Generic

Flipper's classic Generic Flipper has just been reissued by Water, the same record company that was scheduled to reissue the Feelies' Crazy Rhythms last year. This time I know for a fact the record has made it to the stores, I've seen the physical copies myself.

Two apologies: one for the abundance of the word "excellent" in my previous post - repetition of the same descriptive word takes away the salience from the it every time it is used, not to mention that "excellent" barely says much at all. That doesn't hide the fact that I intended to be positive about the music I used it for. A second one for no Songs of the Week or any other updates. I'll get it together soon.

Favorite Jazz of 2008

May as well get it over with, especially since the Village Voice Poll was posted last week.

1. Mostly Other People Do the Killing: This Is Our Moosic (Hot Cup)
2. Fieldwork: Door (Pi Recordings)
3. Ben Allison & Man Size Safe: Little Things Run the World (Palmetto Records)
4. Anthony Braxton, Milfor Graves, William Parker: Beyond Quantum (Tzadik)
5. Rob Brown Ensemble: Crown Trunk Root Funk (AUM Fidelity)
6. Vijay Iyer: Tragicomic (Sunny Side Records)
   
7. Roy Campbell: Akhenaten Suite (AUM Fidelity)
8. William Parker: Petit Oiseau (Aum Fidelity)
9. Vandermark 5: Beat Reader (Atavistic)
10. Mike Reed People, Places & Things: Proliferation (482 Music)

The rest, in no particular order but all graded 7 or better (i.e. recommended):

• By Any Means (Rashied Ali/Charles Gayle/William Parker): Live at Crescendo (Ayler Records)
• Hamid Drake/Anders Gahnold/William Parker: Last Dances (Ayler Records)
• Adam Lane, Lou Grassi, Mark Whitecage: Drunk Butterfly (Clean Feed)
• Bill Dixon: 17 Musicians in Search of a Sound: Darfur (Aum Fidelity)
• William Parker: Double Sunrise Over Neptune (Art for Arts/AUM Fidelity)
• Fight the Big Bull: Dying Will Be Easy (Clean Feed)
• Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet: Tabligh (Cuniform)
• Atomic: Retrograde (Jazzland Rec.)
• Mattew Shipp Quartet: Cosmic Suite (Not Two Records)
• Empty Cage Quartet: Stratostrophic (Clean Feed)

(the links go mostly to CD Baby and Jazz Loft, but the records may also be available from other retailers).

I'm tempted to borrow Christgau's phrase from his review of Air's Air Lore in order to describe Mostly Other People Do the Killing: "Demonstrating not only that ragtime (...) and New Orleans (...) are Great Art consonant with Contemporary Jazz, but also that they're Corny. And that both Great Art and Corn can be fun."

MOPDtK rip out the intervoven molodies and the joie de vivre of vintage Dixieland and fuse that with the power and speed of post bop and hard bop, verging on the avant garde, at least in terms of their fondness for the odd skronk. There is also a post modern wit to their music, which makes me want to pit them with Pavement, of all bands, also due to their loose approach. This Is... may on occasion feel darker (e.g. "East Orwell") than their previos record, but then again think of the duality of their excellent moniker: the serious accusation that we're not as evil as the others sounds quite funny at the same time. I liked This Is... so much that I picked up and played 2007's Shamokin!!! again, and it is just as good.

The other "winner" this year may be Vijay Iyer, who has two entries on my list: the powerful and percussive Door by his trio Fieldwork (with last years newcomer of the year Tyshawn Sorey and Steve Lehman), and the straighter quartet session Tragicomic.

Ben Allison demonstrated the simplicity can be more, musically, on Little Things...

2008 was in some regards Anthony Braxton's year, not only because of great records like Beyond Quantum (with William Parker and Milford Graves), but also due to the Mosaic box set that re-issues his Arista records. Finally the excllent Creative Orchestra Music 1976 is available again.

