The Voice of the People

One day after I claimed hip hop to be the voice of the youth in French suburbia, th e Norwegian paper Dagbladet says that French politicians (right wing, of course) are looking to take legal actions against several French rappers, claiming they are the culprit of the uproar. Censorship is always the way to go. F**king morons. (Pardon my French (pun intended)).

It's been a while...

I'm having a last gasp attempt at getting through the syllabus, so I haven't had time to think of anything worth a dime to write about. Besides, I haven't had the time to write much either.

But I have been reading. Greil Marcus has come out of his hiatus (yeah, I know about his Dylan book) and interviews Patti Smith regarding the 30th anniversary of Horses for The Village Voice.

Patti has some views on music and society: "...rock 'n' roll is our cultural voice. I saw it evolve in my lifetime—I'm gonna be 59 in December—and it was revolutionary, in every way. It gave young people an outlet to channel all this new energy that didn't really compute with the generations before them". She goes on to talk about the riots in Paris, saying "I mean, look at what's happening in Paris right now. Part of me wishes I could just go into the streets and say, y'know, "What the fuck? Here—here's a Marshall; here's a Strat." That's the beauty of rock 'n' roll: It's a voice".

I agree that rock 'n' roll can be a voice and all that, but somehow I don't think it's the voice of choice to the kids in Paris. Their voice is more likely hip-hop (which, I suppose, can be as rock'n'roll as anything).

Nelson George is blogging again. It's been a while.

Dylan Calling

A short, yet charming take on "London Calling" by Bob Dylan.

Jazz Records: Update

I have been updating my jazz records list this weekend. There are some changes:

- Firstly, I have broken down the collection into alphabetized posts, eg. A-C. This makes it easier for me to update the site, as well as it gives you easier access to various parts of the list.

- Second, I have added many more records, including ones that I do not own myself. The reason for this is twofold: they function as a "hyped" and therefore "check out!"-list for me. Additionally, they are incentives for you to drop in later to see what the heck I'm going to give whoever's album.

The record labels and release/recording-dates are culled from various, often contradicting sources. If you find any mistakes or have any other comment don't hesitate to leave one or send me an e-mail.

Enjoy!

Books

Kevern Verney: African Americans and US Popular Culture 2003, Routledge (130 pages).

Starting off with the degrading representation of blacks in Minstrel Shows at the end of the 19th century, Kevern Verney gives insight to the different roles African Americans have played in music, movies, literature (covered less thoroughly) and sports, and their simultaneous fight for Civil Rights and fair representation and participation in popular culture. Biases and prejudices were used to prevent African Americans from participating in US society as a whole, but these measures were eventually broken down, albeit not without struggles. From the minstrels through The Harlem Renaissance. From radio to TV, and acknowledging music as African Americans' largest contribution to US popular culture. Major figures in the book are Jack Johnson, Paul Robeson, Sidney Portier, Malcom X and Martin Luther King Jr., plus an array of musicians from Bert Williams through Miles Davis to Public Enemy. They all represent important aspects and eras of the African American history. Verney has a background as a lecturer in American History at college level, and his vast knowledge is apparent throughout the book. His writing is smooth while at the same time presenting the topic with the seriousness it deserves.

One of the recurring themes in the book is minstrelsy. Verney starts his story with minstrel shows and tells about the degrading representation of African Americans in them, initially played by white actors in burnt-cork make-up. At the same time they sang songs inspired by African American tradition. Blacks were eventually allowed to play in minstrels, but even they had to wear burnt-cork make-up to ensure caricature was maintained. Verney argues that the minstrel representation has permeated much of African American history in US popular culture even after the shows themselves stopped running. One example he uses is Louis Armstrong and how he at several times while playing opened his eyes wide and rolled them around, a well known minstrel trick to show the contrast between the white of the eyes and the darker skin. The argument is that for a long time such tricks were used to cater to the white audience's prejudices.

