Month of March , 2007

Sorry for the lack of real, frequent writing around here, but I've been busy submerging myself in various pursuits, both professional and personal, that have been eating up most of my spare time.

As I mentioned recently, I've been listening to the Charles Brackeen Quartet Worshippers Come Nigh over and over again lately. It's a joyous, bountiful recording with fantastic playing by all parties involved (Charles Brackeen, Fred Hopkins, Olu Dara, Andrew Cyrille and Dennis Gonzalez on one track). 

Recently I was listening to it and I could have sworn I heard someone referencing Row Row Row Your Boat. I live above a coffee shop and it turns out that they were having a kids music session down there and someone was actually playing Row Row Row Your Boat. It was a strange musical moment to say the least, and made me wonder if Charles Brackeen was bleeding through the floor and into the unsuspecting minds of the youth that lingered below.

I first became aware of Charles Brackeen through the rerelease of William Parker's Through Acceptance of the Mystery Peace on Eremite, and now after listening to his own music I think I can go back to that recording and pick out his voice on the tenor more easily.

Following the presence of the venerable Andrew Cyrille, I recently picked up a recording by the late great Leroy Jenkins, his 1978 Tomato Records release, Space Minds, New Worlds, Survival Of America. Featuring Leroy Jenkins, Andrew Cyrille, Anthony Davis, George Lewis, and Richard Teitelbaum. I haven't dug in deep yet, but my first two listens have revealed a recording that mixes improvisation and composition without very many overt references to jazz in a rhythmic sense. Of course, with Jenkins, there's always some bluesy undertones, and there's some beautiful playing and mixtures of timbres and textures from the ensemble throughout.

I'm sorry to hear that Andrew Hill's suffering health seems to have taken a turn for the worse - he got a nice albeit brief review in the Times for his recent Trinity Church performance. You can watch a streaming video of his performance here.  As long as his health allows, Hill will be performing here in his home town of Chicago at this year's festival. I have the pleasure of knowing someone who taught Andrew Hill in his very early years here, and I'm going to be doing some interviews with him to document his incredible stories in the near future. I'll be sure to talk to him about his early impressions of Hill.

Here's two clips from YouTube of a recent performance by Anthony Braxton, William Parker, and Hamid Drake (!) in Italy:

Vijay Iyer premiered his orchestral work Interventions at the American Composers Orchestra's 30th anniversary concert at Zankel Hall. It seems Iyer's piece got favorable reviews across the board - I particularly enjoyed the latter article imploring the reader to "imagine Thelonious Monk in an anti-gravity chamber," even if I had a hard time imagining it myself.

I came across this old, but still pertinent review of the AACM ensemble Frequency's debut, eponymous release on Thrill Jockey records. I mention it because Frequency is about to do a little east coast jaunt, with stops in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and New York (I'm waiting to hear from Nicole Mitchell about the venues for Pittsburgh and NYC - I'll post them when I hear). So if you're in any of those cities, getcher ass out the door and support creative live music. Frequency is: Nicole Mitchell, Ed Wilkerson, Harrison Bankhead, and Avreeayl Ra.

I also stumbled upon this great essay about the Black Artists' Group of St. Louis on Oliver Lake's site. It's worth taking the time to read - if the AACM is under-documented, then there's some hyperbolic word for the unwritten history of the BAG.

Hamid Drake and Michael Zerang recently recorded with Chicago based experimental group Yakuza. I don't know what their connection to the group is other than a shared hometown - it's the second recent interesting crossover for Drake, who also recorded on Akron/Family's recent EP.

Also, there's a great site that deals with John Coltrane's music called The Traneumentary, featuring music from 'Trane and a variety of commentary from musicians [via Mwanji].

The New York Sun has an article up about Anthony Braxton, ostensibly as a preview of his upcoming Iridium run and release of his new box set.

A band I'd never heard of, Voltress, has a new album out that apparently features Roscoe Mitchell, Corey Wilkes, Bernie Worrell, and Richard Davis amongst others. You can download a preview track here - at least on that track, the horns are less a feature than a part of a sonic quilt that Voltress creates.

I can only assume that the connection between Voltress, Roscoe Mitchell and Richard Davis is that they're all based in Madison, WI.

If anyone in Iowa is reading, William Parker, Hamid Drake and David Budbill are doing some workshops and performances at Luther College this week.

Happy birthday to Sarah Vaughn...she would have been 83 today.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm currently reading a book entitled Capturing Sound: How Technology Has Changed Music, by Mark Katz, and I just finished his chapter "Capturing jazz."

Katz's focus is primarily on what he coins "phonograph effects," that is the way the technology impacted the way the music was made and conceptualized by both musicians and audience.

For example, the physical limitations of early phonograph technology put an upper ceiling on length of recordings, thus necessitating tight arrangements without much room for improvisation. Reports suggest that actual jazz performances included longer improvised sections than on the recordings, which only allowed for short choruses by each improviser.

