Month of February , 2007

I'm not sure who wrote this, but Douglas Ewart just sent me an extensive write up about his life and his work. On a related note, as he was an alumni, there will be a tribute to Captain Walter Dyett in Chicago on March 9th at Washington Park, 55th and King Drive, featuring a number of other Dyett alums.

LEROY JENKINS
March 11, 1932 – February 24, 2007

Narrative biography, February 26, 2007

Leroy Jenkins is renowned as a virtuoso violinist and for his compositions and operas which are an extraordinary bonding of a variety of sounds associated with the African American music tradition and European styles.

Throughout his long career, Jenkins never stopped experimenting. At Harvestworks Digital Art Center where he was Artist in Residence in 2005, he and Mary Griffin developed an interactive music/video instrument which allows Jenkins, “Blue” Gene Tyranny, and the other musicians in Coincidents to manipulate multiple video tapes with their acoustic instruments and voices. Most recently, he assembled a world music improvisatory group — Jin Hi Kim (Komungo) Korea, Rmesh Misra (Sarangi) India, Yacorba Sissoko (Kora) Africa, Leroy Jenkins (Violin) USA. A recording of the group, made at an AACM concert will be released shortly.

In the last fifteen years, Jenkins has turned his attention to music/theater pieces: Fresh Faust, a rap opera was presented in workshop at the Institute of Creative Arts in Boston. The Negro Burial Ground, a cantata, was presented in workshop at the Kitchen Center in New York. A later work, The Three Willies, an operatic collaboration with Homer Jackson was presented at The Painted Bride in Philadelphia (1996), and at the Kitchen, NYC (2001). Coincidents an opera, with librettist Mary Griffin will receive its premiere in June at Roulette. Jenkins is developing two new operas: Bronzeville, a history of South Side Chicago in the 20s through 50s with Mary Griffin, and Minor Triad, a musical drama with composer/librettist, Carmen Moore.

Leroy Jenkins was born on March 11, 1932 and began his violin training as a child, studying with Professor O. W. Frederick at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Chicago. He studied clarinet, saxophone and bassoon under the direction of legendary Captain Walter Dyett at Du Sable High School in Chicago, and received a music scholarship to study classical violin with Bruce Hayden at Florida A&M University. He received a B.S. in Music Education in 1961. Immediately following graduation, he taught music in Alabama schools, and then in Chicago.

Classically trained, Jenkins was also influenced by the great jazz masters, and played saxophone and clarinet in a number of jazz ensembles, but his passion, from the age of eight, was the violin, and he found a way to meld his classical technique and his love of jazz when he joined the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, a pivotal Chicago organization which originated a vibrant new form of creative improvised music. Moving to Paris in 1969, Jenkins toured Europe with his first group: The Creative Construction Company of Chicago, with Anthony Braxton and Leo Smith. In  1970, he came to New York and formed another cooperative, The Revolutionary Ensemble, a trio of bass, (Sirone) violin, and drums (Jerome Cooper), which toured internationally to critical acclaim, and went on to record five albums. He also developed his solo compositions and premiered his first works in this format at a concert at the Washington Square Peace Church in Greenwich Village.

In the ‘70s and ‘80s Jenkins received major support for music composition with many grants and commissions for chamber ensemble, orchestra, dance, and theater. During this period, in addition to touring as a soloist and with various instrumental groups under his leadership, his music was performed by the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Albany Symphony, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Kronos Quartet, the Dessoff Choirs, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and the New Music Consort, among others.

In 1989 Jenkins was commissioned by Hans Werner Henze for the Munich Bienale New Music Theater Festival to write the opera/ballet, Mother Of Three Sons, choreographed and directed by Bill T. Jones. It premiered in Munich and was later staged by the New York City Opera, the Houston Opera, and was broadcast on German television. He received a Bessie (New York Dance and Performance Award) “for the lyrical, intricately constructed river of jazz and opera”.