I do however have one bone to pick with Verney. While I agree with the fact that biases and prejudices have prevented African American fair participation in US popular culture, I do not think Verney pays enough tribute to how African Americans used their own cultural expressions to comment on their situation even before the Civil Rights movement. Before the advent of minstrelsy, black slaves had work hollers and spirituals that cleverly used metaphors and imagery that would later on be used by both blues and folk artists. Although Verney covers topics such as be bop, 1960's jazz and 1970's funk, he does not, to my opinion, acknowledge that in be bop's case it was a conscious attempt by black jazz musicians to break free from standards set by white swing orchestra-leaders in the early 1940's. The changes in structure and tempo were used both as signs of aggression and as a move from dance music to listening music, that is from "entertainment" to "art". The smaller combos made this sort of playing easier, but it also put the players at center stage, as opposed to the (white) orchestra leaders. Verney gives better attention to the links between the Civil Rights movement and jazz and soul in the sixties and seventies, but even this could have been elaborated a bit more.

Over all, though, I think Kevern Verney has presented a very good history of African Americans in popular culture, even if the shortage of pages may have prevented him from a more in-depth analysis of major developments.

People are drunk...

EDIT:

Note to self: Never write posts while drinkng.

Rock-post-rock

Apparently, the guys behind this years best album also headlined this years best indie-rock show, according to Tom Breihan. Shame I couldn't be there. (Not too sure about his stance on indie-rock, though).

Rollins and Ware

Sonny Rollins and David S. Ware, two of my favorite living saxophone-players, have both released good albums this year; The 9/11 Concert and Live in the World respectively. All About Jazz has a piese of the two giants in conversation. A lot of talk about God and spirituality, but an enjoyable read.

Down Beat reports that Jazz Line Distribution is to release Eric Dolphy: Last Date on DVD. It has previously been available on VHS. I know nothing about this film, but Eric Dolphy is one of my all time favorites, and any soundbite and footage of him is highly welcomed.

I Wanna Beeeee A Teen Again...

I've received criticism for my inclusion of several power pop-records on my 2005 re-issues list, and perhaps to some extent rightfully so. I expected nothing less anyway. Power pop is a strange genre. Mostly sentimental and nostalgic (radio-days, 7" singles, that summer etc.), conservative in both style (Beach Boys-harmonies; Beatles-esque song structures) and lyrical content (girls), sometimes verging on the misogynistic, but sometimes also entirely good-hearted. My friends pretty much divide into two schools when it comes down to power pop; a few of them swallow it down, hook and all (pun intended), the others remain more skeptical, and some of this skepticism seem to me to be a reaction to the whole-hearted praise of my other friends, which is understandable. In Norway, there has for a long time been a tendency to herald the obscure and equate that with quality, note the popularity of the Nuggets-series. I by no means subscribe to that notion myself. That said, there is no rule that says obscurity in terms of recognition equals mediocricy (or worse) in quality. The means and mechanisms of distribution in popular culture is too complex to make a clear-cut distinction in that respect. So as for Yellow Pills, it is filled with mostly unknown (to me) artists, some of them bad perhaps, but I find a good few of the songs highly entertaining and likeable. Hoboken Saturday Night may be a better record (I'll admit to not having listened to it for some time), and I have no doubt that Yellow Pills will race down the list in due time as there are not enough good songs on it to retain that top position. But for now, I just plain enjoy it.

Speaking of compilations, Blue Note have released a The Very Best-series with among others Thelonious Monk, Lee Morgan, Bud Powell, and Horace Silver. Most of them have eight to ten-plus tracks. Thelonious Monk's Blue Note legacy has already been sealed through his Genius of Modern Music Vol. 1 and 2, so that is a hard act to follow. The Monk-record looks good on paper, but I miss some compositions, and duck points for only ther only being 13 tracks. Bud Powell's a bit better, the only notable exclusions being "Wail" and "Audrey". "The Scene Changes" is from the album of the same name, which is worth buying by itself. Lee Morgan and Horace Silver differ from Monk and Powell in that they mostly started recording albums, whereas Monk and Powell began in the pre-album era and started out recording "sides" (early version of what we call "singles"). Therefore, sides-compilations have a different function than albums, especially since there was a trend at Blue Note to record albums as a collective whole. That said, both Lee Morgan's "The Sidewinder" and Horace Silver's "Song for My Father" are so well known and work excellently on their own. For some strange reason Morgan's compilation omits "The Sidewinder", though.

Updates

Nothing much going on, except to tell you that I've been updating my 2005 lists. Have a look!