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Festival Productions is the company that produces the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.
George Wein – Festival Productions – New York Times
…little will be changed for now in the booking of the festivals. “We’re going to go on exactly as we’ve been going,” Mr. Wein said.
That’s too bad…
King Bolden’s often has a pretty eclectic mix of patrons. Last night that eclectic mix included French Quarter regulars who had been there watching big screen NFL playoffs all day, and the hard core New Orleans free jazz fans, who were there to hear Han Bennink.
The performance was scheduled to start at 8 PM. I got there right at 8, hoping I hadn’t missed the start. Han was sitting behind his drums, and the Colts/Pats game was being projected on the wall. It was the beginning of the fourth quarter and I was told that the concert wouldn’t start until the game was over. That was the bad news.
The good news was that the volume from the TV was off, and there was a Lee Morgan record playing. Han just sat and played along with Lee, et al. for much of the next hour. That was an interesting insight.
The concert started about 9. The small room was pretty crowded. The enthusiastic music fans had crowded around the drumset which sat in the middle of the floor. Only the 10 or 12 people closest to Bennink could really see him, but the sound was pretty good throughout the room. He played about a 45 minute set of solo drumset. It was all based in steady pulse, if not overtly grooving. The performance was engaging and not overly serious. The whistle/sing along of “Whistle While You Work” was fun. He also told the talking frog/drummer joke.
King Bolden’s is on North Rampart Street. If you look out of the window of the club, you see Congo Square, the historical significance of which was not lost on Bennink.
The second half of the concert was a duo with Bennink and Kidd Jordan. Due to uncontrollable family obligations, I only heard the first few minutes of this, and it seemed like it was going to be pretty happening.
Video: Boston Legal “Three Steves” speech – The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
I’m not usually inclined to watch Boston Legal, or to link to pop culture name drops, but this speech makes too much sense.
I only have a couple of students that I teach at my house. I had a lesson yesterday with a high school sophomore. It was his second lesson, and he is a pretty good player. He likes jazz band, so we started talking about improvisation, which he said he wanted to learn. I played a vamp in Bb on the piano, and he played some stuff over it. He sounded pretty good for a beginner, so I put on the Aebersold Major/Minor and we traded 8’s, just trying to deal with playing simple melodies. As we kept playing, we went from 8’s to 4’s, then we were both playing together, and then it happened. I got that feeling. That feeling I get when something cool starts to happen, when there is interaction between improvisers, when it starts to really get fun. I love that feeling. I guess it can even happen with 15 year olds and Aebersold LPs.
From the Jan/Feb 2007 issue:
Jazz | JazzTimes Magazine CD Reviews
The creative music scenes of Chicago and New Orleans join forces in the Lucky 7s septet, presented here live and raw. Neatly balancing abstraction with fat, chewy grooves, the band gleefully stomps through compositions by co-leaders Jeb Bishop and Jeff Albert, pulling back occasionally for stark atmospherics or somber ensemble sections. Jason Adasiewicz’s cool vibraphone work adds an intriguing extra dimension to the second-line rhythms and ballsy horns in this dynamic north-south summit.
I’ve blogged similar stuff before, but this post (Blue Bayou: An industry that hates its customers) gets the point pretty well.
Imagine an industry that was so hostile to its customers that it regularly sued them; that resisted all new technologies for distributing its products, even as their best customers were embracing them; and that lobbies in Washington to try to take away its customers’ legal rights to use its products.
The future is coming, and artists have to decide if they want to join it or fight it. Many of us have dreamed about getting major label deals, but at this point, does that put you on the right side of the future?
You hear stories, but yikes…
Little-Known Music Magazine Attempts Big-Time Ad-Sales Scheme – Idolator
The gist: Joyce, who’s under the impression that his magazine is a “highly influential force within the indie rock genre,” asks Johnson if he’s planning on advertising Amplifier. Johnson says no, explaining that Birdman’s ad budget is nonexistent; Joyce replies with an off-the-cuff “well, it was nice writing about your artists.”
A pretty cool idea from bassist Rueben Radding…release a new album length project as free downloads every month in 2007. The first one lands in the abstract, somewhat-noisy, free-improv space.
via be.jazz
Michael Brecker passed away today.
Saxophonist Michael Brecker succumbs to cancer – USATODAY.com
I first became aware of Michael Brecker when I was in high school. His band was on one of those PBS Newport Jazz Festival shows. They played “Original Rays” and he did that killer EWI stuff that he could do. It totally knocked me out. I taped it and watched it over and over. He played some stuff on that set that was SO burnin’. It was one of the first times I realized that jazz could be so fiery and energetic that it just made me want to jump in the air and shout.
Years later I heard him at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival with McCoy Tyner. It was one of those special religious musical experiences. A few days ago I was listening to Pat Metheny’s 80/81 and thinking about how bad Michael Brecker is. Too bad that is has become a was. Thank you, Michael, for all the great music.
Here are three pieces from the Lucky 7s‘ September 6, 2006 performance at Elastic in Chicago.
I Know It’s Here Somewhere (mp3)
The musicians are: Josh Berman (cornet), Keefe Jackson (tenor sax), Jeb Bishop and Jeff Albert (trombones), Jason Adasiewicz (vibraphone), Matthew Golombisky (bass), and Quin Kirchner (drums).
This music free to share under a Creative Commons Music Sharing License.