Andrew Hill: One Man’s Lifelong Search for the Melody in Rhythm

A nice article/listening session with Andrew Hill from the NYT.

Andrew Hill: One Man’s Lifelong Search for the Melody in Rhythm – New York Times

As a jazz composer, Andrew Hill is as original as they come. From the start he has had only a modest following. He arrived in New York in 1960, to join Roland Kirk’s group. When he started making his own records for Blue Note a few years later, he didn’t make a great public splash, as Ornette Coleman had in 1959, or even keep a working band to establish a presence in the clubs. Instead, he played the college circuit, taught and applied for arts grants. At one point, in a 1966 interview in Down Beat, he encouraged each of his listeners to send him a dollar.

Hill was hip to micropayments in 1966. I wonder if it worked any better for him then, than it does now?

Yahoo exec: Labels should sell music without DRM

Yahoo exec: Labels should sell music without DRM | News.blog | CNET News.com

Yahoo Music chief Dave Goldberg raised eyebrows Thursday at the Music 2.0 conference in Los Angeles with a proposal rarely heard from executives at large digital music services: Record labels should try selling music online without copy protection.

A Yahoo spokeswoman said that Goldberg was “basically trying to move the industry forward,” and wanted to prompt industry-wide discussion “about what the consumer experience is.”

Wow…run your business based on providing a good consumer exprience…BRILLIANT! Too bad the majors probably won’t see the logic in that. Actually, I guess it isn’t too bad, because that leaves more room for the rest of us.

February eMusic scores

These are my February eMusic pickups. I haven’t delved deeply into all of them yet. I will write more as I do.

Chris Potter – Underground


This one is great. No bass player and it grooves hard. Very interesting and rewarding music.

George Russell -Stratusphunk

I haven’t previously done much listening to George Russell. I had a perception that his stuff was thought to be a little heady and better for analyzing than listening, but I don’t find that on this album. I’m digging it. It is cool to hear David Baker on trombone on this one.

Raul de Souza – Colors

Sonny Rollins – Without a Song (The 9/11 Concert)


Steve Swell / Perry Robinson
– Invisible Cities

Musician’s comments on new tunes vs standards – Jazzcorner’s Speakeasy

The Speakeasy at jazzcorner.com is having an interesting discussion about new tunes and standards in jazz.

Musician’s comments on new tunes vs standards – Jazzcorner’s Speakeasy

It started as a question about where the new standards might be coming from, but has developed into an originals/standards as performancee practice discussion.

I prefer to hear a group play original tunes. Classic jazz tunes are next on my list of preferences, with the Great American Songbook tunes following that. Ideally a mix of all three would be played.

My quartet book is mostly originals by me or friends of mine, with a healthy dose of classic jazz tunes like Monk, Mingus and Shorter compositions, with some more obscure tunes as well by Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Grachan Moncur, Joe Lovano, and the like. I do have about a dozen Great American Songbook tunes for times wheen they would be a ppropriate, but they aren’t a regular part of most Jeff Albert Quartet performances.

If I go out to hear music and catch a group playing Stella or All The Things You Are, it has to be super happening to keep my attention, whereas a passable performance of an original will keep me tuned in. I am sure to some extent that is simply a taste issue.

What do you prefer to hear people play?

WSJ.com – Amazon Plans Music Service To Rival iTunes

WSJ.com – Amazon Plans Music Service To Rival iTunes

Now Amazon, the world’s No. 1 online retailer, is in advanced talks with the four global music companies about a digital-music service with a range of features designed to set it apart. Among them: Amazon-branded portable music players, designed and built for the retailer, and a subscription service that would deeply discount and preload those devices with songs, not unlike mobile phones that are included with subscription plans as part of the deal.

I don’t see how Amazon branded players or a subscription service would set them apart. There are already players and subscription services in the market. To me, this looks like another attempt to tie content to hardware, and I am convinced that is the wrong way to go, despite the one instance where it has been successful (the iPod/iTunes scene).

The article makes no mention of a DRM scheme, excpet in this reference:

Amazon would face the same challenges as other music-player makers: buying enough flash memory to store content on small music-player devices and securing music content

“Securing music content”? Is that a euphemism for “coming up with some way to pacify the majors, eventhough we all know that if you can make it come out of speakers, you can copy it”?

Someday, someone will realize that strong content and ease of consumer use are what is going to drive this market, not attempts to control consumer behavior. Who ever sorts that out, will rule the world.

RIAA Says Ripping CDs to Your iPod is NOT Fair Use

As part of the on-going DMCA rule-making proceedings, the RIAA and other copyright industry associations submitted a filing that included this gem as part of their argument that space-shifting and format-shifting do not count as noninfringing uses, even when you are talking about making copies of your own CDs:

“Nor does the fact that permission to make a copy in particular circumstances is often or even routinely granted, necessarily establish that the copying is a fair use when the copyright owner withholds that authorization.

EFF: DeepLinks – RIAA Says Ripping CDs to Your iPod is NOT Fair Use

In corporate or organization situations, non-enforcement or selective enforcement of bylaws has been a grounds for invalidating that bylaw. I don’t think the RIAA should be able to selectively assert their copyright.

For those who may not remember, here’s what Don Verrilli said to the Supreme Court last year:

“The record companies, my clients, have said, for some time now, and it’s been on their website for some time now, that it’s perfectly lawful to take a CD that you’ve purchased, upload it onto your computer, put it onto your iPod.”

So now if they say that it isn’t legal, am I suddenly a criminal, because the RIAA changed its mind?

Hopefully our legal system will start to act based on common sense and the best interest of the public at large, instead of in the interests of a desperate group violently grasping at a dissolving business model.

Via Boing Boing.

Greenleaf Music on AAJ

Check out this All About Jazz article on Greenleaf Music.

Greenleaf began its life more traditionally, with a distributor and a shelf presence in brick-and-mortar music stores for its first two records, including Douglas’ Mountain Passages with his Nomad ensemble. But as 2005 progressed, Friedman sensed that online retail – the right to which he reserved in Greenleaf’s contract with its distributor – was increasingly the way most effectively to reach Greenleaf’s audience. The strange result is that the Grammy-nominated Keystone became available in stores only subsequent to its nomination.

Besides Mountain Passages and Keystone, the other two records in the Greenleaf catalog are Kneebody’s self-titled debut and the Douglas quintet’s Live at the Bimhuis, from its 2002 European tour. The latter is the first in Greenleaf’s Paperback Series, which, Douglas said, “involves recordings that ought to be out there but that would very rarely get a chance to see the light of day, because of marketing and promotion constraints.” The Paperbacks are professionally recorded, but feature minimalist packaging and are sold only online and at a reduced price ($9 for one set, or $15 for both sets of Live at the Bimhuis).

WOMMA: Word of Mouth Marketing Association

WOMMA: Word of Mouth Marketing Association

The essence of the WOMMA Code comes down to the Honesty ROI:

* Honesty of Relationship: You say who you’re speaking for
* Honesty of Opinion: You say what you believe
* Honesty of Identity: You never obscure your identity

As independent artists, we do a lot of word of mouth marketing, and often ask our friends and fans to do it as well. These seem like very sensible guide lines, especially in the internet forum/blog world.