Other examples of the early phonograph effect include dynamic limitations that didn't allow for accurate recording of drums, especially bass drums.

Katz also touches upon the central role recordings have played in jazz pedagogy, and the huge effect the recordings have had on the ability of jazz to spread past the urban centers in which it was originally practiced.

In the links roundup, the improvising guitarist has a post up continuing the discussions about jazz and race, adding some thoughtful and cogent ideas to the discourse. Matana Roberts put another new post up on Saturday continuing her personal narrative on the matter. There's a new book about about ECM available, which I will most certainly pick up (as a related aside, Pat notes ECM's skills in recording the piano). Another new book that piqued my interest is Jazz Consciousness by Paul Austerlitz, as I read a review in the most recent Ethnomusicology journal.

Last night I headed down to the new Checkboard Lounge in Hyde Park to see the Dee Alexander quartet, featuring Ms. Alexander on all things vocal, Miguel De La Cerna on piano, Harrison Bankhead on bass and Leon Joyce Jr. on drums.

The Checkerboard is the relocated version of the club originally owned by Buddy Guy and Junior Wells many years ago. It's previous location became dilapidated and apparently a fire hazard, and was shut down. Its current owner, L.C. Thurman relocated it to Hyde Park where it re-opened in shinier, cleaner digs. It's mostly blues but on Sunday nights they present jazz, and last night they broke all their attendance records with Ms. Alexander commanding the stage.

When most people think of jazz vocalists in Chicago, Kurt Elling is probalby the first name to come to mind. If you ask people again in 10 years, I wouldn't be surprised if Dee Alexander came first.

She's incredibly talented and how she's managed to stay hidden and unknown so long is a mystery to me. Dee is comfortable in almost any musical setting, doing more straight ahead oriented singing with her quartet, performing with Douglas Ewart's Inventions, Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble, and in some of the late Malachi Thompson's recordings.

Utilizing her instrument in myriad ways, she has a huge range and a rich tone, improvising in a manner that mimics instruments, destroys preconceived notions of the limits of the human voice, sometimes producing rhythmic patterns that are reminiscent of afro-pea/Zap Mama vocalizations.

Her band provided great support for her excursions, including some pieces that she was working on with Light Henry Huff when he passed away, pieces that she'll be performing later this year in Chicago in a concert featuring Douglas Ewart on reeds. Huff was one of the lesser known reedists in the AACM, a one man spiritual center and shamanistic healer who practiced traditional medicine from a variety of cultures.

She'll also be featured in the Millennium Park series this summer in Chicago, doing a tribute to Nina Simone and Dinah Washington. I can't think of a singer better equipped to accomplish that daunting task.

New Yorkers will get a chance to check her out during this year's Vision Festival where she'll be appearing with Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble, and maybe in a gig of her own around the city if she can find something. She's done some shows in NYC in the past with Oliver Lake, a musician she's begun to work with.

Unfortunately she only has one recording right now, a live recording from the Hothouse. Hopefully some enterprising soul sees the opportunity to document her beautiful voice so she can share it with more people soon.

Darcey has a post up where he reflects on some of the questions I posed about recording jazz and reasons why the rock DIY aesthetic/ethic has not caught on amongst jazz artists, making some great points.

Of course, as soon as I put up that post, I got to the chapter in the book I'm reading, "Capturing Sound: How Technology Has Changed Music," that deals specifically with recording jazz. Needless to say I will report back after the chapter has been read and reflected upon.

I just got two new recordings to listen to. One is Inner Constellation Volume One on Nemu Records by the Bruce Eisenbeil Sextet, featuring Mr. Eisenbell (whom I've never heard), Jean Cook, Nate Wooley, Aaron Ali Shaikh, Tom Abbs and Nasheet Waits.

The second is the Delmark rerelease of an early AACM recording, Joseph Jarman's "As If It Were The Seasons," featuring Jarman, Charles Clark, Thurman Barker, Sherri Scott, Muhal Richard Abrams, Joel Brandon, Fred Anderson, John Stubblefield, John Jackson, and Lester Lashley. It says it's been remixed and remastered from the original master tapes but I can't see from the CD itself when the original recording takes place (EDIT: further research shows it was 1968).

Looking forward to listening to both of them and reporting back.

I recently finished reading Nobel prize winner Muhammad Yunus' Banker to the Poor, an inspiring account of the invention and spread of the practice of micro lending. Micro lending is the practice of lending small amounts of money to people with no physical or monetary collateral, and relying upon human decency and the creation of social networks of lenders as the collateral, a revolutionary idea to say the least. His program has been incredibly successful in his native Bangladesh and has spread elsewhere, and he has generously offered his model up to anyone else who would like to start a micro lending organization. Their focus is on the poorest of the poor, and they have made incredible strides for those people through his program.