William Parker was all over 2008, a testament to how highly I and others hold him in the world of contemporary jazz. He played bass on Beyond Quantum and Rob Brown's excellent free bop quartet session Crown Trunk..., among others. As for his records as a leader, I preferred the groovy quratet album Petit Oiseau to the large ensemble Double Sunrise... (I'm still not 100% comfortable with the vocals of Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay).

There are still some records I am sifting through, Matana Roberts The Chicago Project among others, but the top 10 should remain unchanged.

Best jazz record originally released in 2007 that I discovered in 2008: Sonic Openings Under Pressure: Muhheankuntuk (Clean Feed)

Happy New Ears

I've been on the road for much of the festive period, hence the lack of updates and Songs of the Week. Regular posting should resume by the end of the week, including my annual year in jazz thing-a-ma-jig. In the meantime, you can have a look at this year's Village Voice's jazz poll, won by none other than Sonny Rollins.

Happy New Year to all.

Knee jerk

"I would say that the desire to tell people about good music they're unaware of is one important reason to do the work. But so is elucidating the known. Kneejerk vanguardism is an important reason so much online record reviewing sucks." - R. Christgau.

Little time to elaborate on that one, but I see his point and wholly agree.

Out of Step...

...with the (Northern) European mentality that favors celebration of tragedy (fetal position) as more "artful" than the defiance of a tragic state or life. This mentality has put Glasvegas' debut on top of most year-end lists in Norway. To me it sounds like a perpetual whine. Cue lyrics from "It's My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry":

so this is the grand finale
the crescendo of demise
this is the happy ending
where the bad guy goes down and dies
this is the end
with me on my knees and wondering why?
cross my heart, hope to die
its my own cheating heart that makes me cry

There's nothing quite like feeling sorry for yourself. No, to hell with that. It's a town full of losers, I'm pulling out of here to win!

Listmania

A few weeks ago, I was asked by PlanB to submit a list of my favorite records of 2008. The list was published online earlier today. You can find it here. It's pretty much a carbon copy of the list I keep at this blog, bar a few things. For one, I didn't include Girl Talk's tons-of-fun Feed the Animals, though I have no idea why. I also slipped in Bottomless Pit (which is also on the blog list, though it probably will miss out on a top 15 spot upon next review) although it was sticktly released in 2007. When I have more time, I'll make a comment on a few more of the records. Among other things, I have a text on the new MOPDtK in the pipeline.

If you can read Norwegian, I've also written a few words on Randy Newman and Harps and Angels.

Songs of the Week 49/08

Skipped weeks 46, 47 & 48. Had too much else goig on. Here are some old and some new faves.

• White Denim - "Shake Shake Shake" (Self released)
• Gang of Four - "What We Want" (EMI/Warne bros.)
• Q-Tip - "Manwomanboogie" (Motown)
  
• The Blacksheeps - "Gold Lion" (Yeah Yeah Yeahs-cover)
• Loui$ - "Pink Footpath"
  

It's a love story baby just say yes

"The thing is: there's an angsty teenager inside all of us, a grumbling undercurrent insisting that the world is shitty and we are all diseased and there's no one you can trust. To that inner goth, pop screeches and wails with dissonance. But it doesn't have to. Cultural critics worry that things distract us from reality, help us avoid reality, obscure reality. But sometimes reality, as they say, bites, and to take that tragedy and turn it into a comedy would not be the worst thing. Pop's power is, in no small part, its ability to imagine a world much like this one, but shinier--and to make it, whether you submit to its charms or not, believable."

Mike Barthel on Taylor Swift's "Love Story".

Black Saint & Soul Note on eMusic.

Stef at Free Jazz blog, brought the news recently that eMusic now have ECM titles available for download, which reminded me that I've forgotten to write that they (i.e. eMusic) have also acquired a large amount of the back catalogues for the Italian labels Black Saint and Soul Note.

