An artistic hooker with a heart of gold: "Hallelujah" pt.2

Michale Barthel's EMP paper on "Hallelujah" - which I've written about before - is now up at clapclap.org in an extended version (including, no less, a quote by yours truly). A very interesting and good read.

The bolgosphere has been fairly quiet about the EMP thus far, but I suppose some things will pop up over the weekend. Matos has written a "quick-and-dirty" roundup, though.

Speaking of covers/changes in meaning: I'm currently expanding on this piece*, which started as an in-the-heat-of-the-moment rant but is about to turn into a ten page essay on commercials and sex roles. More on that later.

*(the video doesn't work any more, but you can find it at You Tube)

Protest! Wynton's anger not perfectly articulated

Tom Hull hits the nail on the head with his review of Wynton Marsalis' From The Plantation To The Penitentiary (scroll down, it's the second to last review). While other reviewers have seemed impressed with Marsalis' "protest" record for the simple reason that it is political, as if that is a positive in and of itself, I protest: politics in music, like ALL themes, can be both bad or good (and everything in between). In my oppinion, Marsalis' attempt here falls short of good. Although a sentiment like "I ain't your bitch and I ain't your ho" is easy to agree with, it sounds unconvincing and, as Mr. Hull says, akward here.

I disagree with Matthew Rogers opinion that "Marsalis’ traditionalism here seems apt and entirely the right medium for the message". Although the music ain't half bad, for the most part it lacks the grit to convice me that Marsalis is as upset as the title and the flawed lyrics suggests. The only thing he does convince me of, is that he still feels that the music was better back in the day. We've heard that statement from Marsalis before.

(I've written a piece on a Norwegian review here).

Andrew Hill R.I.P.

I just heard the sad news that Andrew Hill passed away yesterday, April 20th 2007, after having lost his battle with lung cancer. Hill is one of my favorite post-Monk pianist/composers, and has been creating and playing great music right up to his death. Tom Hull has a few words here, to which I will only add that I think I hold Point of Departure in higher esteem than mr. Hull does, and that in addition to the albums he lists, Lift Every Voice from 1969 is also worth seeking out. WKCR will have special broadcasts in memory of Andrew Hill this coming Monday and Tuesday.

• Andrew Hill - "Dedication" (mp3) from Point of Departure (Blue Note, 1964)*

* In case you're wondering, the line-up on that track is Hill (piano), Kenny Dorham (trumpet), Eric Dolphy (bass clarinet), Joe Henderson (tenor saxophone), Richard Davis (bass), and Tony Williams (drums).

EMP 2007: Hallelujah!

The annual greatness that is the EMP Pop Conference opens today. This year's theme is "Waking Up From History: Music, Time, and Place", and the various abstracts can be found here. I've only read a few, but one in particular has caught my attention: Michael Barthel, who also runs the Clap Clap blog, will do a presentation on Leonards Cohen's "Hallelujah" and the many cover versions of said song. As he writes in his abstract, "I will offer a close reading of the changes in form and meaning "Hallelujah" has undergone, from Cohen's own revisions to its interpreters' cherry-picking of verses, and the way that these changes reflect the cultural moments that spawned them".

As some of you may know, two recordings of "Hallelujah" has certainly made impacts here in Norway. First, it was Jeff Buckley's pained version making its way to many a dorm room cd-player, as well as touching the parent generation. And last year, Norwegian record buyers made Lind / Nilsen / Fuentes / Holm's Hallelujah Live one of the biggest selling records of 2006, in no small part because of their version of "Hallelujah", which was based on Buckley's interpretation rather than the original.

Barthel has said he will most likely post a written version of his presentation on the web, so for those of us not going to Seattle this weekend, we'll have to wait for what will surely be an interesting read.

Forgot to mention...

...that Michael T. Fournier's book on Double Nickles on the Dime has just been published as a part of the 33 1/3-series. Another must-read, then.

Congrats, Ornette!

Ornette Coleman has been announced as the winner the 2007 Pulitzer prize in music.

Egon Bondy R.I.P.

