Jazz Beyond Jazz

Jazz at Lincoln Center ducats, Wynton-Willie dvd giveaways!

2009-11-07T15:41:50Z

Readers of this blog can win 2 tix for JALC's November 14 shows by Maceo Parker or the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra playing Mary Lou Williams, or autographed Wynton-Willie Nelson Play Ray Charles dvds. But in keeping with the inherent value of these prizes, I'm making the contest creative, not easy.]]> Online submissions only: If you want to attend either alto saxophonist Parker's soul-steeped performance in the Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center next weekend, or the Mary Lou Williams Centennial performance of trumpeter Marsalis leading the LCJO and featuring excellent pianists Geri Allen and Geoff Keezer in Rose Hall at JALC, or vie for one of the two copies of the new Wynton Marsalis and Willie Nelson play Ray Charles (with guest Norah Jones), submit via the comments box below something interesting to read, which I'll post in this space next Saturday. What I have in mind is some sort of poem or very brief narrative concerning/referring to American roots of jazz and its extensions.

My first impulse was to ask for a villanelle, triolet, hiaku or some such rigidly ruled form, but instead let's go for the vernacular: lyrics for three to five choruses of a 12 bar blues, or a prose poem that works as a blues narrative, 100 to 150 words long.

The blues lyrics should follow the conventional format: the first line proposes the narrator's situation ("My girl don't love me, she treats me awful mean"), the second line repeats the first (or employs slight variation) for emphatic effect, the third line adds to, complicates, sums up and/or resolves the problem (She's the meanest girl I've ever seen"). The lyric ought to be in rhythm that works with 12-bars of 4/4 meter (try reciting what you've written to any basic blues recording to see it if fits). The three to five choruses ought to progress to tell a story.

The prose poem can be less strictly composed, but will be judged, like the lyrics (by my inhouse staff of experts) for originality, moodiness, vivid imagery, compression and, of course, bluesiness.

First prize:

Two tickets, to be messengered to the winner or picked up at Jazz at Lincoln Center's box office, to either of two November 14 concerts. Maceo Parker is best known for his saxophonics in bands led by James Brown, Ray Charles and George Clinton (he was part of the Horny Horns with tenor saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis and trombonist Fred Wesley; these three still perform together, though I don't know if they'll all be at JALC); Wynton, the LCJO, pianists Allen and Keezer will presumably concentrate on the infrequently reprised compositions of Mary Lou Williams, the modernist pianist-composer-arranger born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs, whose career ranged from jamming with McKinney's Cotton Pickers to concertizing with Cecil Taylor.

Two second prizes:

A DVD of Wynton Marsalis and Willie Nelson Play The Music of Ray Charles, autographed by Wynton, recorded live at JALC's Rose Hall on February 10, 2009 -- tunes lincluding "Hallelujah I Love Her So," "Hit the Road, Jack," and "Unchain My Heart." With singer Norah Jones and harmonica player Mickey Raphael, among others. I will mail the dvds to the winners.

DEADLINE (very important!): All submissions must be posted to the comments box below by midnight EST Wednesday, November 11. Get a hold of your blues, and get started!

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US remains jazz central

2009-11-06T12:33:36Z

Jazz is global, but its most ambitious players still flock to the US to soak in its roots and prove they're part of the scene. Tonight a Parisian septet called Fractale wraps up an eight-gig tour of the States at the Drom in the East Village, after stops in New Orleans, Cleveland and Chicago. From December 3 to 6 Spanish pianist Chano Domínguez & his Flamenco Quintet bring its commissioned "The Flamenco Side of Kind of Blue" to the Jazz Standard to assert that the Barcelona Jazz Festival (in which they premiere the work on November 12) has something to do with the Big Apple. Next February the Portland Jazz Festival explores the theme "Is Jazz Dead (Or Has It Moved To A New Address?)." But incontrovertible evidence suggests that however far the sound has spread, those who matter know where jazz calls home.]]> The Portland Fest's theme, meant to introduce a slew of Norweigan artists to a northwest audience, is taken from British author and academic Stuart Nicholson's dumb book purporting that our vernacular idiom-turned-art form, born some hundred years ago from America's urban cultural mix of blacks, whites, yellows, browns, oranges and zebras, has faded away due to the neo-conservative aesthetic of Wynton Marsalis dominating American jazz education. Nicholson's ridiculous premise was backed up by no visit to the U.S., no note of the many streams of jazz issuing from this country that have nothing to do with Marsalis, and the author's determination to ignore the continued sway of American jazz icons living or dead upon anyone seriously interested in making a mark on the evolving tradition. In fact, tonight Wynton Marsalis will become a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, accepting the prestigious recognition of civilian merit established by Napoleon in 1802. Say what you will about Marsalis's music, he has done his utmost to represent American jazz in every land on Earth.