In 1998, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony performed and recorded Wonderlust, a work for chamber orchestra and two soloists and in the last six years Jenkins has performed at numerous festivals and venues here and in Europe including the Other Minds Festival in San Francisco, California Institute for the Arts, the Contemporary Museum in New Orleans, the Chicago Jazz Festival, as well as international jazz festivals in Portugal, Sardinia, and Canada. Other recent projects have been a commissioned piece for tenor, baritone, and brass quartet which was performed at Merlin Hall as part of the World Music series in New York, in San Francisco and at North Florida State University.

His most recent touring group — Equal Interest, a trio with violin, (Jenkins), piano, (Myra Melford), and woodwinds (Joseph Jarman) — was formed  in 1999. The British Arts Council commissioned its members to write pieces for a group of nine British musicians, and Equal Interest performed with these musicians on a ten-city tour of England.

Jenkins held residencies and guest professorships at many American universities including Oberlin, Bennington, Harvard, Brown, University of Michigan, Williams, California Institute of the Arts, Bard College, and Duke.  He was guest composer/ master teacher/performer at the Della Rosa of Portland, Tom Buckner’s Interpretations series in New York, the American Composers series at the Kennedy Center, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, the Atlanta Virtuoso, and the First American Violin Congress at the invitation of Sir Yehudi Menuhin.

He received numerous commissions and awards — from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, the New York State Council for the Arts, The Rockefeller Foundation’s Multi Arts Production Fund among others, and was awarded a 2003 composition grant from the Fromm Foundation for Coincidents. In 2004 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Jenkins also collaborated with dancer Felicia Norton and was commissioned by Lincoln Center’s Out of Doors Series for collaborations with choreographers Molissa Fenley and Mark Dendy.

Jenkins served on the Board of Directors of Meet the Composer in New York and the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and as Artistic Director and Board Member of Composers’ Forum. He has sat on many panels for music including the National Endowment, the Herb Alpert Foundation, The Bush Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, and New York Foundation for the Arts, and the New York State Council for the Arts. He placed numerous times in critics’ and readers’ polls in Downbeat and Jazz Magazine.

In groupings from solo to chamber orchestras, Jenkins has recorded 25 albums/ CD’s, nine of which have been reissued. Recent recordings include: Solo, a suite for solo violin and viola, Lovely Music (1999), Equal Interest, Omnitone (2000), The Revolutionary Ensemble, Mutable Music (2004), And Now, The Revolutionary Ensemble, Pi Recordings (2004), and The Art of Improvisation, Mutable Music (2006).

I've just heard from a friend that violinist Leroy Jenkins has passed away - he was 75 and apparently was suffering from lung cancer.

As promised, I am writing to review the new Indigo Trio CD recently released on Greenleaf Music, Live In Montreal. Since I also attended the album release party at the Velvet Lounge last night, I'm going to add in a review of their live show and generally condense the post into a discussion about the band, their interplay, and their musicality.

The Indigo Trio is...Nicole Mitchell on flutes and vocals, Harrison Bankhead on bass, cello, and vocals, and Hamid Drake on drums and percussion (in this case the frame drum).

Their new album opens with Harrison Bankhead's arco bass, soon accompanied by the fluttering of Nicole Mitchell's flute and then finally the addition of Hamid Drake's delicate brush work. Bankhead's bass, as is often the case in the live show, gives a lot of the music a sense of structure, harmonically and rhythmically, guiding the group "in" and "out."

Any notion you may have had about the flute being an inherently featherweight instrument in this heavyweight trio configuration are misguided. As Peter Margasak recently noted in his preview of the show, Nicole Mitchell is well on her way to becoming jazz's greatest living flute player. If she continues at the pace she's going as a musician, composer, and innovator, I think she has the ability to be the best ever. Her artistry, ability, and pliability as a musician is astounding, and she has an incredible presence both on the recording and live in person.

It's interesting for me to hear her in this particular trio because of what one of the forefathers of the Chicago scene, Fred Anderson has already done and accomplished with these same musicians. His work with Harrison Bankhead and Hamid Drake is truly incredible, and to hear her step into the same situation and make it her own is a testament to her abilities as an improviser and composer. Bankhead and Drake are in their usual state of responsive, attentive musicianship, toeing the fine line between being reactive and supportive and providing input and stimulus at the same time.

