{"id":342,"date":"2010-09-15T12:34:40","date_gmt":"2010-09-15T16:34:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/2010\/09\/if_videos_of_sonny_are_removed\/"},"modified":"2011-04-28T16:32:48","modified_gmt":"2011-04-28T20:32:48","slug":"if_videos_of_sonny_are_removed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2010\/09\/if_videos_of_sonny_are_removed.html","title":{"rendered":"If videos of Sonny are removed, will the legend grow?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gone from Youtube are two brief but vivid excerpts from Sonny Rollins’ 80th birthday concert<\/a> at the Beacon Theater on Sept. 10 — one showing the great tenor saxophonist in duet with percussionist Sammy Figueroa, the second documenting the surprise, climactic contributions of Ornette Coleman to the set, and Rollins’ inspired improvised responses. <\/p>\n

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What a shame! — from at least one perspective. Or should those visuals never have been made public without the artists’ permissions? <\/div>\n<\/div>\n


\nThough neither clip — evidently shot from the same vantage point, perhaps posted by the same videographer — was authorized by anyone<\/i> or should have been permitted by the venue under standard presentation arrangements (though no one recalls an announcement being made in this instance forbidding flash photography and recording in any form), both clips depicted to the general public, at no charge, one of the most gratifying and unrepeatable meetings and performance by American musicians in recent memory. By the standards of any jazz-covering journalist, a once-in-a-lifetime onstage interaction between Rollins and Coleman, both 80 and revered as fonts of ongoing, enduring, in-the-moment musical creativity, is news. In olden times, a bootleg audio tape of such an encounter might be passed around avid fan-to-avid fan, duplicated in ever-worsening versions and promoted as a holy grail when years later the original was acquired by a museum (cf., the Savory Collection<\/a>).<\/p>\n

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Nowadays, members of the public and\/or professionals are able to shoot fairly high quality digital documentary footage of whatever they see, wherever they go, on our phones — and disseminate it quickly, worldwide. Hours and hours of amateur video is available online, which some artists believe serves as free promotion, though it’s content they’re not getting paid for. Then too there’s the notion of “fair usage” — if I write a blog post of Sonny’s concert, it’s a gift to my readers and should be a check on my accuracy if I can include a glimpse of what I’m writing about. As a professional journalist, I ought to seek and get permission from the musicians I want to feature — but that’s not something amateurs usually are concerned about.<\/div>\n
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Sonny’s b-day concert was fantastic, most eye-witnesses agree. But without video proof, will the many odes to this show<\/a> be believed or discounted? I spoke with representatives of Rollins’ management about this on Sunday Sept. 12, urging them to consider putting out a comment that they didn’t condone unauthorized video, but that Sonny had seen these clips and wouldn’t demand they be withdrawn. Sonny’s rep said that wasn’t likely, but that they weren’t going to pursue the matter, either. <\/div>\n
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Sonny’s spokespersona hadn’t seen the clip — at that time, only the duet with Figueroa had been posted at Youtube. But when I shared my blog posting that featured Rollins’ forays into harmolodics on Monday, Sept. 13, it elicited comment on my Facebook page from no less than Bret JazzVideoGuy Primack<\/a>, Rollins’ official videographer, that “You can’t stop viral video.”<\/div>\n
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Well, it seems you can. Here’s an explanatory note from Bret (who is, full disclosure, an old friend\/colleague of mine, with whom I hope to work on a Jazz Journalists Association’s guerilla video project in the new future): <\/div>\n

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As a YouTube viewer and someone who creates and posts many videos, I believe it’s the artist’s choice as to whether or not unauthorized concert\/club videos be posted.  <\/span>I know that when a fan shoots a video and then posts it on YouTube, it’s not done to exploit the artist and profit from the posting, but to share the experience with the community.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Some artists see these postings as promotion, and, for the most part, I would agree.  <\/span>In the age of digital media fans can easily record part of a concert and share it with their friends and the global YouTube audience.  <\/span>The videos serve to as a powerful marketing tool for the artist.<\/p>\n

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When the Grateful Dead played, they would allow their fans to tape their concerts, because they knew that this network of collectors would enhance their reputation and solidify the community. <\/span>The Dead made their money from live appearances, not recordings.<\/p>\n

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But some artists simply don’t feel that way.  <\/span>They want to control their content, just as a writer who publishes a book doesn’t want paragraphs of their priceless prose quoted without permission.<\/p>\n

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At the incredible Beacon Theatre concert Sonny Rollins played on September 10, there were many people taking pictures and recording the concert on video via phones.  <\/span>They simply wanted to document the event that they were lucky enough to attend. <\/p>\n

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There’s also the matter of quality control.  <\/span>Many artists only wish to release professional quality audio, and video, of their work.  <\/span>Even though the music played at Sonny’s concert was superb, and the surreptitious recordings are okay, they’re simply not up to his standards.<\/p>\n

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If all the people taping had asked him, he probably would have appreciated their interest and support, and told them to wait for a more professionally produced recording.<\/p>\n

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But no one asked Sonny’s permission, and so he requested I have the videos removed. — Bret Primack<\/p>\n

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Is there an authorized<\/i> video version of the concert? Rollins has been recording all his performances — which he now produces himself — and the resulting cd Road Shows, Vol. 1<\/a> was cited on many 2008 top 10 cd lists.<\/span> <\/i>As Primack notes, in situ <\/i>recordings from the Beacon would probably not be of professional quality, so would probably not seriously cut into the sales of a well-produced documentary on the event. And I must add to his comment that writers don’t want their prose quoted without permission that it happens all the time, and we’re accustomed to not having the least bit of control over that.<\/div>\n
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So what does Rollins’ request for withdrawl (and Primack’s ability to enforce it) suggest for the public (or professionals) now able to shoot documentary footage of whatever they see, wherever they go, on phones they carry — and disseminate it quickly, widely? How about some thoughtful discussion among artists and would-be videographers on parameters applying to “fair use” of excerpts of live performances? How about a general agreement that such excerpts be under 3.5 minutes, or no more than 60 seconds, or less than 1\/2 the total performance; that clips run with a disclaimer of the artists’ permissions or notification that they have been acknowledged and agreed to? <\/div>\n
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Instituting as common practice and governing such “rules” would be challenging, and many complications could arise (what if more than ONE videographer were to put up excerpts that accrued into an entire performance). But those of us interested in the matter and likely to try to accommodate its ramifications while pursuing our own work as technology allows us to ought to talk about it. No formal copyright laws would seem to apply. Anyone out there have ideas on how to proceed? Can mutually agreeable protocols be established? Or shall chaos prevail?  <\/div>\n

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