While a glance at this week's New York Times jazz listings reveals a marvelous array of music derived from sources as disparate as Chilean singer-songwriters, Afro-Cuban rhythms, Brazilian samba and tropicalia, South Asian heritage, Belgian gypsy swing and Icelandic pop divas, there can be no doubt that the two dozen acts Nate Chinen has highlighted (a fraction of what's happening here this weekend) could only be found performing over the course of one non-festival week in New York City, New York State, USA, North America.

Why do jazz musicians look to the States for validation? Ask alto saxophonist-composer-bandleader Julian Julien, who spent six months planning the visit of Fractale, which lists among its main influences Frank Zappa, Moondog, Keith Jarrett and Tom Waits. I had a hard time catching up with him -- no one traveling with the band could understand my English over the phone -- so we resorted to email exchanges. He wrote:

US have been instinctively way more open to Fractale music and the idea of having us perform in their clubs, whereas in France, it is a little slower for them to go for it and book us...American people (professional, the audience, local bands...) are very kind, open and welcoming. We even jammed with some of the musicians that we met, it was delightful. There are a lot of interactions; we met a lot of new people. That's what we like about this country.

What surprised him most about the U.S.?

The fact that everything is so much bigger than in France and the warm welcome we had everywhere we went.

Does he want to come back?

YES!!!!

I have never encountered a musician playing jazz or anything like it from outside our borders who doesn't care about acceptance here. Every jazz festival the world over wants coverage in US periodicals, inviting writers and photographers from the States to enjoy gracious hospitality so that we will bring news of their musical activities back to the people in the place where it all began. That the 41st Voll-Damm Barcelona International Jazz Festival, which comprises essentially one concert a night in various venues from October 31 through November 27, sees fit to book Wayne Shorter, Jimmy Cobb, Cassandra Wilson, Joe Lovano, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Bela Fleck, Omar Sosa, Maria Schneider, Brad Mehldau, Marcus Miller, Allen Toussaint, Joel Harrison-Christian Howe, Tortoise, Chick Corea and Gary Burton as its headliners demonstrates the allure of American music and the depth that what's so loosely called "jazz" sustains on American soil. That the Barcelona fest believes it needs to schedule Chano Dominguez and his Flamenco Quintet into a Manhattan barbeque restaurant-bar-music room in order to make a splash shows that no, jazz isn't dead and its address is just like always.

Maybe some near-sighted pundits have misplaced the contact numbers, but musicians, fest organizers and aficionados all over know where to look for the heart and soul and DNA of the music. Jazz can be taken out of America -- it can go on international voyages, start foreign affairs, put down stakes, breed, establish communities abroad, evolve to match local conditions, root itself so that other countries have their own creative geniuses and prospering scenes. But you can't take America out of jazz.

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Henry Threadgill, seer beyond 'jazz'

2009-11-05T18:34:20Z

In my City Arts column: a new album and Roulette concert with commissioned work from a worldly-wise 65 yr-old NYC/East Village-based composer-bandleader who keeps looking at music -- Varese's and Wagner's, Scott Joplin's and Ornette Coleman's -- to find something new. I call Henry Threadgill a prophet in the wilderness, urgently trying to shake us from complacency. At De Roberti's classic Italian pastry shop for coffee yesterday, Threadgill claimed he's just helping American music born in the urban late 20th century to develop its full potential, and it's got a long ways to go.

]]> This Brings Us To, vol. 1, is Threadgill's first release in eight years, featuring slightly different collaborators playing tuba, electric guitar, bass and drums than the group he founded in the early 00s as Zooid (after a cell like a spermatozoon that moves independently through an organism). During an interview I held with him towards an upcoming Down Beat article, Henry talked specifics about the new language it had taken him a year to teach his ace musicians, and the imperative that what's called "jazz" not be confined to its baby steps, believing the art form has an long and open-ended future.

For details from that discussion you'll have to wait. My DB piece will come out early in 2010, around the same time the premiere performance of Threadgill's 45-minute "All The Way Light Touch" with featured cellist Christopher Hoffman joining Zooid will be aired on Roulette TV (every Thursday night on Manhattan Cable). This shouldn't keep you from hearing some of the best of Threadgill sooner than that -- I recommend the stripped down Air Time (by the brilliant trio from which he emerged, first released in 1978) and ultra-internationalist Carry The Day (with his two-gtr, two-tuba, french horn + drums Very Very Circus plus singers, violin, accordion, pipa. . .). Or go directly to the new one (cheap as a download). Do check out my column, too, for what it might mean when we can't figure out what we're hearing.