On both the album and in their live show, the trio shows a willingness to explore a wide variety of rhythmic and tonal settings, belying influences as diverse as roots reggae, afrobeat (I know Hamid Drake played reggae extensively in the 70s-80s, and Nicole Mitchell is a big reggae and afrobeat fan), hardbop, latin grooves, and everything in between. They also strike a nice balance, to my ears, between free improvisation and composed material, something that I appreciate in an improvising unit.

The album release show last night at the Velvet Lounge was packed and very well received by the audience, who were rapt with attention and very appreciative of the musical offerings. I hope we get to see the trio again soon, although I know that it will be a rare treat, as Nicole Mitchell is extremely busy and Hamid Drake is constantly traversing the globe with musicians like William Parker, David Murray, or Bill Laswell.

If you haven't picked up the album yet, you can do it here - $8 for instant gratification MP3s, or $12 for the album in the mail.

I've been exploring the Behearer site over the past few days, thinking about contributing and not doing so on several occasions. In trying to interact with the site, I see some areas where the site could be improved, and I hope that my thoughts on the matter will be seen as constructive criticism rather than any kind of attack on the site or its creators, all of whom I have a lot of respect for. The basic issue is that I've come to believe that the wiki structure does not serve the site well and that they might have done better to look at other collaborative options before committing to that format for the site, which has the potential to be such a wonderful wealth of information.

Aesthetically, wiki offers little in the way of customization, and other than the colorful logo, the site is incredibly dull visually, especially considering the colorful music it intends to convey and represent. It also doesn't offer much in the way of autonomy in the field of other wiki based sites out there.

In terms of interactivity, there's no easy way to track activity or see where the actual discussion is taking place on the site. You can look at a complicated and clunky list of "recent changes," but I don't see any way to figure out where there is any interactive community based conversation about the music.  Considering the fact that in the "Note From The Management" says the site is intended to become "a common place to catalog, discuss, and debate," I feel that the latter two aspects of the project are not served by the wiki format.

The discussion/comments that do exist on the site are buried too deep within the hierarchy to have any prominence. From the front page, if I want to get to the discussion about Julius Hemphill's Dogon A.D., I have to click on the year 1972, the album name Dogon A.D., and then the "discussion" tab, only to find that the only discussion is a link to a review at Destination Out. And even if there was a vibrant discussion of the album going on, 90% of the visitors to the site would never know about it.

It's a shame to obscure such wonderful information and potentially potent discussion in this format, in my opinion. I apologize for not offering a viable alternative - the site already has momentum in its current format and the task of transferring the data would be impractical. Also, I understand that a considerable amount of effort has already gone into the site in its current incarnation. Perhaps someone who's more familiar with the backend of wiki could give some suggestions on possibilities to increase its interactivity.

Any comments/thoughts to bounce back and forth on the subject. My only agenda in bringing up the subject is making the resource better and more robust.

On a completely tangential linking note, check out the psychedelic art of Mati Klarwein, and the incredible archive of photos and audio interviews at Gallery 41.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I received an advance copy of the new Fred Anderson & Hamid Drake album, From the River to the Ocean, also featuring Harrison Bankhead on bass, cello and piano (!), Josh Abrams on bass and guimbri, and Jeff Parker on guitar. I've finally sunk my teeth into it enough times to feel comfortable writing about in a meaningful manner, so here it goes...

The opening track, titled Planet E, is a Fred Anderson composition that opens with guitar swells and cymbal accents. Fred's melody is very angular and beautiful, and Jeff Parker plays these beautiful, vibrato laden swells that add a fantastic atmosphere to the opening head. This segues into a latin-ish groove (both Josh Abrams and Harrison Bankhead play bass on this track, although I have a difficult time distinguishing them).

This leads into a Jeff Parker solo that is particularly reminiscent for me of the Gabor Szabo influence. I love Jeff's playing and it really shines here with a fantastic rhythm section to support him. I don't need to document my love for Hamid Drake's drumming any more than I have in the past, but needless to say he's in top form as usual, providing an impeccably tasteful balance of simple rhythmic support and stirring interjections.

