Standards or originals?

This post at Rifftides is an interesting peek into the challenges of hearing all the new music that is being made. This is an issue for me as a fan, I can’t imagine how bad it is for well known writers who are sent hundreds of CDs. I commented on the post, but it was a comment by Ken Dryden that got me thinking.

BTW, I loved Ken Dryden when he played for the Habs. Actually I am pretty sure it was this Ken Dryden.

Anyway, Ken wrote this:

Many writers complain about artists who insist on recording nothing but originals, despite the fact that even media veterans (print, web or radio) who’ve been immersed in jazz for decades have never heard of any of the musicians. With a backlog of hundreds (or more) jazz CDs awaiting a hearing, the chance of rising to the top for a review or airplay is made considerably more difficult by such releases. At least one familiar song or composer might help a CD get a hearing.

I guess I can see his point of possibly playing something if it had a name I recognized on it, even if it is a song name, but to be honest, I really don’t need to hear another recorded version of Stella By Starlight, or Giant Steps, or My One and Only Love.

When I play live, I often play classic jazz tunes from Monk, or Mingus, or Ornette. I don’t plan on recording any of those tunes. One reason is financial, and it goes back to the plethora of indie recordings that started the whole conversation. If I record someone else’s tunes, I have to pay the mechanical license fees for those tunes. Three covers that are 8 minutes each just added several hundred dollars to my budget. Granted if the best musical result comes from a few covers, then we should pony up for the mechanicals.

For me as a listener, the best musical result rarely comes from the covers. I want to hear something new. Oddly, as I am writing this I am listening to Available Jelly’s In Full Flail, and as I wrote the words “I want to hear something new” their version of the Beach Boys’ “Catch A Wave” came on, and I am totally digging it, not that their version is much like the Beach Boys… Anyway, I don’t want to compare all musicians on the equal turf of standards, I want to experience each in a setting of their own creation. Maybe that’s just me…

Comments working again

The comments seems to have decided to behave again recently, so if you have stopped trying to comment because it was not working and my WordPress/MySQL chops couldn’t sort it out, please resume commenting. The cyber-faeries have fixed things…for now.

The peculiar pleasure of earplugs. – By Thomas Beller – Slate Magazine

The peculiar pleasure of earplugs. – By Thomas Beller – Slate Magazine

Then one day, upon arising into the quiet post-shouting hour, I left the earplugs in. I went about my morning in the apartment and then ventured outside with the earplugs still in my ears. I could hear people speaking, I could hear sounds, but it all took place at a remove. And yet I did not feel farther away from everything. I moved through the streets as though in a dream, but, as with a dream, somehow more attentive and aware than usual. Up to that point the purpose of earplugs was to keep things out. Now I perceived a new dimension to earplugs—to keep things in.

I keep a pair of earplugs in a case on my keychain. I rarely wear them in non-musical situations (well, a couple of the bands I wear them with might qualify as non-musical situations), but wear them often on loud gigs, or especially when I am an audience member and the music is loud. The remove that Beller speaks of has come in handy on some socially and musically painful, but very well paying gigs. I am trying to steer away from those sorts of gigs these days, but the earplugs are still on my keychain.

Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band | Dizzy’s Business on AAJ

Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band | Dizzy’s Business

Let’s admit it: If it weren’t for the ******-up economics of jazz today, this would be called the Slide Hampton Big Band, because it’s Hampton’s sensibilities that shape the sound of this orchestra, not Dizzy’s.

I’m glad someone finally said that in print. It’s not like Slide doesn’t have a name himself. Keeping Dizzy’s name on that band seems more and more necrophilic.

Alvin Fielder Trio – A Measure of Vision

Another recent eMusic grab is Alvin Fielder Trio’s A Measure of Vision, with Chris Parker and Dennis Gonzales.

I have had the pleasure of meeting and visiting with Alvin several times in New Orleans. He is always wonderfully sharing with his time and knowledge. Most of my exposure to his playing has been in groups with Kidd Jordan. He sounds great with Kidd, they have a long history and a real musical empathy. It is nice to hear Alvin in a different context however. It has let me experience other aspects of his musicianship.

The cost of free music?

WIRED Blogs: Listening Post

He said that $50 per year from every person who listens to music would “meet or exceed the current over the counter sales of the music industry at a far lower cost,” but that because of deeply-entrenched flaws in the outmoded business models used by the labels that have evolved over the years, we’re unlikely ever to see such a system put in place — despite the fact that it would increase profits while allowing people far greater access to music.

The system will either change or die. Can we push change before the old guard kills it?

Kinda Dukish and Exploding Star

ab baars kinda dukish cover

I bought Ab Baars Quartet’s Kinda Dukish some time ago, but haven’t taken the time to write about it. It is pretty abstract for big chunks of time, then comes in for some standard jazz devices that are almost old school cliche. It’s a nice mix, and scratches a bunch of different little itches.


exploding star orch

Rob Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra’s We Are All from Somewhere Else is a new eMusic pick up for me. It is very good, and Mazurek has the excellent taste to have three of my fellow Lucky 7s on the band: Jason Adasiewicz, Josh Berman, and Jeb Bishop. Jeb sounds like those low long tones have been paying off ;). This disc is full of rich textures with cool grooves and some mesmerizing trance spaces.