 unsolicited CDs in the mail, presumably sent to me with the intention that I will write about them. Some of them are very good, and things that I dig, and I will write about them. Others are good, but so far removed from the type of things I usually listen to or write about, that I really doubt that they will get any cyber-ink here.

It makes me wonder who decides where to send promo copies of CDs. As a maker of independent CDs, I have grappled with the costs of promoting releases. I really have trouble justifying sending out hundreds of CDs to writes/magazines/bloggers when 75% of them will not even get listened to, and much fewer than that will yield coverage. I definitely send stuff to people that I think will dig it, or people that ask for it, but the expense of sending a copy to every station on a list of dozens of jazz radio stations, or every blogger listed on AAJ just seems silly, especially since many of the more conservative stations and writers won’t dig the CD anyway.

I figure it costs about $5 to send a CD to a writer, including the actual cost of the materials, postage, and the time of whoever stuffs the envelope. If some of that money were spent having associates read the writer’s writing and parsing his/her taste, it seems that eventually some money would be saved. I think the key to success in the new music industry is to only spend necessary money. If I can make and promote a CD for a reasonable amount of money, I can expect to eventually sell enough of them to make it work. If I spend $7k on promotion, I’ve got to have a huge hit (in jazz terms) to make any money.

When I started writing this blog, it was because I wanted to share the things that I found that move me. That’s how fringe art gets known, through a network of people with similar tastes and trust in each others opinions. Getting CDs from promo people tilts that idea a bit, but I don’t mind people sending me copies of stuff that I’d like to hear (and may or ma not have bought on my own). So, I will try to be as diligent as possible in always letting you know where I got the music I am writing about. If I bought it somewhere, I will say that, and if I got a copy from a PR department, I will say that as well. I will try to at least mention anything that I get that I like. If it stinks, I will probably say nothing at all about it.

One other plus to all the free CDs is that I get to read some of the completely silly stuff that is written on the one sheets that accompany the CDs. The other day I got a copy of an Ella Fitzgerald CD that is to be released in July. It is being co-released by Concord and Starbucks. The following statement is on the one sheet:

Starbucks Coffee Company provides and uplifting experience that enriches people’s lives one moment, one human being, one extraordinary cup of coffee at a time.

I’m not sure what that has to do with Ella, but it did make me laugh out loud, and laughter is a good thing.

Music is Fun!

One of my favorite trombone case stickers was given to me by Matt Golombisky, the bassist in the Lucky 7s. It is a sticker from his Tomorrow Music Orchestra, and has the line “experimenting with the idea that music’s really fun.” I love that idea. Too often we (musicians and artists of all sorts) take ourselves WAY too seriously.

This week I am playing bass trombone with the Louisiana Philharmonic on Carmina Burana. The conductor is Carlos Miguel Prieto. He gets the idea that music is fun. At one point in rehearsal he said to the chorus, “you are reading. I want music.” Not in a grumpy old stuffy conductor way, but in a “hey, it’s not about the dots, it’s about the emotion” way. He regularly encouraged the chorus to flirt with the audience, and was relaxed and funny, even when the logistical difficulties of the piece stubbornly presented themselves. Carmina is not easy to play or conduct, but he never let things get tense, even though the tension tried to bust in, almost succeeding once.

I don’t get to sneak into the orchestral world too often, and sometimes when I do, it is inhabited by too many people who aren’t having nearly enough fun to make up for the crappy money they are getting. Rehearsing with Prieto today was a great reminder of why most of us starting playing music…because it is fun. Hopefully more of that vibe will infect the LPO as his tenure as MD continues. That would be very cool for the musicians and audiences alike.