At around the four minute mark, Parker's solo segues seamlessly into Fred Anderson's, opening with a distinct and recognizable Andersonian incantation. I find his tone and phrasing to be so instantly identifiable. As usual, Fred displays an uncanny balance of exploration, rhythmically, harmonically, and melodically. I think of Fred as the most "in" of the "out" players. He never falls into the kind of squonking and honking that a lot of sax players utilize (not knocking it, just making a comparison), and the result are these incredible fluid lines that present clear phrases and ideas. Some fantastic comping and rhythmic play between Jeff Parker and Hamid during Fred's solo. Jeff plays these great punchy and harmonically rich chords that really add a lot to the sound.

Fred's playing segues into a dueling bass solo by Josh and Harrison. At this point you can tell they're each panned to a channel - I'd like to find out who's where. It would have been nice info to include in the liner notes. There are some eerie sounds coming from Jeff Parker throughout the bass solos and Hamid interacts vividly with both bassists.

The tune ends with a restatement of the head, and then they're out, 14 minutes and 42 seconds later.

I'll add in a note about the recorded sound here. They did a really nice job with the mixing, especially the drums, to create a great stereo image and presence. Recording jazz of this style in a studio is certainly an art - getting the right chemistry and presence and translating it to the tape. Thrill Jockey and engineer John McEntire did a great job on this one.

Track 2, entitled Strut Time, another Fred Anderson credited tune, opens with Fred playing a capella, before dropping into a repeating motif (one I've heard Fred play before, especially around the end of a set - it has a loping, free and easy quality) that all of the instruments state along with him. This tune features Harrison Bankhead switching to the cello, adding a distinct timbral change from the first number, especially when the cello is played arco. While I've seen the bass/cello combination taken to greater heights in a live setting by Abrams and Bankhead, the playing here is excellent as Bankhead interacts with Fred freely throughout, all over Josh Abrams and Hamid Drake's deep swinging pocket.

The solo order is switched up on this tune, with Fred Anderson blowing first, followed by Jeff Parker and then an impressive display on the bass by Harrison Bankhead. During Bankhead's solo, the rhythmic feel is switched up from the swing into a straighter groove, before falling back into the deep swing of the head and previous solos for Josh Abram's solo. Josh has a very deliberate and heavy feel on the bass and I absolutely adore his tone and the way he plays behind and on top of the beat with intent.

This is followed by Hamid Drake's first solo of the album, during which he displays his usual mastery of the entire drum set and it's tonal and timbral possibilities. I've read in a Fred Anderson interview in the past that one of the things he likes about Hamid's playing is that he plays the drums first, and the cymbals are used more as highlights. I don't feel qualified to make such a statement about Hamid's entire oeuvre, but he certainly favors the drums here, before the band segues back into the head.

Harrison Bankhead's tune on the album is a tribute to the recently departed Malachi Thompson, "For Brother Thompson." He's featured on piano, an instrument I didn't know he played fluently enough to be featured on a recording, but then again, no talent of this monster of a musician could really surprise me. It opens with bells and chimes, with Hamid Drake's rich vocals coming in along with what sound like Tibetan singing bowls and Harrison Bankhead's piano. Knowing Hamid's background, I'd guess the singing is a Tibetan-Buddhist prayer, perhaps to help guide Malachi through the bardos. The chanting gives way to drum set, Fred Anderson entering, and some beautiful arco playing from Josh Abrams with Harrison Bankhead's piano, all of it abstract but cohesive. The whole song is charged with emotional energy and a sense of deep respect for Malachi Thompson, a prominent figure in the Chicago and AACM jazz scenes.

Track 4 is the title track, From the River to the Ocean, featuring Josh Abrams switching over to the Guimbri, with Harrison Bankhead back on bass, Hamid Drake switching to his trusty frame drum and doing some more singing, and Jeff Parker on guitar. I've heard some complaints about it, but personally I enjoy Hamid's singing. His voice is rich and the fact that he sings in languages that are foreign to my literal understanding allows them to remain in the realm of pure sound without denotative meaning. This tune is extremely atmospheric, utilizing a wide variety of rhythmic, tonal, and timbral qualities to create some very intriguing sounds and textures. Hamid's frame drumming is panned in a way that makes it sound as if he's playing the tablas, which creates a very interesting aspect. Jeff Parker's guitar playing is of particular note, the way he slurs his notes together to create some very un-guitaristic patterns and sound that lend themselves to the context of this song.

