this music is torture!

I have been tempted to blog on many different subjects in the last few weeks/months. Everytime I start to put a post together, I abort and delete. But I just had to repost this one at the very least.

(Ending) Music as Torture

Enjoy!

things that have caught my attention of late

Ok. So blogging has really suffered in the last few months as work has completely occupied my life and when not working I opt to do NOTHING. Also I've been comtemplating life, death and the unknown quite a bit. but here is a list of completely beautiful and interesting things that I've come across in the last few weeks and months:

a stunning video of the great and truly underappreciated pianist Larry Willis by Bret Primack (aka jazzvideoguy). http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif


a truly nerdy (though enthralling) blog post on ear training by Dave Douglas on the Greanleaf Music Blog. (photo credit: Jimmy Katz)

a live concert review of one of the world's greatest yet virtually unknown bassists, (a true pioneer of the solo upright bass). One of the records I'm working right now is by one of Rabbath's best pupils, Renaud Garcia-Fons. The CD/DVD Arcoluz will be out in the states on Sept. 23.

another classic Ben Ratliff review of the NY show by Japanese psych-rockers, Boris. I could have seen this band in DC or Philly last week and I missed both opportunities. Silly me.

a great and somewhat unexpected piece on composer Claude Thornhill by Tom Nolan in the Wall Street Journal.

a great Seattle-based folk rock band called Fleet Foxes have been making the rounds on the blogosphere lately and into my computer (I recently bought the self-titled full-length debut on iTunes) and this excellent concert review by Amanda Petrusich, the NY Times latest addition to their critical music writing staff.

the NY Times Popcast is one of my favorite weekly treats. It used to just be the critics reading all four weekly CD reviews in their own voices with musical interludes, but these days they pick two out of four (not sure how they decide) and they also add an artist of the week; usually an interview conducted by utility man Ben Sisario or pop editor Sia Michel).

several weeks ago, Howard Mandel made a post on his thoughtful ArtsJournal blog, JazzBeyondJazz which is an idea I've thought about for a long while, "Where's Tivo for live performance?"

a very controversial subject - how the black community treats jazz today. this is a BET.com blog post I forwarded around to a lot of people. Chances are if you're in the jazz world in some way and I know you, you probably already saw this. I feel pretty strongly about this topic as does the post's author, John Murph (a frequent critic for JazzTimes, DownBeat and other music magazines), since jazz (in my opinion) is truly a music borne of the African diaspora in North America and the Caribbean (though many would argue with me on this). The title is somewhat contentious but I think it makes a good point. In the end, he recommends some worthy young artists to check out.

two years after our office helped launch her career with her debut recording Junjo, bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding has made the rounds not only in newspapers and magazine covers, but on national late night television for her Heads Up release, Esperanza (a record I do not care much for since I know what she's capable of. The label is trying very consciously to cross her over into pop stardom, which in all honesty, she was bound for given her good looks and prodigious talents as a musician and storyteller). Here, NPR covers her. She deserves all the success she has had - she is a remarkable human being. And the SF Chronicle ran a nice feature by Lee Hildebrand.

the NY Times Magazine reported back in May on the prodigiously talented Arcade Fire contributor/one-man-band, Owen Pallett (aka Final Fantasy).

a gig review by blogger Kellen Yamanaka of an LA gig I wish I could have made - by my main man and client Jeff Gauthier (pronounced GOAT-ee-yay). His new disc on Cryptogramophone, the label he founded, is brilliant and is called House of Return. Buy it - it's got Nels Cline!

I wish I could have made this hit by drummer Al Foster at the Village Vanguard. Al has the biggest smile I've ever seen when playing. And the way he tilts his cymbals is completely unmistakable. If you saw the kit set up, you'd know it was Al's kit. He also seems to have taken to leading his own small groups showcasing young talent over the last 20 years (though very under the radar). Here he brought out the impressive Israeli saxophonist Eli Degibri, bassist Doug Weiss and ubiquitous NY pianist Gary Versace (pronounced ver-sayce, unlike the Italian designer).

a nice feature on Monk Competition winner, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire (pronounced ah-kin-moo-sir-ee) by one of my favorite Bay Area writers, Rachel Swan. Ambrose grew up in Oakland, CA, the son of a single mother who worked for the Oakland Police Department!

a thoughtful feature on current jazz records by Marcus Crowder in the SF Bay Guardian.

a nice radio piece by WNYC cultural critic Siddhartha Mitter on the music of the Mississippi Delta.