In the book he calls for socially conscious business enterprises to become more common practice in the private sector, essentially bypassing the normative bureaucratic routes that funding goes through. For profit businesses using their profit to do positive things socially. It's something that I and many people I know would love to see, and invest in, and if Yunus' outlook comes across as romantic sometimes, it's rooted in his own experiences that have created a very practical methodology for alleviating poverty.

Inspirational to say the least.

I found a couple hidden articles on the OkkaDisk site, hidden only in that there doesn't appear to be any linking to them off their main site. One is an article by Kevin Whitehead called "Why many records are very bad—and a few are good" and another by Stu Vandermark (Ken's brother?) called "Recording Jazz: A Questionable Practice? (or, A Call for Re-examination)."  They're both interesting in their own right and I don't want to go into a detailed analysis of either of them, but I thought they were relevant as part of a larger discussion about recording jazz. The Whitehead article is interesting in light of the recent Behearer discussion, since he mentions the "overlooked" artists of the 70s and 80s, while also discussing major labels' role in the situation.

Stu Vandermark questions the practice of recording entirely, not discarding it, but coming to the central point that:

"Buying records is like bringing home a copy of the exhibit book from a showing of works by visual artists. It is nice to have photos of the works to help jog fine memories, but the book is not a substitute for the exhibit. Analogously jazz is more like the work of certain types of “tactile” artists, such as painter Vincent van Gogh and sculptor David Smith. Those artists have produced works in which it is impossible to perceive and measure the shift between the total, larger impact and the three-dimensional vitality of the detail. In such cases the artifacts — photos on the one hand and sound recordings on the other — fall far short of the jolting reality."

Whether or not that's true is debatable. I don't think many people would argue with the notion that jazz is best experienced live, but there are some recordings that seem to transcend the limitations of the medium and allow for a transcendent listening experience. I also value the fact that I can listen to a recording in the comfort of my own home in an idealized listening environment without the clanking of beer bottles or the coughes wheezes and whispers of an audience.

Following this tangent and making a leap to a related discussion about recording, I wanted to comment on the sentence that Mwanji highlighted in the William Parker quote I posted recently. To paraphrase, Parker says that he believes jazz recordings should be done more akin to the process of rock recordings, where bands go into the studio for extended periods of time rather than the one or two day allotments given to many jazz recordings.

What it really made me think about and wonder is if jazz has moved towards having more home based recording environments, as many rock musicians and producers have, and if it hasn't, why is that the case? Recording technology keeps getting cheaper, so why is the studio even in the equation? I wonder if it has something to do with the technical difficulties of recording jazz. I would assume, based on my own rudimentary knowledge of microphones and recording technology, that making a good jazz recording requires a higher level of mastery than the average home recordist possesses. Nevertheless, I think it makes sense for jazz artists to look beyond the traditional studio environment as a means of making records if there is really value in being able to spend more time recording.

Just a thought.

Currently listening to Sticks and Stones - Shed Grace, featuring Matana Roberts, Josh Abrams and Chad Taylor. I love their dynamics and interplay, and this is my second favorite setting for Chad Taylor, second only to his work with Cooper-Moore in Tryptich Myth, especially the second release on Aum Fidelity. Matana sounds great on this recording and Josh Abrams is a highly underrated bassist in the creative music scene, perhaps because of his genre mobility that sees him collaborating with everyone from Prefuse 73 to Town and Country.

For your viewing pleasure, a Max Roach Quartet video featuring Odean Pope Billy Harper (thx Jason), Cecil Bridgewater, and Reggie Workman:

There's an article in the Boston Globe about Vijay Iyer and his recent AAJ article talking about "maximum creative risk" - not much new added to the conversation that we've already had about the article, an example of traditional media being a day late and a dollar short when compared to the quick to respond blogosphere.

David has a nice post up that adds to the line of thought started by Mwanji about race and jazz. I thought it was interesting considering I had just read this article about Wynton Marsalis where he denounces all rap/hip-hop as "ghetto minstrelsy."

I found this quote from Marsalis particularly relevant:

"Every decade I try to do a record that has a kind of relationship to contemporary culture," he says. "In the 80s I did Black Codes (From the Underground); in the 90s I did Blood on the Fields; now, in this decade, From the Plantation to the Penitentiary. As I say on the rap track, Where Y'All At, 'You got to speak the language the people are speakin'/ 'Specially when you see the havoc it's wreakin'.' Sometimes it's important to speak in the vernacular, both lyrically and musically."

If it's important to speak in the "vernacular" some of the time, I wonder what language he's speaking the rest of the time.

There's a nice post up on Rifftides about the sheer number of discs being produced in and around the jazz/creative music scene and the dilemma of a reviewer in trying to listen to it all. The only publication I know that comes close is Signal to Noise.