The final track of the album is a guimbri-saxophone duo with Josh Abrams and Fred Anderson entitled Sakti/Shiva.

In Hinduism, Shiva is is beyond (insert every and anything here). He is eternal, infinite, all pervading, all knowing and all powerful. He is both static and dynamic, creator and destroyer.

Shiva is inseparable from Shakti, also known as Parvati. There is no Shakti without Shiva, the two are one, what the Hindus posit to be the absolute state of being - consciousness and bliss, a unified underlying reality beneath the visible duality of the two gods.

This is a fascinating duo between Abrams and Anderson, a meditative closing for the album. The guimbri provides a surprising amount of rhythmic support, with some of the sounds coming out a lot like a drum, along with the string sounds.

I usually avoid this kind of song by song breakdown/overview/review, but I figured that since the album hasn't hit the shelves yet, people might be interested to know what kind of material is contained in the new release.

It comes highly recommended when it is released - April 24th, 2007 is the release date.

I've been looking forward to reading George Lewis' book on the AACM ever since I heard it was going to be published. The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) has a nice preview of the book up on their site, written by Professor Lewis himself.

To say a thorough investigation of this incredible collective is long overdue would be a massive understatement. John Litweiler has some cursory coverage of the AACM in his book The Freedom Principle: Jazz After 1958 (the title essentializes the music in a way that Mr. Litweiler is prone to, in my opinion). Lincoln Beauchamp wrote a book about the Art Ensemble of Chicago called "Great Black Music: Ancient to the Future" which contains some fantastic interviews but hardly constitutes a historical examination of even that one important group in the AACM's rich history.

There is no doubt in my mind, nor in anyone else's I am sure, that Lewis' book will be the definitive writing on the AACM and its history. As a member of the association and an incredibly talented scholar I am sure he has left no stone unturned and gained access to untold documents and histories that lie lurking in the private and collective collections of the AACM's members.

One of the promising things about the AACM is that Lewis' work might not always be definitive in terms of the entire history of the organization, precisely because that history continues with each passing day. His meticulous account of the formation will be exciting to read and I'm sure I'll have difficulty putting it down once its released. But the new generation of AACM musicians promises to make certain that there will need to be further revisions and chapters added to their story.

In honor of Mr. Lewis I'm currently spinning Roscoe Mitchell's 1975 (when George Lewis was only 22 if my math is correct) release "Quartet," featuring Roscoe Mitchell, Muhal Richard Abrams, George Lewis, and Spencer Barefield. It's interesting to compare the opening track Tnoona to the one that appears on the Art Ensemble's Fanfare for Warriors. Obviously the instrumentation is different and the tune has a very different impact on this recording. Not sure if I prefer one or the other, or even if it's necessary to do so.

A friend of mine sent me a link to this interview with Police drummer Stewart Copeland in which he discusses his distaste for the entire genre known as jazz, puts down "A Love Supreme" and says most of Miles Davis' output is crap. I still can't decide if he was being inflammatory for the sake of it, if he's ignorant, or if he's bitter and has issues with his Dad who apparently was a jazz musician. In any case, although I enjoy their music, I've never been a huge Police fan so it doesn't really bother me on any visceral level.

For another take on the Jazz establishment and creative music practices, take a look at this interview with Roscoe Mitchell, one of my favorite musicians and composers. I have to pick up his latest RogueArt release, the trio 2 CD set No Side Effects, soon - I really dug the other release on the label, Turn.

In a related interview, check out what Lester Bowie has to say about music and the Art Ensemble of Chicago, one of my favorite groups.

Sorry for the lack of substance in this post and the last one. I'll get down to some nitty gritty original thinking and writing, as well as some previously promised CD reviews, as soon as things slow down a bit on the work front.

In honor of Valentine's Day, here's Charles Mingus doing Flowers for a Lady with some incendiary playing from George Adams on tenor, Hamiett Bluiett on bari, Don Pullen on piano, Dannie Richmond on the drums, and of course Mr. Mingus on bass.