NY Times obit for legendary organist Jimmy McGriff. And for Sauter-Finnegan co-leader Bill Finnegan. Rest in peace fellas.

Pitchfork's Joe Tangari reviewed the latest from my favorite current jazz pianist, Vijay Iyer (who has a newly redesigned website and a week of performances coming up July 31 - August 3 at Jazz Standard in NYC).

Ok that's enough for one night. There was more but it can wait.

meet me in Monterey / Sonny Rollins tidbit

Tomorrow I leave for my first Monterey Jazz Festival and some much-needed vacation, which should at least partially explain the lack of blogging since August. I plan to blog while I'm out there about my daily activities in the South Bay (around Palo Alto and Mountain View - Google and Apple country), San Fran and the East Bay (to meet some writers I talk to all the time but have never met).

I will attempt to take notes on the shows I see in Monterey and any I might see in the Bay Area following the festival (though the chances of that actually happening are fairly low). It should be a lot of fun anyways.

I also moved again since my last post. Pictures soon once they finish painting it and fixing the space up (that happens while I'm gone). I finally have a place and a year lease and can finally stay for an extended period of time, which is better than moving every two-three months, as I have been forced to do recently for various reasons.

On an entirely different note, David Adler, one of my favorite writers and a new Philly friend, wrote an in-depth account of last night's historic concert by Sonny Rollins, Roy Haynes and Christian McBride at Carnegie Hall. The first paragraph grabbed my attention immediately:

Last night's historic Sonny Rollins show at Carnegie Hall was, among other things, a terrific and much-needed jolt of New York energy for this writer. Drummer Rashied Ali marched into the Pick-a-Bagel as I was finishing my sandwich. You just don't experience this sort of thing in Philly. With a cursory glance around the lobby and inside the hall, one could spot saxophonists Joe Lovano, Paquito D'Rivera, Antonio Hart, Kenny Garrett, Loren Schoenberg, Bill McHenry, John Zorn (in black leather and red camouflage); New Yorker editor David Remnick; pianist David Berkman; organist Dr. Lonnie Smith; drummer Lewis Nash; guitarists Russell Malone and Pat Metheny. And a good many journalists and critics.

Very inspiring, even though I wasn't there. It really got me in the mood for what I think I'm about to experience out in Monterey.

Ok, off to pack some more. More updates soon.

Week in Review; Sunday links, Vol. 2

I meant to do this last Sunday too, so I've saved up some older things. I was very encouraged this weeks to see Darcy's repost (as reported in the New York Post) on The NY Times' TimesSelect pay disservice soon becoming a thing of the past.

This past week I saw some excellent live shows and had a few new cultural experiences which I thought I would relate through links. I saw Aretha Franklin on Monday night. Dan DeLuca of the Philadelphia Inquirer has that review. I had a crappy seat (I was standing) but I can attest to the almost completely African American crowd. It was awe-inspiring that so many people would come out to a concert on a Tuesday night. I have to say that the way she ended her performance was very anti-climactic with umpteen reappearances on stage for bows as the emcee indefatigably pronounced "the queen of soul...the empress of music...Miss Aretha Franklin," over and over and over. I should note that my buddy Jason Marshall, who I played in different saxophone sections with in high school was called in for the gig (I don't believe it was his first with Aretha; he operates in those circles). The "impressively tight band" which DeLuca references played a fitting musical interlude when Ms. Franklin took her unexpected 10-minute mid-show break with Philly native Benny Golson's "Killer Joe." The tenor and alto saxophone solos on the big band interlude were very impressive. No names were mentioned, of course.