My listening has brought another gem in front of my ears, Dissent or Descent by Horace Tapscott, featuring Fred Hopkins on bass and Ben Riley on drums. It's a killer piano trio album with great playing by all three musicians. Originally recorded in 1984, it would certainly be a good addition to that year of the Behearer project. There's a nod to Monk, fitting with Ben Riley on the drum chair, a moving rendition of "Ruby My Dear," which Tapscott chooses to perform solo. The opener "As A Child" is very moody and Tapscott really shines on "To The Great House," which has a really strong rhythmic drive and great interaction with Hopkins. There isn't anything particularly jaw dropping in any of the music, but I could listen to the record over and over. Great interplay and dynamics. There's also something about the mix - it's very even in one sense. You could probably complain that the piano is too low in the mix, but I like being able to hear Riley and Hopkins so clearly.

Here's a short clip of an interview with Ben Riley:

And here's the Monk Quartet doing Ruby My Dear in 1969:

Apologies for the lack of activity around here lately. I've been quite busy with a number of projects, musical and scholarly, and there's been such great posts and reading amongst other blogs recently that I've been left with little left to say and plenty left to read. Throw in a little bout with some seasonal allergies and Soundslope's been left by the wayside.

Along with some fantastic reading, I've been taking the time to really listen to some music, as a primary active pursuit of sitting, absorbing, and reflecting. Most people understand that there is a difference between hearing and listening; hearing implies basic acknowledgment of auditory input, while listening connotes an active processing of the information encoded in that auditory signal. That there are degrees of listening is plainly obvious to anyone who has been ignored while speaking, or to any person who has tried to deeply listen to music or to another human being with a receptivity and stillness of mind that allows deep listening to occur. Thus, the degree of listening is more involved with the state of the mind of the listener than with the physical mechanisms of the ears, and one’s own disposition and mental framework determines the depth and extent to which one listens.  Listening intently is largely a matter of where attention is placed, and how well the individual is able to maintain that attention in a focused manner, allowing them to receive without distraction or mental interruption. In that spirit I've been trying to deepen my own listening practices, with improvised music as my source of study and inspiration.

I received a recording of the Art Ensemble of Chicago live in 1977in Germany with Fred Anderson sitting in. It's rare to hear Fred Anderson playing any music other than his own - his tone and style is so singular, and he really embodies the AACM ethos of playing original music. So its fun to hear Fred sit in with the venerable AEOC, his tone instantly identifiable amongst Roscoe Mitchell and Joseph Jarman's formidable contributions.

The only other recording I have of Fred playing someone else's music is a trio recording of him with Charlie Haden and Hamid Drake. I'm one of only two people who have the recording, as the person who gave it to me has the original tapes and isn't spreading it in hopes of it eventually finding its way to an official release. In any case, with Charlie's presence, Fred actually plays some Ornette tunes, which is really a treat, since Ornette and Ed Blackwell had such an influence on both Fred and Hamid Drake's playing.

Fred's such an interesting player amongst the so-called "avant-garde" because he doesn't do any overblowing or extended technique on his horn. He seems to draw from an endless well of musical ideas and flow, with the rhythmic element really playing a huge role in his approach and his sound. He has such a strong, powerful tone on his tenor, and I've read in an interview that he credits it to the fact that he used to practice outside in the park a lot, so he got used to projecting. It's even more amazing when you realize that Fred plays all hunched over - it's amazing that his diaphragm can still produce such a huge sound.

The AEOC show is a typical tour-de-force of musical exploration. Moye's drumming never fails to amaze me, and listening to the recording makes me wish Lester Bowie had collaborated with Fred Anderson in a more developed capacity during his all too brief life.

Other new listening has included a Charles Brackeen Quartet Silkheart recording from 1987 called Worshippers Come Nigh, featuring Mr. Brackeen on tenor, Olu Dara, on cornet, Fred Hopkins on bass, Andrew Cyrille on drums and percussion, and Dennis Gonzalez on "pao de chuva" on one track. It's already up on Behearer so I'll be adding some commentary there once I dig in a little bit further. Seeing this recording also makes me want to pick up this Dennis Gonzalez record.

I've also been delving back into the work of the overlooked Japanese-american pianist Glenn Horiuchi. My friend Tatsu Aoki first hipped me to Horiuchi and I've been hooked ever since. Horiuchi had an all too brief career, dying of cancer in 2000 at the age of 45. He was a good friend of Wadada Leo Smith's, who has a tribute page up for him. His playing incorporates so much and there's a lot to absorb listening to him.

In the housekeeping department, I'd like to welcome Harris Eisenstadt's Tie A Bow Not A Knot to the blogroll - he's in west Africa with Willow Williamson on a Meet the Composer Global Connections grant, and has some fantastic stories, and video footage about his travels there. Also recently added is the blog of trombonist Jeff Albert, a musician with Chicago ties who I haven't had the pleasure of checking out yet but will be sure to do in the future.