Left to right: The Plastic's Milan Hlavsa and Egon Bondy

Thought I'd post a short tribute to Prague underground legend, philosopher, writer, and poet Egon Bondy, who passed away on April 9. In addition to his influential writing, Bondy also contributed lyrics to The Plastic People of the Universe, a Czechoslovakian non-conformist band who was forced to go underground under the hard-line communist rule of the 70's and 80's, only to experience the fromation of an entire cultural movement around them. The Plastic's debut was titled Egon Bondy's Happy Hearts Club Banned as a tribute to Bondy.

Robert Christgau has championed the record, and Woebot wrote in a record guide on his blog in October 2003:

"The recording (is) wonderfully barbaric and raw, brutally metronomic and pulsating with a vicious energy."

Rock matters. Indeed.

Update (April 18th 2007): Two obituaries (thanks to an anonymous reader) here and here.

Brilliant 4 Corners: Lane, Vandermark, Broo, & Nilssen-Love make a beautiful racket

When some of my favorite "young" guns teamed up for a record, the result was always going to be interesting.

4 Corners is the four-headed monster that is Adam Lane (bass), Ken Vandermark (reeds), Magnus Broo (trumpet), and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums), who recently teamed up for some live dates and a subsequent recording thereof for the Portuguese label Clean Feed.

Adam Lane impressed me with three very good records last year - his two playful trio outings with Vinny Golia and Vijay Anderson, but especially his powerful Full Throttle Orchestra release New Magical Kingdom, which ended up being one of my fave records of 2006. Lane is a talented composer and bandleader with plenty of fresh ideas, but I'm equally impressed with his skills as a bass player. His approach to the bass mirrors that of his compositions; one foot in the harder post-bop/free-bop tradition, the other in fields such as noise rock. On 4 Corners, he shifts between rapid and bouncy walks across the bass' register - as on "Spin with the EARth", something of a Lane standard - but he just as often sink into low-end riffs, at times playing through a distortion pedal, which may seem like a novelty act to purists but the result is heavy and groovy.

With Vandermark and Nilssen-Love by Lane's side, 4 Corners was bound to have a tougher edge than his trio dates with Golia and Anderson. Vandermark's tone is gruffer than Golia's, and he also plays heavier horns here, and Nilssen-Love is no stranger to the punkier side of jazz through his projects with noise makers such as Mats Gustafson and Thurston Moore.

The fourth man is Magnus Broo on trumpet, a colleague of Nilssen-Love in Atomic. I've often felt that trumpet players have sounded out of place - too clean and light - in similar power-jazz / post-bop settings, which for my tastes have been better suited for reed instruments. But Broo asserts himself well here; his tone is powerful and gritty - more Booker Little than Miles.

Vandermark and Lane split the writing credits 3 to 4 between them. Through much of the well over 7o minutes of music here, this group proves my two notions that speed thrills - as on "Tomorrow Now (for Lester Bowie)" - and that at a slower pace, a deep swining groove rocks (check e.g. "Alfama (for Georges Braque)", which nods to both Funkadelic and Black Sabbath, and the closing of "Spin...").

But it's not all gung-ho. They're smart and dynamic enough to balance not just between speed and groove, but they also let things calm down at times. The lovely ballad (!!!) "Lucia" is a welcome breather midway through the set, as the group start grooving again on "Ashcan Rantings" (a tribute to the Ash Can School, per chance?).

4 Corners is an exciting project and record displaying a dynamic, fresh, and powerful approach to jazz that is most welcome. I sincerely hope to hear more from this group in the future. Any festivals interested in a show stopper?

Clean Feed's records may be difficult to find in record shops, but 4 Corners is available at these online shops:

• Clean Feed.com (ships from Portugal, Europe)
• ejazzlines.com
• Squid Co.com (ships from the U.S.)
• eMusic (mp3 downloads) - offers sound bits/tasters through this link.

Luscious lips

While I may tend to write about music in the outer fringes of pop, or music that some may (rightly or wrongly) label "alternative" or "semi-pop", this is by no means all I listen to, as you may know if you check out my lists. I'm of the conviction that, at least in theory, what I enjoy and look for in music cannot simply be explained by pointing to genres. Therefore, I frequently find myself jumping headlong into the pop-tastic. And because I love hand claps and a good beat, no matter how sparse it may seem, I'm currently enjoying Lil' Mama's "Lip Gloss".

Oh, and Perfect Sounds turned two the other day (March 31.). Happy b-day.

The Mountain Goats visit Oslo tonight. I'm looking forward to it.