I have an ambiguous relationship with ECM, but I love a lot of Black Saint and Soul Note records. A quick history: Black Saint and Soul Note became refuges for some (though not all) of the most adventurous American jazz musicians in the late 70s and throughout the 80s. Most of David Murray's best work (e.g. Ming, Murray's Steps, Home, The Hill, Sweet Lovely) were recorded for Black Saint, though these have been available on eMusic for a while. The new batch includes records by Air, Anthony Braxton, George Lewis, John Carter, Julius Hemphill, Muhal Richard Abrams, Lester Bowie, Don Pullen, Cecil Taylor to name only a few.

Unlike ECM, Black Saint and Soul Note records can be hard to come by in some corners of the world. The fact that eMusic now have them for download is nothing short of fantastic. What's more, eMusic's prices are so good that you can easily afford to by a physical copy of a record you may come to love, that is if you can find it.

I should add that the Jazz Loft carry many titles by Black Saint and Soul Note at reasonable prices (SquidCo also have a few titles). You could also try Black Saint's homepage.

Wildflowers on CD

Wildflowers, the intriguing snap shot of the 1970s New York Loft Jazz scene, looks to be available on CD again ('though, it's been available as a download through eMusic for a while). This seminal compilation gives a look into one of the most interesting scenes in recent jazz history, and features tracks from Air, Anthony Braxton, David Murray, Sunny Murray, and Sam Rivers among others. Neither JazzLoft nor SquidCo look like they have it in stock, but I have seen it in stores. Try Douglas Records' homepage for info.

To whet your appetite, have a listen to the opening track, "Jays", by Kalaparusha (Maurice McIntyre) on tenor sax, feat. Chris White on bass and Jumma Santos on drums.

Music Crits too tolerant? What's Indie? Informed opinions? Target audiences?

A post by Mike Barthel on Idolator yesterday, which starts off asking why it is Metacritic's average scores for records is higher than they are for movies, then proceeds to guess it has something to do with a indie mentality: "The indie audience and the critics that spring from it have become so catholic in their tastes that they can see the good in almost anything that's not bad on a very basic technical level." (My highlights).

And the piece kind of sprawls from there, taking in questions of how one can write about music without knowing enough "to have an informed opinion" with an "audience for my review" that "would be people that are highly informed".

The comments are all over the place too, but I liked Matos' point: I'd rather read a critic who's actually made an effort to understand something and then dismissed it gleefully and with malice aforethought (...) than "are you kidding?" disdain for something the writer plainly isn't getting."

If I had more time, I'd join in on the debate, and there may be some points, either made by Mike or in the comments, that I'm missing here.

But if there was one thing I'd hope would come out of the poptimist/rockist debate, whichever side you were on, it was that people would stop having such hangups with genres. And they're back at it here. Broad taste is defined purely by genre, as one commenter says " But I see kids with everything from Modest Mouse to Jack Johnson to Ciara to Trace Adkins to Mastodon. There's a healthy mix (...)".

One who calls himself RaptorAvatar is on to something: "Even if you're like me and know that you're partial to a certain set of values that often crystallize most readily in indie rock, chances are that you have at least an ethos-level sense that you should maybe listen to "Year of The Gentleman (...)" (=Ne-Yo's latest, my comment).

Only I'd add to his "indie rock", jazz, rap, pop, r&b... See, what I've found over the years is that the values and expressions I seek and like - not only in music but in literature and films as well - are not confined to one genre specifically (though I may concur that some values, which RA touches on, are probably more likely to be found in one genre over another). Similarly, what I don't like in music can be found in alomost every genre as well. E.g. indie as a genre does not in and of itself express one coherent set of values, nor do indie bands and musicians express them equally well. The same goes for any other genre.

Before I'm labeled as a relativist here, let me just say in one respect, one can claim that my taste is actually very narrow in that I know exactly which kinds of values, expressions etc. I like and dislike - though music has a way of surprising you sometimes.

