[contextly_auto_sidebar id="dHp9P0RkCZ3f7i5yDaz9hEWZeYiwNVGG"] WHAT happens to us when we read on an electronic device? Does it alter our ability to connect with a nuanced piece of fiction? Two recent stories get into these questions from opposite angles. I wrote about this a few weeks ago, and the conversation still rages. This reported story from the Washington Post makes clear that … [Read more...]
Can Impulse Records Come Back? Plus, Shakespeare’s Acting
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="BkttmRWC0b2xNNu3idGGaZviRdyibZxn"] ONE of the most storied of all jazz labels, Impulse -- "The House Trane Built" -- may provide that rarest of things: Good news for the jazz world. In hibernation for a while, and decades from its leadership of the avant-garde in the '60s, Impulse is being revived and will begin releasing new music. Now part of Universal Music … [Read more...]
Middle-Class Crush, Cassette Fetishists and New Jazz
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="ogAgvEbhEk1KhQ645pd9wWfUDmJyWJe3"] MOST of us have read about the high cost of new homes in a handful of cities. But new data shows that even renting in a wide range of places -- Chicago, Miami, LA, Salinas, parts of Texas -- has become impossible for the middle class. This may seem to have nothing to do with art or artists, but most of us who have joined the … [Read more...]
The Inventiveness of Brad Mehldau, and Another Bookstore Down
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="XtxFdbJyLsCS5dQHdicsk1xjrReqe1hk"] LAST night, pianist Brad Mehldau and tenor saxophonist Joshua Redman played separate sets at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. These are perhaps the two leading jazz musicians of my generation, so there was no way I was going to miss it. While I would have loved to see these two, who've worked together in the past, play a … [Read more...]
Debating the Blue Note 100, and Music Streaming
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="46i5BmaPr0zmJefPqiMZ5JyjjVYvB11F"] THE jazz label Blue Note has announced plans to reissue 100 of its classic albums on remastered vinyl as part of its 75th anniversary celebration. I don't love everything Don Was has cooked up since taking over the label -- his emphasis on "branding" rather than improving and promoting the actual recordings and supporting the … [Read more...]
The Death of Music Journalism, and SXSW
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="QsLx7wwZeCPiHbCCxGIMq5cuGHsw7dvf"] DOES music journalism have any interest in music, as opposed to celebrity and wardrobe? What happens to the audience when they get fluff instead of criticism, paparazzi shots instead of real journalism? A tough, intelligent new article by my friend Ted Gioia is sure to lose him friends among the fraternity of culture scribes: … [Read more...]
Jazz Telepathy: Fred Hersch and Julian Lage
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="WMgTBTUIttMzmXda37fW7vFebFeMPq8h"] LAST night I was lucky enough to catch jazz pianist Fred Hersch and guitarist Julian Lage in the kind of duet setting that captured not only what's best about jazz, but about chamber music and "Americana" as well. For two chordal instruments to stay out of each others' way is not easy, but this exceeded my high expectations, … [Read more...]
Artists Struggle For Studio Space
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="npP8u6de6KK3cPDVFRq7dyGjkAQtokuK"] OFTEN I wonder how visual artists -- most of whom are not rich and not famous -- are faring while the global art market booms and auctions hit new heights. Solid data is hard to find, and much of the market is opaque. But an illuminating new story makes clear: Rising rents make it hard for artists in big cities to hold their … [Read more...]
Celebrating Eric Dolphy, and the Threat of Spotify
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="xOdJRgN2pWgbTiyFwQwSUxKpJatgoqCK"] THESE posts have become fairly grim lately, so I'm pleased to be able to offer some unqualified praise. Eric Dolphy's LP Out to Lunch now marks its 50th anniversary, and the record remains both radical and, I think, oddly accessible. Dolphy is perhaps my favorite avant-garde jazz player. Kevin Whitehead says on NPR: 1964 was a … [Read more...]
Are Artists Really Eccentric?, and Forgetting the Beatles
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="K7jgN35EvK3IGRvlOHBgaw79mmby3Zkj"] ARTISTS, writers and musicians have been considered "eccentric" for hundreds of years, at least since the Renaissance and perhaps as long ago as the prehistoric age of the shaman. What's behind it? Is it just a narrow-minded stereotype? Are crazy artists better than sane, conventional ones? Whether artists really are eccentric, … [Read more...]