In the spirit of letting the musicians speak for themselves, here's a relevant quote from William Parker [via Aum Fidelity], interviewed by Pete Gershon of Signal to Noise:

PG:What's your view of the health of the new music scene?

WP: Well, I was just talking to some people yesterday about how, as you leave New York and you're listening to our jazz station, WKCR, and you start to lose it about half-way down the New Jersey Turnpike. Then you might pick up some jazz on the Temple station but you lose that too as you travel south past Philadelphia, and then you don't hear any more jazz. You don't hear any more of the records that you're on. Except for pockets here and there, you know, someone will have a little Sunday night show, or something on after midnight, or certain die-hards who love the music and will put it up on the internet. Except for these pockets, you're not getting very much publicity. If you divide the amount of publicity into the number of people in the US, you see that you're really getting the short end of the stick. You can't win a Grammy, because they won't even consider an album that's sold fewer than 5000 copies. You can't even get nominated. I mean imagine what it would do if there was a Grammy for avant-garde jazz. Once a year, an artist like that could go on TV and play for millions of people!

I think we have to realize we can only go so far. Once you realize you have the need to play this music, it's not about how far you can go, it's not about who's listening, ok? It's about the fact that your position in the universe is such that, if you DON'T play, something will go off its axis. Something will go off. Look at the guys who are 25, and up-and-coming, at places like the Knitting Factory. And then look at all the guys who are 65, still playing at the Knitting Factory. Guys like Cecil Taylor, Henry Threadgill. When Cecil was in his 20's, he played in little places on Bleecker Street. Now, he plays at the Knitting Factory. Where have you gone? Where has the music gone? Basically,what I'm saying is, the jazz elevator can't go too far up. And in a sense, it takes away the frustration about not making it. Because you ARE making it, just as far as it can be made with this music. No, the real frustration comes from the fact that this music's not even in the textbooks. It's not taught in the schools. It's not acknowledged. I would say there are people out there waiting to play this music, who don't even know it exists. They have no idea you can approach a drum set in a different way, that you can play a saxophone in a different way, that you don't just have to play a 12-bar solo. You look at jazz books, and they tell you, "to play a good jazz solo, don't be too emotional. Don't repeat yourself. Don't play a particular kind of note. Don't play too many choruses." If vou followed their rules, you wouldn't have any Charlie Parker, have any John Coltrane. You wouldn't have any jazz.

There is a conservatism that's flooding the country, but there are pockets — like what's going on in Amherst. Michael Ehlers doesn't have fifty thousand dollars, so he's just doing a one-day festival with 4 or 5 groups. But those 4 or 5 groups will shake the universe on that particular day! And I am sure that if those groups didn't play on that day, the world would be worse off for it. And that's how we have to look at it — that everything you do is the most important thing you could do in life, whether it's playing for one person or ten thousand. Or even if you're just walking down the street, and a little kid says "Hey! What's that on your back?' If I say, It's a bass," and stop and spend fifteen minutes talking to the kid about music, at that time, its as if it's the most important thing I could possibly do. Life is short, and we cant expect too much except to try and get close to whatever is beautiful about life. It's not about making money, nobody even expects that anymore! It didn't work!

Just the idea that the layman has about the music is wrong. There's nothing "out" about this music. If you analyze it, you find that it has rhythm, harmony, melody. It has extended techniques. It's influenced by music from all over the world, you know? The cell of sound is smaller. The rhythm isn't constant, it's more like the idea of a pulse, where you take a longer rhythm and break it up, varying smaller and longer cells. Sometimes you're playing a chant that builds to a fever pitch. You deal with dances, the feeling of the blues. But it's not about playing anything you want to play. It's not even about wanting to play! It's about having to do it, and training yourself how to go along with sound and a flow of ideas.

The conversation about jazz, its boundaries, and its definition has produced some great posts and conversation in the blogosphere.  Pat wrote two related posts yesterday, and David wrote another. A recurring theme in these posts and in the discussion at large is whether jazz's essence (if I may so presumptuous as to assume there is one, an essentialist attitude...) lies in something that could be notated, such as rhythm/pitch/harmony, or in an attitude or approach to music. A real important issue then becomes how we recognize the musicians who follow the latter trajectory of the jazz tradition, when they get very little respect or acknowledgment from the system that only values the former.

Related to this is a post by Taylor Ho Bynum about a recent Ben Ratliff review of the Cecil Taylor/John Zorn show at Lincoln Center. I read the article before I read Mr. Bynum's post, which echoed all of the sentiments I would have written here. Ratliff is dismissive that the music needs institutional support, having created their own framework to present their music, and noting that: "The MacArthur Foundation has honored almost all the major figures of the jazz avant-garde with fellowships. Academic presses are pumping out books about their achievements. What’s the big deal, for them, about a gig at the Rose Theater?" I don't really know where to start with this - needless to say, the fact that Ratliff believes this to be the case boggles my mind.

