…still digging Matt Wilson

It’s no secret that I have dug Matt Wilson’s music for a while. This Ottawa Citizen blog piece confirms that I like the way he approaches music personally as well.

Matt Wilson interview outtakes – Thriving on a riff:

“My stuff is not too hard… I’m proud of it, actually, they’re easy I like ’em easy so that I can see what people can do with them. I’m big into how people can look at something and go with it. And go from there.

…

As long as the music doesn’t get in the way of the musicians, I think it’s pretty cool. But when the music inspires the musicians and gets stuff out of them, it’s really great. That’s what all the good writers and arrangers, all those conceptualists do. They know how to usher people
into an environment and allow them to play with it and see what can occur. I dig that part of it.”

(Via @accujazzdotcom.)

Change is gonna come

Ok, when I have an emotional reaction to Jon Bon Jovi as part of a duet, there are likely extramusical forces at work.

I grew up in Lafayette , LA in the 70s and 80s. I was in first grade when crosstown bussing started in the public schools. I remember lots of kids leaving to go to private schools, but I didn’t understand why. When I was in 6th grade there was a new kid at school. His name was Ronald, and he played bari sax, and we had a bunch of classes together. He was cool, and we hit it off and became fast friends. When the first teacher conference came around, one teacher mentioned to my mother that it was so nice that I took Ronald under my wing. My Mom told that was a nice thing to do, but I didn’t understand, he didn’t need a wing to be taken under, he was just the cool new kid in my eyes. Ronald is black. To the teacher, and my parents, it was unusual for me to have a black friend. That thought hadn’t entered my mind.

It takes generations for attitudes and ideas to change. My parents aren’t racists, but my attitudes about race are different from theirs, and theirs are very different from their parents’. I am almost overwhelmed at the realization that we are in the middle of history making on the grandest scale. To me it is still a big deal that our nation has become enlightened enough to elect a black man President. Hopefully to my kids, it won’t seem out of the ordinary.

Wynton on categories

Wynton Marsalis, from a CNN commentary:

“On the eve of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, let’s recognize the pernicious effects of separating people by generic categories.”

What is true of people is also often true of music. If we can get past our need to put people (and music) into categories, especially categories that declare it like or unlike us, we will have a better world, both socially and artistically.

(Via The Rest is Noise.)

Stratusphunk video

I came across this video while looking for an album cover pic for the George Russell Recent Listening post. Note that the announcer describes this music as in the tonal stratosphere. It doesn’t sound out at all to me. Also, dig the great Jimmy Cleveland trombone solo.

Of course, as the YouTube time suck goes, that video led to this one, which is also worth checking out. Interview with Orrin Keepnews…very interesting.