This, I maintain, is what gives me the right to have an opinion on almost anything I want to write about. What I take the time, and money, to write about is another matter all together.

(A belated and retro-influenced Songs of the Week will appear shortly).

Songs of the Week 45/08

• Mostly Other People Do the Killing: "Allentown" (Billy Joel-cover)(Hot Cup/CD Baby)
• Billy Joel: "Allentown" (Sony)
• Taylor Swift: "Fearless" (Big Machine)
• Britney Spears: "If You Seek Amy" (Jive Records)
• The Widow Babies: "Mike Watt Created the Universe With a Bass Solo" (Sounds Are Active)
  

Reagan, PATCO, and the Minutemen

A few weeks ago, I did a talk at my University about Ronald Reagan's handling of the Air Traffic Controllers' Strike in 1981. Talking about the aftermath and legacy of Reagan's firing of the strikers, I was able to weave in some music, more precisely the Minutemen. The following is an excerpt of that section.

The notion that Reagan's strict line towards the PATCO strikers weakened labor unions and made it easier for employers to fire dissenting employees in the ensuing years was reflected in other aspects of American culture as well. In 1984, the politically aware punk and folk inspired rock band Minutemen released a video for their song "This Ain't No Picnic", taken off the album Double Nickels On the Dime, which was released that same year. The song is one of the groups most striaght forward: it has what I would describe as a rampant or charging beat, and the chorus is shouted more than sung in a style that can be likened to protest calls at a rally. The lyrics describe the tension between a working man, his work and his employer. Below is the second verse of the song.

"Hey mister, don't look down on me
for what I believe
I got my bills and the rent
I should pitch a tent
but a man isn't free
for what he believes
so I'll work my life away
in place of a machine"

The video for "This Ain't No Picnic" takes into use black and white footage of a young Ronald Reagan in a World War II fighter plane, intercut with old footage of factory workers and footage of Minutemen outside of what appears to be a factory. The band lipsync the words of the song, shaking their fists in the air while singing the chorus, "This Ain't No Picnic", as if they were having a protest rally. As the video progresses, the fighter pilot in the guise of Ronald Reagan starts to fire the plane's guns. The footage shifts back to the band on the ground being fired at. There is an explosion, and we finally see the band, or the protesters, laying in the rubble. The image is quite striking: the protesters have effectively if violently been defeated at the hands of Ronald Reagan.

(Video for "This Ain't No Picninc" (SST Records, 1984))

Songs of the Week 44/08

• The Bronx: "Young Bloods" (Witchita)
• William Parker: "Freddie's Dead" (RAI Trade)
• The Muslims: "Parasites" (1928 Recordings)
• Los Campesinos! "We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed" (Witchita)
• Black Milk: "Bounce" (Fat Beats)

Fingers crossed

(Via Destination Out!)

Songs of the Week on hiatus, but I'm searching for Bernstein

More presicely Leonard Bernstein conducting The New York Philharmonic playing "Le Sacre du Printempes", a work that never ceases to amaze, recorded in 1958 and released on Columbia Records at the time. This is by many regarded as the recording of the piece. Stravinsky himself is said to have uttered just one word after hearing it: "Wow" (see this article from the NY Times).

Peter Gutmann of Classical Notes has this take on the importance of the recording:

"Nowadays The Rite presents a vexing performance problem – how to restore the original impact. The score was intended to assault audiences with startling freshness, yet listeners now take its innovations for granted and thanks to Fantasia remember the work more as a cartoon soundtrack for dancing dinosaurs than as the bold cornerstone of twentieth century music. In a stunning January 1958 record, Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra restored The Rite to its rightful place in musical history.