The Vision Festival schedule is going to be announced soon. I'm really hoping to make it out there this year - we'll see if I can make it happen. Nicole Mitchell told me she's going to be bringing her Black Earth Ensemble out to perform a commissioned piece, and Corey Wilkes' Abstract Pulse will be playing, featuring some young Chicago talent that you're probably not familiar with but should be. In addition, Hamid Drake's usual presence will be in effect, so there'll be a nice Chicago contingent represented this year. Hopefully I can make it out there to support them and see some music I don't get to see out here.

In These Times has an interesting article up about Wikipedia, and wikis in general, that had some quotes that I thought were particularly pertinent to the Beaherer project. The article describes the blogosphere and other internet based communities as a "..set of networks of people engaged in issues and topics and passions who seize upon communications media to make their networks real and make things happen." Behearer is a great example of that - a group of people who cared enough about something, utilizing the communications technology of today to make a real entity that they can point to as the result of their efforts.

The article also poses some questions that I think are worth discussing and thinking about, such as: "...will this new open environment actually generate public media—media for public knowledge and action, media that helps a public into being and nourishes it?" In the case of discussions regarding creative music and jazz in the time period of 1970ish through 1990, it will be interesting to see if this is the case. The fact that the Bad Plus was involved, perhaps one of the most far reaching bands in jazz in terms of bringing in a youth audience, is promising.  Articles about the project in traditional media, like the NYTimes article certainly encourage public who might not be aware of it to visit and perhaps learn a thing or two.

Another question posed is: "How accurate is Wikipedia? That depends on the strength of the publics that gather around the topics that are covered."

Insert rally cry for contributions here. I've been getting a small list of recordings I want to write about and contribute to the site and will be doing so shortly. I encourage others to do the same.

Speaking of post 1970s jazz, a Frank Foster/Elvin Jones recording from 1977 that never saw the light of day has just been released, per this NY Times article, as "Well Water." Looks interesting, I'll have to check it out.

As an aside, thanks to Vijay Iyer for the link from his site to my post about his All About Jazz article, and welcome to anyone who found their way here from his site. Also, I'd like to welcome Larry Blumenfeld to the blogroll - I look forward to reading about his work as a Katrina Media Fellow in New Orleans, looking at the situation on the ground for musicians.

While I'm linking, here's a (somewhat predictable) review of Saturday night's John Zorn/Cecil Taylor gig at The Rose hall at Lincoln Center.

If you have some intergalactic vibes to spare, I just heard drummer Robert Barry is in the hospital. I came to know him through his duets album with Fred Anderson on Thrill Jockey, but he is best known as the original drummer with Sun Ra's band, in its very first incarnation as a trio in 1953.

Most recently he has recorded with Ken Vandermark in his Sound In Action Trio.

He was scheduled to play a concert in Chicago tonight as a tribute to Captain Walter Dyett, a musical educator who taught Mr. Barry as well as Johnny Griffin, Gene Ammons, Clifford Jordan, Eddie Harris, Joseph Jarman, Von Freeman, Fred Hopkins, Wilburt Ware, and many, many others.

Taylor Ho Bynum has a couple of great posts up on his blog, one detailing Mantana Roberts' Coin Coin Continuum project, and another previewing the upcoming Anthony Braxton 12+1tet box set release. There's also an accompanying trailer up on YouTube for the Jason Guthartz DVD documentary that's included with the set. I love to see that kind of documentation of the music: an exhaustive box set, a documentary, and detailed liner notes.

It appears John Zorn's Masada Quartet has reached the end of its run, announcing that its upcoming Lincoln Center shows will be amongst its last. They join the ranks of the David S. Ware Quartet as once iconic downtown bands that have now parted ways. I don't find it to be a particularly heartbreaking development in either case, as I believe they've both created a body of work that can now stand on its own, and I admire their ability to keep a real band together for so long. In Masada's case, even with the same personnel - Ware went through several drummers over the course of their career.

Pat Donaher wrote a post on rule changes that could put internet radio in jeopardy (yet again). It does indicate some disheartening attitudes towards media consolidation and music, and I wonder who out there is really standing up for the rights of listeners these days.