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JazzTimes' robust recovery

2009-10-27T17:51:51Z

The November issue of JazzTimes magazine is the first created (not just published) under the imprimatur of Madavor Media, LLC imprint, and the periodical looks very much the same as before its hiatus last spring. Editors Lee Mergener and Evan Haga remain, columnists Nat Hentoff and Nate Chinen are present, most if not all recent editorial contributors remain on the masthead and features -- drumming being the issue's loose theme -- are by regulars, though Fernando González, former editor of rival Jazziz, came onboard to write the story on Guggenheim Foundation and MacArthur fellow Miguel Zenón.]]> North Coast Brewing Company, who recently issued a cd by the Brother Thelonious Quintet with alumni of the Monk Institute's performance program -- 100% of the cd's sales proceeds going back to that program for international jazz education.

The cover story about upbeat and creative drummer Matt Wilson is by Chinen (who blogs at The Gig and reviews for the New York Times); Dr. Bruce H. Klauber examines the "30-year rivalry between Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich; there are short pieces on percussionists Andrewy Cyrille, Dan Weiss, Justin Faulkner and Tyshawn Sorey, bassist Linda Oh and singer Dee Alexander; a listening test for drummer Jimmy Cobb, columns on new gear and digital transferring of vinyl to mp3 files, and plentiful record reviews.

It's not a breakthrough -- JazzTimes is still JazzTimes -- but neither is it any sort of compromise. Madavor Media's one obvious new step is to introduce an online version, free to print subscribers and $20 per year all by itself. So welcome back to life, JT, and may the mag henceforth thrive. (Frequent readers of this blog may know I'm a senior contributor to Down Beat, but I've written for JazzTimes, too.)

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Sweet Rhythm quietly ends run as Village jazz stage

2009-10-25T15:14:50Z

The 7th Ave. home in the '80s and early '90s of Gil Evans' last orchestra, David Murray's octets, Abdullah Ibrahim's bands, Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy and other avant-gutsy acts closed last night (Oct. 24) without notice or fanfare. Sweet Rhythm nee Sweet Basil was one of the coolest spots to listen, drink and hang out in Greenwich Village, a wood-paneled room with fine sound, sightlines, bookings and bartender, but it never recovered from what its most recent owner described as a post-9/11 decline in street traffic, competition from nearby clubs offering lesser music at no cover charge, and disinterest among the young in jazz.

Situated in a stretch of Manhattan that includes the Village Vanguard, 55 Bar, Small's, Fat Cat, Arthur's Tavern and several other bars and restaurants offering music, Basil had been distinguished by the company it presented, which included Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, ensembles led by Art Farmer, Ron Carter, Regina Carter, Olu Dara, Don Pullen, Oliver Lake, Cecil Taylor and many others. Though Browne vowed to broaden the field, and his cross-genre concept has been successful for other downtown music clubs including City Winery and S.O.B.'s, somehow Sweet Rhythm didn't catch on.

I wandered into the joint last night, after hearing Canada Day, an excellent quintet led by percussionist Harris Eisenstadt at the Cornelia Street Cafe (only two blocks from Sweet Rhythm). In search of a little more music and one more drink, a friend and I looked into the windows at 55 Bar and saw it was too crowded, walked down the stairs at Fat Cat and thought we'd stand out as oldsters amid the crowd of 20-somethings, so turned the corner to check out Rhythm, which was a place both of us had frequented over the past 25 years.

A strand of small blue light bulbs strung across front windows was the only indication from a couple yards away that the place had anything happening -- approaching the door, we thought it would be locked (it was 11 p.m., early in a nightlife district full of revelers, though it had been raining hard). A half-dozen people sat at the bar, and we were informed we would be the last to be served. There was one glass of white wine left in what we were told was the only bottle still in the house, one glass of seltzer, but plenty of Makers Mark which I drank on the rocks. We commiserated with the couple of other folks there, all of whom looked vaguely familiar, drank up and left, surprised and sad.

I just called the club tonight -- Sunday -- to try to verify that my Saturday night experience wasn't a bad dream. The phone rings and rings, and then a voice comes on to say the number has been disconnected, no other information is available. Other jazz clubs remain in Greenwich Village, but one that had been one of the best is gone.

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Soupy Sales, 1926-2009, friend to jazz

2009-10-23T16:05:09Z

The silliest pie-in-the-face TV comic of the '50s had trumpeter Clifford Brown with drummer Max Roach on his kiddie show. Soupy Sales loved jazz -- how cool is that?

photo courtesy of Craig Marin, www.Flexitoon.com -- more pix there

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This featured performance was unusual, but of a piece with Soupy's musical taste. He appeared in a "Frankly Jazz" series episode featuring "The Martian Bossa Nova" by trumpeter Shorty Rogers with Pete Jolly and Mel Lewis, among others; he entertained at the 2002 Jazz Awards. His sons Hunt and Tony are musicians who have worked with David Bowie. Soupy will be missed but also remembered.