Greetings - I've changed the permissions so that people can post comments without having to create yet another otherwise useless account on the internet. I hadn't realized it was set up that way because I'm always logged in, but I saw that this was the case and have adjusted the setting accordingly. So let me know what you really think.

Just so this post isn't completely boring, I leave you with a video from the Jazz Piano Workshop, recorded in Berlin in 1965, featuring Earl Hines and Jaki Byard on piano, with Alan Dawson on drums.

I was pleasantly surprised yesterday to receive an advance promo copy of a CD that I wasn't even aware was being released - Fred Anderson and Hamid Drake - From The River To The Ocean, a Thrill Jockey release. Their first Thrill Jockey was the excellent Back Together Again, a duo album that highlighted their incredibly telepathic and empathetic musical relationship that had developed over the course of the past 40+ years of playing together.

Before I opened it up, I expected this album to be the same duo format, but was pleasantly surprised  to see that it also included three other Chicago based musicians - Josh Abrams, Jeff Parker, and the formidable and severely slept on/ underrated Harrison Bankhead. I realized that the band, if you swapped out Fred Anderson for trombonist Jeb Bishop, was the band that Hamid Drake had played with under his leadership several times in Chicago over the past few months and that he must have liked the configuration and decided to throw Fred Anderson into the mix.

I've only listened to it through once so I can't comment on it yet, but I will review it in full once I dig in deeper. My first impressions are highly favorable.

I also just received my copy of Indigo Trio - Live in Montreal, featuring Nicole Mitchell on flutes, and the same stellar Chicago rhythm team of Harrison Bankhead and Hamid Drake. Again, I've only listened a couple of times but there's some really beautiful stuff on here and I'll write more later.

To round out these Chicago based releases, Josh Abrams' new disc on the freshly launched Ropeadope digital label under his pseudonym Reminder, the West Side Cabin EP #1 is now available and I will probably pick it up soon.

I love new music.

43 years ago today, The Beatles arrived in America, and 62 years ago yesterday, Bob Marley was born in Jamaica. The former event brings to mind all kinds of musical implications, some of which would affect the music of the man implied by the latter event; the latter event reminds me of how young Bob Marley was when he passed away and how sad it is that he's no longer with us. The same can be said of John Lennon, and although George Harrison made it another 20+ years on earth, he also left us far too soon.

Beatles mania. I don't think we'll ever see a phenomenon like it again. When they landed, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was number one on the charts in the US, and by April 4, 1964, less than two months later, the Beatles had the top 5 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, a feat that has not been achieved since.

When they appeared on the Ed Sullivan program, Nielsen estimates 45 percent of the country watched the show - almost 74 million people then, one of the highest-rated nonsports programs of all time (then again, the MASH finale still rates highest).

They paved the way for the British invasion, even if the Beatles themselves were skeptical that they had anything to offer the musically rich US. Lennon is quoted as saying: "The thing is, in America, it just seemed ridiculous -- I mean, the idea of having a hit record over there. It was just something you could never do."

Or, as George Harrison put it: "'They've got everything over there. What do they want us for?"

It was an early example of music breaking down national borders and moving into a globalized landscape. Those walls are still crumbling down as digital music distribution means country specific licensing is becoming a thing of the past.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Jamaica, Bob Marley is a 19 year old musician who has just scored his first number one hit in Jamaica with 'Simmer Down' in January of 1964. Although I can't seem to find out exactly when he recorded it, sometime between 1964 and 1966, Bob recorded The Beatles' "And I Love Her" - obviously The Beatles' sphere of influence had moved into the Carribean as well. I've heard stories of people in Jamaica picking up radio signals from Miami - I'm not sure if they're apocryphal but that's one possible explanation.

Bob also lived in the US for about 6 months in 1966, probably furthering the influence of American music and melodies on his already rich musical sense and background.

An early example of being influenced by global music, Bob would go on to become arguably the most global artist in the history of music, with an impact that continues around the world today.

Here's an interview with Bob from 1979 - if you're not familiar with the Jamaican patois he can be difficult to understand, but if that's the case, listen to the flow, rhythm, and musicality of his speech. I've also included a 1973 Wailers lineup (including Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer) version from the BBC of Concrete Jungle.