And on Tuesday night I saw violinist Jenny Scheinman with Jim Black, Todd Sickafoose and David Tronzo (who was sitting in for a sick and thus sidelined Nels Cline who had to cancel last minute). They played to a packed International House filled with all ages and musical impetuses. You had your guitar headz expecting Cline (who was given top billing along side Scheinman in all the marketing outreach (mostly email-based). You had your drum headz to see Jim Black, a legend of the now (sort of) defunct "downtown" scene (much of that music has moved to Brooklyn these days, including Scheinman's weekly Tuesday night gigs at Barbès). You even had a few folkie chicks and fellas in birkenstocks who knew that Sickafoose (and Scheinman herself) have been known to play with that righteous babe named Ani (though they may have been true Scheinman fans, I suppose). David Adler has the scoop on this show. It was very enjoyable.

Maria Schneider has another new large ensemble recording through artistShare (note how I didn't say "on artistShare." It's not a label, people. It's a business model), which is generating some nice attention. ArtistShare has been a major boon to Ms. Schneider's career. I am deciding which participant offer I want to enroll in or if I just want to buy the CD with the deluxe booklet (that is, if any are still available).

Also, I've been reading some magazines that I've always wondered about but never seriously read before. The current issue of Harper's has a brilliant memoir about the shared cultural experience among middle and upper class boys and girls - sleep-away camp in America. The article was written by New York-based author Rich Cohen as a well as a fascinating essay about a contemporary Turkish literary icon named Orham Pamuk.

NY Times scribe Nate Chinen journeyed down to the Crescent City to speakwith trumpeter Terence Blanchard in his native environment about rebuilding, his new album on Blue Note and the relocation of the Monk Institute from The University of Southern California to Loyola University in New Orleans.

The first full day of the Newport Jazz Festival under new management goes off without a hitch. George Wein is on hand to approve and make the new beer and wine lines run smoother.

This week in the Voice, Francis Davis has a virtual discography of trombonist, musical omnivore Roswell Rudd as well as a round-about review of his newest CD El Espirito Jibaro (which I have on my stack and have been meaning to get to for a review).

Though I never read him when I lived and went to school in Pittsburgh, Tribune Review jazz and cultural reporter Bob Karlovits does a hell of a lot of writing about jazz on an almost daily basis for the paper. This feature is about a good deed he had a hand in, in the name of Art Blakey.

Mwanji has an interesting exploration of his perceived associations between content of an album and its packaging.

Everybody in the jazz world has been talking about Keith Jarrett's latest episode stepping over the line with his mouth. Though JazzTimes reported that the Festival and the city of Perugia, Italy had officially banned Jarrett from ever performing again, industry sources close to the festival are saying that Jarrett and his manager have kissed and made up with the mayor of Perugia and all is well again. I personally wish it weren't. Keith is a brilliant musician, but he needs to take a lesson in reality and have some accountability for his outlandish actions. I think we all "reserve the right" to think he's an imbecile. A musician told me this week he remembers Keith once refusing to start his performance at Umbria or another outdoor festival because it was 68˚F and he will only play outdoors if it is 70˚F or warmer. Who brings a thermometer on stage? However, the Guardian and Idolator disagree.

Finally, I have recently been taken recently by how ubiquitous Beyoncé Knowles is these days in almost every medium I can think of. Even though she's on a major concert tour around the US right now, it is amazing how many different products she can be seen endorsing from make-up to soft drinks to her own line of clothing. It is also amazing how many column inches she is occupying in both dailies and alt weeklies, let alone the blogosphere. There was a very interesting piece in last Sunday's Boston Globe about this phenomenon as it relates to Ms. Knowles. I do like some of her music and I have to say that she is very attractive. She, her PR people and her personal trainer have done a very good job transforming her into a mainstream sex symbol. And she just keeps on truckin. She doesn't seem to tire from the road or the endless stream of live engagements, awards ceremonies or society functions. And all this without any major scandals that I know of. But I don't really pay much attention to gossip of that nature.

Enjoy these links and maybe comment with some of your own.