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Salsa dura and NYC jazz hot

2009-10-23T15:23:35Z

My new City Arts column cites Chris Washburne's SYOTOS band, Arturo O'Farrill and Bobby Sanabria as avatars of Latin American music's essential excitement, so well depicted by the 4-part PBS documentary "Latin Music USA" (viewable online). But let's not forget Eddie Palmieri is still in his prime (and coming to the Blue Note jazz club Dec. 9 - 13).

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Jazz Foundation knows how to party

2009-10-20T18:25:40Z

To raise money for musicians' health and welfare, how 'bout a jazz party? In three lofts with river views, a thousand attendees of every age, shape, style enjoyed food 'n' drink 'n' performances including Jimmy Heath playing "Gingerbread Boy," Arturo O'Farrill's teen sons mastering Latin jazz, baritone saxist Hamiet Bluiett with Kahil El'Zabar on mbira. The Jazz Foundation of America kicked out the jams on Sunday night, and raked in donations.]]> ASCAP, BMI, WBGO (which recorded Madeleine Peyroux's set), Englewood Hospital, Citigroup, the Institute for Jazz Studies at Rutgers U., etc. The desired amount doesn't seem very high, considering the amount of good the JFA does and the vast good vibes a festive night such as this one generates.

Being responsible for talking between sets in one room -- dubbed "Iridium," as Ron Sturm, the owner/operator of Iridium jazz club in midtown had lent substantial support -- I pretty much stayed in it, hearing trumpeter Jimmy Owens jam with a band led by 13-year-old bassist Daryl Johns, then solo guitarist Stanley Jordan (who picks with the fingers of both his hands, a self-invented "piano" technique), then the Heath Brothers band.

Jimmy, backed by his drummer-brother Tootie Heath, pianist Michael Weiss and bassist David Wong, performed his best-known composition (because it was featured on Miles Smiles ) with the exuberance befitting a tenor saxophonist turning 83 on October 25, then picked up his soprano for a haunting version of Thelonious Monk's "'Round Midnight." This was followed by O'Farrill, whose "Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra" was six-men strong, including his sons Adam (trumpet) and Zachary (drums), solo guitarist Jim Zucker (who mentioned that he practices during his daily commute on the Long Island Railroad -- using earphones, of course), the good-timey Harlem Blues and Jazz Band -- veterans, all -- and Bluiett, who played some keening clarinet with resourceful El'Zabar on percussion (conga). In the other rooms, pianists Henry Butler, Eric Reed and Larry Willis (the latter with bassist Buster Williams), vocalist Gloria Lynne, Ms. Peyroux and Sweet Georgia Brown were among the attractions.

It was the sort of night that might only be possible in New York, due to the depth of both musical talent pool and well-heeled fan base. Looking out from the 13th floor of a Chelsea office building over sunset on the Hudson while a significant sub-set of New York's jazz community ate, drank, schmoozed and networked while blues, trad jazz and jazz beyond jazz was being created live, silent auction treasures on display, waiters whisking trays hors d'ouevres around people holding plastic glasses of wine, water or vodka, one could imagine the great metropolis stretched out to the south thriving under sounds from on high. Pretty nice, pretty, pretty nice. Now if only the requisite monies were directed in such a way as to keep the creative people in this vibrant culture as secure as we all deserve to be. . . .

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#jazzlives Twitter campaign update, week 7

2009-10-16T17:08:58Z

Raising hands by tweeting that you've heard live jazz -- write WHO, WHERE and #jazzlives -- continues as a phenomenon, almost two months after the campaign began to test if there is an active young audience for the music. Results roll in from far and wide, though solicitations for them have slowed. Musicians are encouraged to tell their audiences to tweet, to spread word of their excellence and ramp up the numbers. A few recent samples follow. . . ]]>

"Jazz at Zorba's in Urbana!"
"Martin, Mehldau, Turner and Gilmore at the Jazz Standard" (NYC)
"Eldar @Yoshi's Oakland"
"Bill Cunliffe Organ trio w/John CHiodini & Curt Bisquero @ Charlie O's" (Valley Glenn, CA)
"Jonathan Freilich's Naked on the Floor at the Open Ear series - Blue Nile - New Orleans"
Full house for jazz @Eastman salute music of late saxman Gerry Niewood" (Rochester)
"Miguel Zenon plays alto sax and sings . . . at the Dakota in Mpls"
"Raffael's @Kempinski Hotel in Falkenstein w/J. Marshall, Grant Stewart" (Frankfurt, Germany)
"Agitprop! Ronan Guilfoyle's jazz reaction to the Irish crisis, Cabinteely House" (Dublin)
"Monday night jazz jam again at Mr. Tony's Palm Bay, FL"
"Overtone Quartet at the Kennedy Center" (Washington DC)
"Lee Konitz, Harold Danko & Eastman students playing George Russell's Odjenar & Ezzthetic" Rochester, on Konitz's 82nd birthday
"jazz trumpeter Jeff Lofton playing at city of Austin's comprehensive plan kickoff"
Eldar in Kansas City
"Hank Jones trio at TNT, Toulouse" (France)
Kurt Elling Quartet at Gustavus Adolphus College (St. Peter, Minnesota)