Guitarist, composer, arranger, and producer extraordinaire, Jeff Parker, recently posted a dialog on his blog on the topic of the taping and distribution of live shows through the internet. While he offered a brief introduction to the subject, the bulk of his post was made up of a letter from a fan to the artist Douglas Ewart, and then his ensuing response. The response is rather heated, containing some vivid imagery and pulling no punches to show where Mr. Ewart stands on the subject.

I want to preface any discussion of the subject by saying that I have the utmost respect for both Jeff Parker and Douglas Ewart, having seen them performing numerous times and purchasing many of their recordings.

I think Jeff's position strikes a good balance on the subject - he states that he allows taping of his shows but he believes that the artist's permission is necessary to make it a legitimate practice. I completely agree with this - to record an artist's performance without their permission, or even worse, knowing that they are against the practice, is not an ethically sound practice. And that's what this is essentially, an ethics debate.

Mr. Ewart has a similar but different position, stating that the artist's permission is necessary (although he goes on to say he believes that artists who condone this practice are incorrect in their reasoning for doing so), and he makes this analogy: "Your/their actions are akin to visiting a museum, paying an admission fee, and, then stealing a painting and disseminating prints. It is also akin to going to someone's home for a party and then stealing their jewelry, plates, cups, recordings, etc. I have never gotten any concerts or sales of my recordings as a result of this practice of piracy. It is just plain wrong!"

While I don't want to argue with his own personal views, I believe that this is not a particularly apt analogy. Painters do not perform live and many musicians, as is the case with Mr. Ewart, only have a handful of recordings available for purchase. If there were copies of the live recording available for purchase and then someone distributed them for free, that would be similar. I see his point though - why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?

Mr. Ewart also writes: "We, as artists, are already struggling to stay afloat in this difficult business called art/music making. I cannot stop the practice of piracy, but I want to set the record straight that this is a very damaging practice. I think any artist that sanctions or endorses piracy is totally incorrect; of course, if they do, that is their prerogative. My recordings are not out of print or in a cutout bin. This practice of piracy usurps and lessens the impact of putting out unreleased live recordings. I don't need anyone to determine what is good for me. I don't need exposure, I am already sun burnt. We need shelter, support, help, advocates, concerts, workshops, money, health care, insurance, vacations, equipment, access, etc. Are these people that are getting the free recordings arranging work for the artists; are they sending monies to the artist whose work they get for free? I don't think so! I certainly have never received anything. Obtaining our work without compensating us is not respecting or caring about the artists that so many claim they Love."

On one hand, I can totally appreciate and respect the "support the arts" stance, as I work in a cultural arts organization that concerns itself with exactly this mission. I'd agree with his position that having so many free live recordings available lessens the impact of releasing live recordings officially if it weren't for the fact that most of the traders of music I know actually are ethical in their practices and do want to support the arts by purchasing official recordings.

Then there's a historical argument to be made for the practice, that if many of these shows hadn't been recorded on the down-low, so to speak, they would have been lost in the air never to be heard again. The jam sessions at Minton's with musicians like Thelonious Monk and Charlie Christian are available for our ears because someone took the time to record them. As someone who considers himself interested in the music in a scholarly capacity in addition to being a fan, I can't help but be in favor of documentation.

However, documentation does not necessarily imply distribution, and the internet  distribution of digital music in the form of p2p bittorrent sites makes it easier than ever for piracy to occur. I think, as I have posted previously on the subject of digital downloads and the music industry, that the answer to issues like this isn't to try and ban a practice that will continue to occur anyway, but rather to monetize the trading in a way that compensates the artists involved. Advertising revenue (see YouTube for a model) and subscription based situations could provide a step in this direction.

I had the pleasure of speaking with T.S. Galloway last Friday for a podcast interview on subjects ranging from his time with Duke Ellington and Count Basie to how he ended up living in Europe and finally to talk about his appearance this Friday, Feburary 9th in Chicago for the Bebop Brass concert.

This is a short video excerpt from the interview (I'm off camera although you can hear me laughing at one point) that contains a particularly good story from T.S.

If you enjoy it and you want to hear the rest of the interview, you can download the full podcast at jazzinchicago-podcasts.org