I do have some good news to report though, which is that there was an anti-payola settlement. While the fine imposed is only a drop in the bucket, hopefully it might spur some change in playlists and an awareness on the stations' part that their actions actually have consequences. The coolest part of it is that as part of a related settlement, the radio stations will have to provide around 16,000 hours of free airtime for independent record labels (but isn't the point that all airtime should technically be "free"?). That sounds like a lot of airtime but when it's divided up amongst thousands of radio stations

There's a great new Vijay Iyer article over at All About Jazz where he talks about the genre of jazz, where he seems himself fitting into that landscape, and what he really values in terms of a spirit of creativity in the music. I think it's interesting to fit his comments into the overarching discussion that has been going on about jazz since 1970, creative music economics, and jazz historiography. Iyer writes with his usual clarity and intent (if you haven't read any of his scholarly works he wrote while at UC Berkeley, I highly reccomend you do so), and ultimately comes to the following conclusion:

And that’s closest to what jazz is for me: an expressive and critical take on reality, at once tough and fragile, culturally and historically grounded yet perilously unstable, miraculously existing in the most unlikely circumstance and simply devastating in its effect on one’s worldview. The kind of musical experience I crave is the kind that makes me wonder if I even know what music is.

Wow. Perhaps a bit romantic (something I think Iyer is probably aware of) but not unrealistic in my opinion, having experienced some of those reality shaking listening experiences in my own limited tenure as an admirer of creative music.

I think the cultural capital (to borrow Pierre Bourdieu's phrase) of jazz is really what is at stake, and Iyer nails it by saying a bit part of the issue is economics, and staking a claim to that cultural capital. Musicians who create outside of the mainstream, but still utilize elements of the musical language of jazz  (something that is perilously difficult to put borders on as well) risk losing the cultural capital of jazz if they are not included under its patchy umbrella, as well as the social capital of belonging to that group.

To take the Bourdieu-ian analysis further, the cultural capital is embodied in the individual by learning the tradition and gaining the musico-linguistic capital of the jazz language. Bourdieu also keenly noticed the value of the institutionalized state, and the ways in which it made for cleaner definitions through hierarchical achievements that translated into levels of compensation.

Iyer laments the flooding of the market with music school grads who may or may not have "paid their dues" - and while he states that this isn't a case of fetishizing musical hardship, his main point is made when he says: "When I hear mastery without risk, I feel ripped off."

I understand his point completely, and I think that the "mastery without risk" comes across in the music, and for me personally and I'm sure many others, it is a huge turn off. It's the musical equivalent of talkin' jive, or as I posted in an earlier blog, to quote the late great James Brown, talkin' loud and sayin' nothing.

I'd be interested to hear what people think of Iyer's article.

Okay, I'm really struggling in the blog post title department, but please forgive me.

I've just posted a bunch of new links in the aptly titled "Links" section of the site - including a long list of Chicago-centric but not exclusive interviews. I'll add more as time goes on, but I thought it was nice to put the links in one place as a resource for folks like me who love reading the artists talk about music in their own words.

There's a great new issue of the web-only music journal, Point of Departure, published by Bill Shoemaker, including a great story about Alice Coltrane, excerpts from three books on creative music, a nice article about the Art Ensemble and Italy from Francesco Martinelli, and a Q&A session with trumpeter Dave Ballou about being a traveling musician. I actually had the pleasure of studying with Mr. Ballou for a couple of summers back when I was a young trumpet player (I haven't picked up the instrument with any consistency over the past 4 years...shame on me) - he's a great musician and a very kind soul.

This month at the Velvet Lounge in Chicago, every Sunday, Nicole Mitchell is going to be leading the Great Black Music Ensemble in paying tribute to female composers and musicians. Matana Roberts will be appearing a special guest on Saturday the 17th. I'm certainly going to attend that show, as I've never seen Matana live, although I've been a big fan of the Sticks and Stones group with Chad Taylor and Josh Abrams in the recorded form, and I heard rave reviews from Mwata Bowden about her duo with Roscoe Mitchell at the Sons D'Hiver fest a few years back.

I've been thinking about Bill Frisell's playing since I saw him on Thursday. His playing and musical aesthetic is something I admire greatly - he's obviously a musical omnivore, devouring and processing massive amounts of music and putting it all into his unique, postmodern blend that is equal parts jazz, americana, rock and roll, and pop melodic sensibility.

He possesses a keen harmonic and melodic sense, and I am always particularly impressed and fascinated by his use of harmonies in vamps/pedals, his ability to give them a sense of motion while orbiting around that central tone. I think it's time for me to sit down and really take the time to pick apart what he's doing and how he does it. I had a great seat at the show so I could really see his hands and he's an impressive technician on the guitar.

His use of delays is fantastic, the ways he sets up the future and then interacts with the past through his delay pedals, morphing his sound forwards and backwards, slowed down and sped up.

One more additional note for the show review I posted. I was listening to the Beach Boy's version of Surfer Girl and I realized that he must have either added sections or it was a medley. I'm thinking he might have added in the melody from the Everly Brothers' "All I Have To Do Is Dream" - although I could have imagined that.

I realized I really need to pick up News for Lulu - I'm fascinated to hear him in that grouping. I'm a huge, unabashed fan of George Lewis and an occasional John Zorn fan, so I'll be interested to see what that trio of musicians can do. I hope it lives up to its promise.