And on the list goes of places people are listening -- New Haven, Birmingham (UK), St. Louis, Chicago, Amherst, Hamilton (Ontario) . . .Keep those tweets comin' . . .

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Miles Ornette Cecil goes Kindle

2009-10-12T15:02:21Z

Huzzah! My book Miles Ornette Cecil -- Jazz Beyond Jazz is now an e-book from Amazon for Kindle-reading and maybe other e-book formats, too (~~I'm checking~~ see below). It's cheaper than the hardbound version and a long sample including epigrams, Greg Tate's preface and the start of my first chapter is free. Go through that link above and if you buy I get a $1 kickback as an Amazon Affiliate.

This edition can be optimized for the the larger-screen Kindle DX, though I'm not sure how useful that is. Now I'm psyched to get Future Jazz into an e-book form (I have both paper and hard-bound copies for sale; order an autographed copy, $1 0 and $15 respectively, by leaving a comment below). I'm also interested in if readers of Jazz Beyond Jazz the blog like e-books. Could the e-book, e-article and e-essay be the future of financially compensated music journalism? Opinions solicited -- let me know.

update: ebook also available in Mobipocket format.

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Future of music journalism: It's about the audience (?)

2009-10-07T17:13:35Z

The dozen "music journalism" professionals at yesterday's Condition Critical panel of the Future of Music Coalition's three-day long "policy summit" became somewhat divided (at least from my perspective) over the course of a well-attended hour & three-quarters session. At one end of a spectrum of opinion were the old guard -- me, Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune and Tom Moon, formerly of the Philadelphia Inquirer -- asserting that good music journalism puts the music in context, "illuminates, educates and entertains" its readers and reaches beyond its niche to satisfy those who are not devoted yo but may be curious about a given musical topic. At the other was Raymond Leon Roker of URB/URB.com and Todd Roberts, co-founder of the Daily Swarm, who suggested that success in music journalism comes from amplifying, echoing and reinforcing the interests of the largest attractable audience. I may be drawing this too reductively, but it felt like an argument: developing substantive content vs, ever-better marketing, without much interest in content, using the processes of social media.]]>

Panelists found it much easier to answer Rae-Hunter's question than Morgan's. Eliot Van Buskirk, a staff writer at Wired.com, began by suggesting the critic's role is now more that of a "curator" (current buzz word) than consumer guide; that a crit makes a list of new releases bearing his seal of approval, and flourishes or folds depending on whether he/she is believed or not. Molly Sheridan, of the American Music Center's New Music Box, agreed that there are more "reactors" commenting on music in digital media than ever before, but that those who are "anti-conventional" have a clear and distinct place, rising above the chatter.

Then Roker proposed that music journalism online is in a "transitional phase" regarding the responsibilities (and compensation) of critics, but that now "the audience is king," and that websites featuring music criticism must aggregate content, must syndicate content, and must look at what advertisers are doing for themselves in consideration of adopting the same forms of pr to ostensibly "journalistic" structures, because they're popular. He urged thinking of music journalism as a commodity to be delivered to those who will support it -- advertisers -- in whatever form they want. Sir: If you're reading this, have I paraphrased correctly?

Roberts followed, agreeing that journos bring "point of view" to their postings, that the "consistency" of a point of view gains an audience, and that there is always a possibility of "the smallest blogs can become the biggest blogs." Apparently this is the experience in indie rock, the music genre the FMC conference seeemed most friendly towards, but it hasn't happened in jazz, blues, Latin music, classical or contemporary composition, bluegrass -- and musical form less vulnerable to the whims of the pop world than those subgenres that splinter off from pop.

I was startled that Mike Riggs, City Desk editor of Washington City Paper, proclaimed "We're not worth what we're getting paid" when Twitter is spreading information about new bands and venues better, and that some of us ought to "find something else to do." I really didn't get what Scott Plagenhoef, editor-in-chief of Pitchfork, was trying to say about the audiences' "need for filters" -- apparently, music journalists who can separate the chaff of indi rock from the wheat; he and Maura Johnston, editor of Idolator which she described as a one-person shop, seemed to be in agreement about how hard it is to gain rights and work with record labels, especially when their publicists maintain conflicting pr policies in different territories (i.e., US and Western Europe). 'Scuse me, but if relations with record labels are at the top of the concerns list, maybe one ought to "find something else to do."

