Keefe Jackson’s Fast Citizens: Ready Everyday

I have acquired a lot of music in the past couple of months, and have intended to write about much of it, but the going has been slow.

ready everyday cover

I will start with a great new CD on Delmark, by my Lucky 7s colleague Keefe Jackson. Ready Everyday is the new album from Keefe’s band Fast Citizens. It is a pleasing balance of composition and freedom. The band is excellent. Frank Rosaly and Anton Hatwich provide a great feeling drive and swing, and the improvisations are excellent.

I have to give some props to the other member of the Lucky 7s on this album, cornetist Josh Berman. I know Josh is bad from playing with him, but everytime I hear him on something new, I dig his stuff even more. That’s also an indicator of Keefe’s sucess as a bandleader; he puts the musicians in situations that allow them to shine. Check out Ready Everyday, it is well worth it.

Flow: Living in the Stream of Music – Terence Blanchard

flow dvd cover

I knew Terence Blanchard has some stuff going on, but this DVD really opened my eyes and ears to his badness. The movie follows his band through a few tour stops and a soundtrack session. It provides a great look into the vibe of the band, and what it is that makes them a real band instead of a collection of guys hired to play the leader’s music. There is also a great bonus piece that is some footage of Terence teaching at the Thelonious Monk Institute at USC. The way he presents things to the students is very inspiring.

The music in the film is very happening. So much so, that it inspired me to go buy the CD that they were supporting on the tour that is the setting for the movie. Well, I didn’t actually buy the CD, I got it on iTunes. The only other Terence CD I had was Wandering Moon, and it didn’t really light me up, but I am digging Flow.

Jim Pepper

Doug Ramsey has a nice bit on Jim Pepper today in Rifftides.

Rifftides: Doug Ramsey on jazz and other matters

Jim Pepper is often strong medicine. Strong medicine can make you well.

My first exposure to Pepper came from a cruise ship band roomate I had in the mid-90’s named Barry Bergstrom. Dr. Bergstromi loved him some Pepper, and it rubbed off. If you haven’t explored the music of Jim Pepper, you’re missing out on intense and spirit filled music.

New Year’s Resolution

This year I am resolving not to judge people.  Just because the guy is stumbling drunk and has fallen over the monitor into the sax player twice, it doen’t necessarily mean he is an asshole.  That’s not for me to judge.  I resolve to do my best to see every person I encounter in a positive light.

Kermit Ruffins Big Band

I had the pleasure of playing with the newly reformed Kermit Ruffins Big Band last Friday in San Antonio.  It was a treat to play simple tasty arrangements of classic swinging material with a great bunch of musicians.  Kermit is a fun and charismatic performer, and the band is a great bunch of guys with no silly vibes or ego trips.  Just good musicians having fun playing good music.  The fact that the band is well managed and the musicians are treated well is icing on the cake.  We need more gigs like this one.

Journalism?

This is an iPod pros/cons from the Bellville, IL newspaper, by a Chicago Tribune writer.
Belleville News-Democrat | 12/26/2006 | Doing megabyte math, other secrets to buying MP3’s

GOOD: Works easily with the PC or the Mac. Long battery life. Slim and unobtrusive. Not too few songs, not too many songs. Stylish.NOT SO GOOD: You can use only iTunes and eMusic to buy music. Other music stores aren’t compatible. Still, those two stores offer a lot of variety and are easy to use.

It is totally untrue that iTunes and eMusic are the only places you can buy music for your iPod. Music Stem , the store that Greenleaf Music uses, sells mp3s (which are by definition DRM free, and playable on an iPod or just about any other player), as does my store (Pepper Enterprises), and any number of other independent download stores. Some major labels are doing mp3 experiments with Yahoo Music and other outlets as well.

Why would this paper get this so wrong? If I were a paranoid iPod apologist, I would say that it is due to a bias against Apple, but I don’t think that is the case. I think they just don’t know what they are talking about.

JB…

from The Huffington Post:

James Brown triumphed because he had unequalled energy and an uncanny genius for fully unleashing the rhythmic power of music.

I had the pleasure of seeing/hearing James Brown live in Las Vegas in 1995.  The band wore navy tuxedos with orange tie/cummerbund combos.  They looked like total Vegas cheese, and they sounded like the funkiest most powerful force ever.  It was impossible not to move your body when the music played.  To co-opt a line from Duck Dunn, that band was bad enough to turn goat piss into gasoline, and all of that badness emanated from James Brown.  I’m glad I didn’t miss my one opportunity to experience JB live.

Don’t pass up a chance to hear a master, we never know if there will be another one.

ATTENTION ALL SOUND MEN MIXING JAZZ!

This is me quoting Doug Ramsey quoting David Berger.

Rifftides: Doug Ramsey on jazz and other matters

This is acoustic music. Keep amplification to an absolute minimum; in the best halls, almost no amplification should be necessary. Everyone needs to develop a big sound. It is the conductor’s job to balance the band.

The bass should not be as loud as a trumpet. That is unnatural and leads to over-amplification, bad tone and limited dynamics. Stay away from monitors. They provide a false sense of balance.

Will Amazon put pressure on the eMusic model?

Will Amazon put pressure on the eMusic model? – The Digital Music Weblog

Amazon’s new DRM free store promises to offer variable pricing and an ala-carte model which closer matches the success of iTunes, rather than the X downloads per month deal on offer at eMusic.

I love eMusic.  I would love it even more if it went a la carte, especially if it could go a la carte and keep the price per track close to where it is now. I realize that without the guaranteed subscription revenue that tracks would be more than the circa $.25 they are now, but the eMusic catalogue sold a la carte at $.60 – .75 per track would be totally rockin’. Maybe this Amazon move will push it that way.