Lazy ears

Some of the points made by composer Graham Collier in this post, for example this passage "there is a pack mentality among many critics which, unfortunately for some of us, means they rarely look beyond the pile of CDs they receive to see what else is around", squares with what I wrote a while ago about how certain ever-presents on year end lists made me think too many jazz writers have "lazy ears" (That said, we all have our biases, of course. I wont deny I have mine).

I still have issues with a few of his points:

1. Seeking out new jazz (or new music in general) is time consuming work, but should be part of any reviwers job. Not merely sit and wait for CDs to fall into ones lap. However, being as it is that jazz writing in particular is being cut from the arts pages of newspapers and magazines, as well as the fact that it doesn't pay very well and that jazz PR is virtually nonexcistent these days, it can also be expensive work. We're more in need of word-of-mouth and communication - critic to critic, fan to fan, critic to fan and vice versa, musician-to-critic and vice versa - than most other arts writing departments. This need not necessarily take the form of free, physical copies being mailed to us, but dropping a line about upcoming releases does help. (For my own part, I pay for 99% of the jazz I write about. It's fair to say my jazz writing is a labour of love. I make my money from doing other things).

2. The comment borrowed from Chris Kelsey about some of the "formally conventional" big band records, is A): something I feel is not entirely correct in all instances (more formally conventional, perhaps, than Collier's) and B): makes me want to point out that paying attention to formality is something that, while certainly especially important to jazz composition, must not take the place of other important aspects of music, such as attitudes, values, stories and meanings, and the musicianship necessary (or adequate) to convey these. This is, for example, where critics of classic cinema often fail. Formality is part of the package, and can inform other aspects, but it is not the be all and end all.

By the way, at #49, is Vijay Iyer Trio's Historicity the highest placed jazz record on the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop in recent years? (Album list here. Other jazz records I've spotted so far: Darcy James Argue, Henry Threadgill's Zooid, Wadada Leo Smith, Ben Allison, Darius Jones Trio (whoop-whoop!), Steve Lehman Octet and John Hollenbeck. There are probably more).

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!

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".

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).