Bernstein's solution to the problem of historical perspective was brilliant and yet, as so often with artistic triumphs, disarmingly simple. He was well aware that what shocked audiences in 1913 would seem pretty mild stuff two generations later. He couldn't expect audiences to turn back the clock, forget what they knew and participate in an aesthetic masquerade. Nor would he falsify the score by adding more “modern” elements. There was only one way to jolt contemporary listeners while preserving the integrity of Stravinsky's original conception: to generate a level of energy so intense as to restore the disparity between what the audience expected and what they had to feel. Bernstein's performance explodes with huge crackling sparks of rough, untamed excitement." (Click here for the full original article).

Sounds intriguing indeed. The original cover looked like this:


The recording has since been re-released on CD in a Roayl Edition by Sony Classical (SMK 47629, with a recording of "Petrushka" as a bonus, recommended by Gutmann.


Apparently, this edition has been discontinued and is currently out of print. (There are other recordings of Bernstein conducting "Rite...", but they don't seem to have garnered as much praise).

As an avid music fan and record collector, I'm used to records being out of print, even highly praised and "important" works (I'm currently pushing Arista to release Air's Air Lore on CD. Altough I do own that record, you may not, and you deserve one). It's none the less a crying shame.

It seems the only way to get this particular recording is to fork out a whooping 99,99$ for a used copy on Amazon (ain't gonna happen buddy), or go for the The Original Jacket Collection-box set, but that too seems to be out of print and very expensive.

Am I missing something here?

EDIT: found a version of the original LP on eBay a month or so after this was posted. Moral of the story is: seek and you shall find.

I don't see no ring on this finger

Me and S/FJ don't always see eye-to-eye, but we just as often do. In his New Yorker blog today he has a nice little list of Beyoncé's many confusing love tips, ending with this gem dissecting her latest song "Single Ladies":

"If a man values your relationship, be prepared to demand a commitment. Suggest that he signal the value of his commitment by buying you an enormous piece of jewelry, something big enough to kill a hamster with one mild blow."

Sums it up nicely. The fast beat seems to imply that you're in a hurry, too: "Demand a ring, NOW, before it's too late". Don't take that advice. (Plus, that dance is just plain silly (and others have pointed out the obvious inspiration, so I won't)).

Songs of the Week bonanza 41+42/08

• Blitzen Trapper: "God & Suicide" (Sub Pop)
• The Knux: "Bang Bang" (Interscope)
• Mostly Other People Do the Killing: "Drainlick" (Moppa Music/CDBaby)
  
• Lucinda Williams "Little Rock Star" (Lost Highway)
• Fucked Up: "Black Albino Bones" (Matador)
• Dog & Sky: "Twilight" (Crispin Glover Rec.)
  
• Love is All: "New Beginnings" (What's Your Rupture)
• Oscar Brown Jr.: "But I Was Cool" (Sony)
• Annie: "My Love Is Better" (Island)
• Taylor Swift: "Change" (Big Machine)

A few thoughts on people wanting change and their critics

I’m always baffled as to how certain Amercains attack people who want to change certain aspects of their government and country with such comments as “if you hate the country so much, why don’t you leave” and calling them unpatriotic.

Don’t you see, it is exactly because people love their country that they want to change things, to make it even better for themselves and their fellow citizens (re: the Constitution: “to form a more perfect union” (my emphasis)).

A question for you: If someone you love becomes an alcoholic, do you help them get on the right track or do you leave them be?

CMJ 2008 Schedule

The schedule for this year's CMJ Marathon, one I cannot attend (damnit), has been announced. Full list of artists here, the panels here. Looking at the list of artists hurt my eyes, but from what quick glance I could muster, I did see David Banner, Dead Prez, Jay Retard, Love as Laughter, Lykke Li, and Roisin Murphy (purr) there, plus the hilariously named Ex Norwegian, who I know nothing about. These may or may not be the highlights.

Oh, and catchy hard core-faves The Bronx will be playing, and coincidently you can listen to their new song "Past Lives" here, courtesy of Blender. Their new album will be out on Nov. 11th.