Johnston did air her hopes for the survival of content that goes beyond paparazzi photos of celebs. She raised the difficulty of a small website "establishing an identity," and complained when metrics are driving coverage, regardless of the coverage's "value." David Malitz, a staff writer for the Washington Post, said his boss sees value in the local listings he compiles more than his occasional articles or blog postings.

It was Moon who chided current (young, indi-rock oriented) music journalists as being "unknowledgable and incurious", Kot (a 29-year rock critic for the Chicago Tribune) who brought up that the rush for scoops, 24/7 news cycle and increase in must-do tasks for those journalists lucky enough to have staff positions has resulted "getting a lot of the stories wrong." He was the one who proposed that all reviews must "illuminate, educate and entertain," and proposed that the way to have a future in writing about music is to do it well, not to suck at it. Pretty much where I come down on the issues, though as a freelancer rather than a staffer I believe that other sustaining work besides writing itself have become a) necessary and b) harder than ever to secure. All we can do is keep trying.

Did these comments respond to the moderator's questions? Maybe one, not two. Nobody but URB's Roker touched the biz model question, and he got some heat for his willingness to abandon the traditional firewall between editorial and advertising (though he maintained he'd published no stories that breached conflict-of-interest protections). He and Roberts seemed to be saying music journalists should do what they do because they want to do it, regardless of compensation (during this "transitional phase"). Meanwhile, audience members asked for "big picture dreaming" about what online music coverage could be (I spoke of integrating music, text, video into one "article"), and wondered why wealthy philanthropists did emerge in cities like Boston and Denver to underwrite publications "like newspapers" in the public interest. ("After 25 years of journalism being derided by the prevailing political forces?" I asked back. Doesn't seem too likely).

Did I miss something in this discussion? Another audience member questioned privately why there's no Pitchfork for jazz, or URB. Got me -- but it behooves me to take a look and consider what those sites are doing that might attract advertisers and audiences to what we can construe as less fashion-specific musical expression.

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Everybody's talking about arts journalism

2009-10-05T16:58:12Z

After last Friday's summit on new media affecting those who write, read and listen produced by the National Arts Journalism Program/USC Anneberg Center, I'm looking forward to tomorrow's Future of Music Coalition session "Critical Condition: The Future of Music Journalism."

It comes as a climax of the FMC's Sunday-through-Tuesday "Policy Summit" on digital options and challenges for musicians, with an emphasis on intellectual property rights and compensation as well as new tools for music-making. A "high-quality, interactive webcast" of the FMC event is being produced by web.illish.us and you can get a free "virtual seat" from which to watch it here.

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a) How, in such a noisy media environment, can artists win the attention of music writers?

b) What's the value of music writing when listeners can rapidly access the sounds themselves?

c) How is niche music coverage faring in the age of American Idol? Should it be left to the citizen and fan blogs or is there a reason for maintaining coverage "beats" at trad outlets?

d) What impact has user-generated reviews at Amazon, etc. had on criticism? Is there a need for professional arbiters of culture?

A) As we fret over the crisis in journalism, it's worth asking: Were traditional media really doing such a great job to being with? What were we not doing well before that new outlets and sources provide?

B) Given that the old business model for journalism is broken beyond repair, how will we pay for the kind of music journalism -- be it criticism or reporting on the music industry -- that new sources (amateur, logarithmic, etc) don't consistently provide?

C) How has the form changed the function? How has the change in how we access music as listeners/consumers affected the job writers and critics perform? Is the tweeted record review really useful? How about the 10,000-word essay?

and here's list of other panelists, only two of whom I already know (starred*):

- Maura Johnston, Editor, Idolator

- Greg Kot, Music Critic, Chicago Tribune; Host, Sound Opinions, NPR

- David Malitz, Staff Writer, Washington Post

- *Tom Moon, Music Critic, NPR; Author, 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You

Die

- Scott Plagenhoef, Editor-in-Chief, Pitchfork

- Mike Riggs, City Lights Editor, Washington City Paper

- Todd C. Roberts, Co-founder, The Daily Swarm; Artist Manager/Consultant,

Truant Media

- Raymond Leon Roker, Co-founder, URB/URB.com; President, NativeSon Media,

Inc.