I had the pleasure of seeing Bill Frisell, Jenny Scheinman, and Greg Leisz in a trio last night at the Steppenwolf theater, a nice small theater on the north side of Chicago. Before the show I thought I had been there once before to see Peru Negro several years ago, but when I arrived I realized it must have been one of the other 'tiny theaters' on the north side of Chicago.

I was excited to see Frisell in this configuration - previously I'd seen him with the Unspeakable band, which was a fantastic show musically, overcoming the setting of the cavernous Symphony Center. I also saw him with Lee Konitz's band at the Symphony Center, a show that I found quite disappointing, with the only redeeming highlight being a duo encore with Konitz and Frisell that made the show worth the price of admission.

Seeing him with a violinist and a multi-instrumentalist pedal steel/lap steel player in an intimate setting was everything I hoped it would be. There was an incredible balance of improvisation and composition, with the former providing interesting and creative segues between the latter.

They opened with an extended improvisation that led into a brief theme, and then back into improvisation. From the first noise made on stage to the first round of applause, there was about 30 minutes of continuous music, which generally followed this format of weaving from what sounded like free improvisation, into at theme, into improvising around that theme, and back into free improv.

Frisell started the show on his acoustic, switching later to his trusty telecaster. It's amazing how his tone is so instantly identifiable no matter what the instrument or context; he is truly an artist who has found their own voice.

I'm not great with names of tunes, but some highlights and songs that I remember from the setlist were: Misterioso (which was given a very different treatment from the version on the recent album with Ron Carter and Paul Motian), an absolutely gorgeous version of "Shenandoah," his always brilliant version of Bob Dylan's "Hard Rain's Gonna Fall," and in one of the most beautiful songs of the night, an extended treatment of the Beach Boys' "Surfer Girl."

It took me a minute to realize it was "Surfer Girl" he was playing, and I'm still not sure if it was a medley with some other melodies and themes in there. It made me have one of those "why didn't I think of that" moments - something that I find happens often when I listen to Frisell.

Scheinman and Leisz were great counterparts for Frisell. Scheinman provided a lot of melodic content along with a surprising amount of rhythmic support. That was one interesting aspect about the trio - they shared all responsibilities equally, melodically, harmonically, and rhythmically.

All in all, a fantastic show. I hope they document this trio in a recording sometime in the near future - a great balance of sounds, timbres, personalities that deserves to be recorded.

There's a radio station here in Chicago called Jack FM, 104.3, that boasts as its motto: "We play anything." Note that they don't play "everything" - this isn't a statement of mobility between genres, or lack of format. Any sense of freedom that they may be trying to claim comes across as a lack of cohesion, vision, and unity in their programming. They almost appear to be saying they're not even responsible for what goes on the air.

Yesterday I read this article from the New York Times entitled "Saving Radio in the Satellite Era." The author argues that the failures of terrestrial radio's consolidations should not give us much hope for the proposed XM-Sirius merger, and furthermore, that the only answer to our consolidation problem is more legislation - the very thing that got us into the mess to begin with. His proposal is:

"Fortunately, there is a solution: Require every station that wants to add to its holdings to broadcast a minimum level of original, live and local material. This proposal is based on one of the most successful broadcast policies in American history. In the 1960s, when the F.C.C. opened the FM dial, AM stations rushed to acquire licenses — but then simulcast the same shows they were already playing. This was not what regulators had in mind, so they ruled that FM stations had to play original content on at least half of their programming hours. Because radio companies didn’t want to invest much in FM, they ceded control of their studios to young people and amateur broadcasters. The result was the advent of free-form music radio, with programs so fresh and compelling that listeners flocked to FM and stayed there — at least until corporate broadcasters standardized it, too."

Unless I'm mistaken, and maybe Mr. Ryshpan can chime in here, Canada has a similar law regarding percentage of Canadian music played over the airways. Due to the volume of American music the local region would have to be defined more closely than the entire country to have the desired effect, but I do think it could happen. That is, if I had an inkling of faith left in our legislative bodies to do something for the benefit of the general and artistic public rather than for the mega corporations.

Tangentially, I've been involved in some discussions regarding the marketing of this music we like to call jazz in the United States. For the purposes of this discussion we'll define that genre as broadly as possible, not taking into consideration the various genres, subgenres, and splintered factions that exist, at least in some peoples' minds.

The basic questions are: 1) How do we effectively market this music? 2) Specifically, how do we market this music to a younger generation so that it continues to enjoy support as the baby boomers and older generations make their transitions? 3) Is it really a question of marketing?

I'd be really interested to hear from the blogosphere what they think about these questions, either in the form of your own entries or in the comments here. I think it's a discussion worth having, and your ideas might actually make an impact in the way jazz marketing happens in Chicago, a city that boasts a vibrant scene with intermittent support from the general public.