- *Molly Sheridan, Managing Editor, NewMusicBox.org; Director,

CounterstreamRadio.org

- Eliot Van Buskirk, Staff Writer, Wired.com

- Fiona Morgan, Journalist (co-moderator)

- Casey Rae-Hunter, Communications Director, Future of Music Coalition

(co-moderator)

I understand though our condition is critical, we will NOT be webevised, but perhaps audio-documented. I'll either blog from the panel, or report after it's all over. Panelists are encouraged to come up with our own questions, too (good thing) and we're going to have general statements followed by smaller group action-oriented brainstorming. If you as readers, writers, listeners have questions you'd like me to bring to the august group, post them here, please, for consideration . . ..

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Last week in New York beyond jazz

2009-10-05T00:18:54Z

The season for creative music opened with several roars: Ornette Coleman triumphed at Jazz at Lincoln Center -- Postive Catastrophe at the New Languages Festival was an absolute delight -- Los Angeles trumpeter Bobby Bradford lead an ace quintet at the Festival of New Trumpets at the Jazz Standard -- and those are only the gigs I could make, I missed so many more.

Ornette Quartet, photo by Nick Himmel, courtesy Jazz at Lincoln Center

]]> City Arts' first stand-alone issue I mentioned those performances as well as Darcy James Argue's Secret Society at the Jazz Gallery, percussionist-Go Orchestra leader Adam Rudolph working with Yusef Lateef at Roulette, pianist Connie Crothers' 2 weeks curation at the Stone and Evan Parker's subsequent 2-week residence (which started Oct. 1 and runs through Oct. 16 -- all as evidence of the extraordinary amount of bracing new and unusual music coming to the fore here in the Apple. Here's the short version of my nights out:

Both Secret Society and Positive Catastrophe (led by cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum) are large ensembles that work more out of jazz traditions than any other, but are not your parent's big bands. SS doesn't exactly swing so much as groove, stomp and sort of rock; there's a touch of minimalism somewhere in composer-conductor DJA's background, and some very sly wit that stops well short of dire irony. Solos by a troupe of young (I'd guess under 33) PC, co-led by percussionist Abraham Gomez-Delgado, is smaller than the 18 piece SS, just a tentet, but it also puts out a joyous storm of improvisations set in smart, melodic compositions. At no time in the past 10 years would I have guessed that the big (or little-big) band would gain this kind of refreshment from up 'n' coming players, or draw equally youthful and hippish crowds. There's nothing overly intellectualized or ultra-traditional in either ensemble, both offer simply fun times, and generously so (I saw Darcy at the PC gig at the bare-bones McCarren Hall in Williamsburg, site of this year's upbeat, two-weekend New Languages Festival, and he mentioned how hard it is to get to hear all that he wants to -- especially as he's busy trying to write new material for his next gig at the Bell House, also in Brooklyn and his debut at Iridium Nov. 25). Give 'em a listen -- samples free at their various sites and pages -- and let me know if you agree.

Ornette! dressed in a rather conservative suit, gave a 90 minute concert at JALC's Rose Hall accompanied by double bassist Tony Falanga, electric bass guitarist Al McDowell and drummer Denardo Coleman. The 1100-capacity theater was sold out, though there were empty seats which season subscribers may have let go to waste [I stand corrected on this: It was NOT a subscription concert, so it wasn't subscribers who failed to fill those seats]; the audience, in which I saw Lee Konitz, Karl Berger and Ingrid Sertso, Roswell Rudd and Verna Gillis among other musician/presenter/fans, gave up four standing ovations. I'm writing a Down Beat review about this performance, and I won't give much away here, except to say the program was consistent with what's on Sound Grammar, the cd which won Ornette his Pulitzer; the interaction of the bassists is fascinating and Denardo has become his father's most supportive drummer -- considering that compares him to Billy Higgins, Edward Blackwell and Charles Moffett, I mean to say a lot. Oh yes, the standing O's were well-deserved; OC blew his sax beautifully, picking up trumpet and violin each only once.

The Festival of New Trumpet is an ongoing and semi-frequent initiative put together by trumpeters including Dave Douglas, Taylor Ho Bynum and Roy Campbell, who is often heard among Vision Festival compatriots. The fall '09 edition honored Bobby Bradford, a Mississippi-born, Dallas-bred, long-ago-in-LA player with Ornette Coleman; Bradford is heard on Coleman's 1971 classic Science Fiction. He had a longstanding musical partnership with clarinetist John Carter, who died in 1991, and he has taught at Pasadena City College and Pomona College; his standing band is called the Mo'tet and I heard them in 2005 at the Jazz Bakery, but never since I moved to New York in '82 do I recall him appearing here.

Best thing about FONT honoring Bradford is that at age 75 he remains in fine shape to play his horn, which he used at the Standard not as a blaring, blasting thing to brandish boldly, but rather a subtle instrument with which to explore some subtle yet heartfelt sonic issues -- hand-muting as timbre-shading, use of the mellow low register, disjunct phrases setting up complicated moods, compositions built from shards of blues. Another best thing is that Bradford was given a dream team: his former student David Murray in from Paris to play tenor sax; New Yorker Marty Ehrlich (who was on several Carter-Bradford recordings) playing clarinet and alto sax; Mark Dresser in from California to bow and pluck upright bass; drummer Andrew Cyrille (on Bradford's second night, this group enlarged to eight pieces).

This was another event which drew serious, searching musicians to hear it -- pianist Connie Crothers was there, reporting her stint at the Stone was a gratifying success; vibist Kevin Norton was at Crother's table; East Village multireedist Sabir Mateen, tubaist Bob Stewart, trumpeters Douglas and Campbell, others I'm sure I overlooked -- because the musicians onstage were serious and searching. And finding. Bradford's pieces took effortful attention, which Murray, Ehrlich, Dresser and Cyrille didn't make look easy but did make look like it was important to them to do. They made us listen in to their collective activity, which I likened to a painter friend who accompanied me as five Impressionists determining to work together to decorate a single room with a mural that would serve the space more than their individual egos.

Murray took one extended, craggy solo that expanded on his characteristic legato phrasing, and Ehrlich was exemplary throughout (as is his practice; I've never seen him give less than his all to whatever music is at hand, his band or someone else's). The band was unusually well-balanced, with Cyrille playing every his stool and the walls behind him as well as his cymbals and drums with the touch appropriate to each, and Dresser letting notes resound like trees falling in forests. But one of the finest passages was what Bradford called a "tone poem. . . which doesn't rhyme," featuring the three horns without the rhythm, in a blend that stretched wide as the three voices each went off down their own paths. After two sets I didn't remember any melodies or wickedly wild passagess, but I felt like I'd studied and learned from five people working very carefully on something meaningful to them, which brought me closer to doing something meaningful myself. Very rewarding experience.

Unfortunately, that pleasure was preceded by my attempt to cope with the Stone, John Zorn's East Village performance space. Evan Parker is a must-hear musician who has taken Coltrane's universalist imperative and his own research to an extraordinary height of reeds intensity. I'm sorry I missed him play solo on Oct. 1, and then duet with electronic music's improvisational genius Richard Teitelbaum, but I'd hoped to hear him with the powerhouse drummer Milford Graves. However, the Stone doubled its usual price for Parker on Saturday, over-packed its small space so that a third of the audience (maybe 30 people) were standing pressed together and then started at least 20 minutes late. I left before hearing note one, as I'd planned to meet friends at the Standard (perhaps the most comfortable jazz club in town) and I didn't want to walk out on Parker while he was in the midst of playing.

I'll go back to listen on a weekday night, when I might score a folding chair. The music at the Stone is often worth the discomfort, though the discomfort doesn't help the music in the slightest. Some people think that's true of New York City as a whole: the music's worth it, the museums are worth it, the theater's worth it, the dance is worth it, the scene's where we must be -- however pricey and distressing it gets to live here. It's the jazz beyond the jazz that's enriching enough to suffer for -- and how much suffering we gonna do anyway, when it's autumn in New York?

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Jazz journalism and the NAJP's arts journalism summit

2009-10-02T16:49:23Z

The Jazz Journalists Association, of which I'm president, has hope to produce a nationwide conference on media transitions and how currently active professionals cope with them. Today's National Arts Journalism Program's summit raises many of the issues and even more questions that challenge my colleagues and I. So I'm going to do some live blogging here, posting a succession of comments while in the lecture hall of Columbia U's j-school with about a dozen other journalists, watching the summit taking place at the USC Annenberg Center in LA. Here we go, starting with my reaction to the first hour of the summit's content (the tech's working pretty well!)

But I find the discussion of the most exciting possibilities (personally at NPR Music -- since I've been a freelance arts reporter on air for NPR News for 23 years) somewhat disingenuous, or at least overlooking what the role of the actual creator of arts journalism -- the journalist. Can freelancers participate in creating these new institutional platforms, or must we wait until they're constructed and then hope to become staffers/contributors? Or do the new media offer independent consultants -- bloggers, video makers, webcasters, etc. -- any way to discover financial support for ourselves as individual critics/reporters establishing our own platforms, sites, etc? I hope this will be addressed as the day goes on.

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City Arts, my jazz-in-the-City column

2009-09-23T18:46:12Z

Welcome to City Arts, which bucks a trend by evolving from being a monthly section in NYPress and other Manhattan neighborhood free papers to becoming New York's Review of Culture, a new twice-monthly stand-alone print edition and website. Beside my column, there are season previews of classical music, mustn't miss museums exhibits (Kandinsky! Blake! Monet! O'Keefe!), books, dance, theater, and lesser known film series. Welcome to the fray, brave young journal, and may you thrive.

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