Passing Trains by Joel Harrison

String Choir Sunday, May 22, 10 pm

2011-05-14T10:23:00.000-07:00

String Choir performing music of Paul Motian w/ Zach Brock, Mat Maneri, Sam Bardfeld, Dan Leong, Liberty Ellman

Sun., May 22

The Stone: 2nd St. and Ave. C

10 pm, $10

anupam shobhakar joins me in a duo April 5

2011-03-29T15:00:00.000-07:00

INTAR New Music Tuesdays, curated by Cristian Amigo

Skin and Steel -PLEASE NOTE ADDRESS CHANGE~

Tues., April 5, 8 pm one set: $5 cover
500 W. 52nd St. @10 ave.

http://web.me.com/camigo/Cristianamigo.com/INTAR_musicseries.html

A second set will occur by Cristian Amigo and Dom Minasi at around 9:00 pm

Joel Harrison and Anupam Shobhakar: New Music for National Steel guitar and sarod

amazement at classical music offerings of late

2011-02-25T07:41:00.001-08:00

saw an amazing concert at Tullyscope festival- Feldman's Rothko Chapel. Something remarkable about all the creativity in classical music festivals these past months. Ecstatic, Tune In, Thalia....There is Nowhere near the same dimensionality in Jazz festivals going on. Why? I welcome your view. We can list funding as a reason- but...that alone cannot be the reason. . Most of my life I saw classical music as the hidebound, conservative sector...now, I think there may be more happening there creatively than in jazz, although comparisons are perilous and possibly pointless. It's quite exciting, a bit surprising. Somehow there is a youth movement that has caught on... How, why? A bunch of these younger devotees are championing Xenakis, Varese, Feldman...It's quite amazing! Who would have predicted this? Meanwhile, I see a lot of young jazz players who are super talented, but I don't know if they are advocates for NEW music as opposed to...JAZZ. Yes, there are amazing solos being played, but you probably won't hear anything with the gravity of Rothko Chapel being presented. Or for that matter, music for 72 percussionists, or a 45 minute work for 18 musicians that is so freaking beautiful it lights up your week. My angle on this is that the walls between so called jazz and classical need further deconstruction, so that Feldman's piece for bass clarinet and 2 percussionists can be paired with set of, say, Marty Ehrlich, Andrew Cyrille, and William Winant. But! (!!!!) how massively challenging it would be to even come close to the rapture of Feldman's piece. Improviser beware!

Harrison duo with Mick Rossi this sunday

2011-02-14T16:09:00.000-08:00

Sunday, Feb. 20

Joel Harrison and Mick Rossi (keys)

Banjo Jim's: Ave. C and 9th St.

9 pm, one set

Songs, no songs, improv

Mick's an amazing player who amongst many other feats has worked with Philip Glass and Paul Simon

2011-02-01T16:15:00.000-08:00

Joel Harrison "String Choir"

The music of Paul Motian

String Choir includes (string quartet) Zach Brock, Sam Bardfeld, Mat Maneri, Dana Leong,(guitars) Liberty Ellman and Joel Harrison.
The Falcon
Fri. Feb 4, 7:00- 9:30, 2 sets
1348 Rte 9w Marlboro, NY 12542 - (845) 236-7970

cd release show jan 23 string choir

2011-01-18T15:17:00.000-08:00

Sun., Jan 23- 7:30 pm

Joel Harrison "String Choir" CD RELEASE SHOW!

The music of Paul Motian

String Choir includes (string quartet) Chris Howes, Sam Bardfeld, Tanya Kalmanovitch, Dana Leong,(guitars) Liberty Ellman and Joel Harrison.
Joes Pub: 425 Lafayette Street, New York, NY(212) 539-8778
www.joespub.com

on reading george lewis' aacm book

2011-01-18T15:16:00.001-08:00

On reading George Lewis’ book:

A Power Stronger than Itself- the AACM and American Experimental Music

First things first- this is one of the finest books ever written about music, any kind of music, not just improvised music. It is part history, part biography, social and philosophical treatise, musical guide, and in all ways a gift to any serious musician. One can read it to learn about some of the finest musicians of our time, to see quite clearly how they think. But one can also read it to learn about how a social movement is created, how race played and still plays an enormous role in the music world. One can read it to learn how collectives are formed, how they can perish, or read it to understand the musical landscape of Chicago in the 1960’s, the intersection of civil rights and Black self-determination with music, New York’s so-called “loft scene” in the 70’s, and corallaries to other movements of the time, rock, fusion, European classical and improvised music, and experimental culture in other art forms. Lewis allows seminal figures such as Muhal Richard Abrams, Roscoe Mitchell, Lester Bowie and countless others to speak for themselves as to their process; however, he goes further by placing these people in a broader historical context. Lewis tells an involved, important story that, for me, has been hiding in plain sight. His work succeeds for a number of reasons: he is a terrific writer, and composes from inside the story, somehow managing to combine a journalistic objectivity with a participant’s subjectivity. How rare is it that a Black man tells a Black peoples’ story, that a musician tells the musicians’ stories? Lewis pulls back the curtain on what almost seems a secret society. What his book does is show just how important and influential the AACM has been to all improvisers- whether they know it or not. In a climate in which scores of books are written about the same few heroic figures, in which we are inundated with every last note that Miles, Trane, Bird and Duke ever recorded, in which we hear about what Charlie Parker ate for breakfast on June 3, 1943, in which their primacy is not only considered an a priori truth, but an institutional mandate, how thoroughly refreshing, no ENORMOUSLY refreshing it is to know the history of this parallel universe.

This book should be a part of every jazz and new music curriculum in the country.

Let me try to analyze further why I could not put this book down, why I devoured it faster than any book I have read in recent memory.

In 1979 I had one of the most remarkable musical experiences of my life- I attended a 10 day workshop with the Art Ensemble of Chicago at Karl and Ingrid Berger’s Creative Music Studio in Woodstock. After reading this book I was flooded with memories of this time.

Absurdities in the TOP TEN pix

2011-01-13T10:10:00.001-08:00

Sun., Jan 23- 7:30 pm

Joel Harrison "String Choir" CD RELEASE SHOW!

The music of Paul Motian

To all editors of all publications like the New York Times, Village Voice, and Time Out NY who do “Top Ten of the Year” picks:

I like all kinds of music, not just jazz, lord knows. But I just read Time Out NY’s top ten list. There is a whole separate section for classical and cabaret(!). None for jazz. In fact, out of 50 cds chosen by, presumably, mostly pop critics, ONLY THREE were jazz. What does that mean? Perhaps that Jazz sucks and pop is great? I don’t necessarily blame the writers…perhaps the owners/ publishers of these outfits just think jazz sucks, or they still believe, contrary to an Everest of evidence, that jazz and pop music are…the same. Even the dear old Times slots jazz and pop together quite often. Can someone explain this to me? Dear editor, these musics really ARE different in content, mission, and practice. In general I don’t mind these yearly round ups- sometimes I catch a cd I missed. I will say, though, that this 10 best composers of all time by Anthony Tommasini is…ridiculous. It’s like Guitar Player’s 100 best guitarists of all time. One cringes in disbelief. How bout ten best living unknown composers? That would make an interesting read.

2011-01-01T13:39:00.000-08:00

Sun., Jan 23- 7:30 pm

Joel Harrison "String Choir" CD RELEASE SHOW!

The music of Paul Motian

Mon., Jan 10: Showcase at 55 bar,6-9 pm

Joel Harrison's Singularity

Jh-gtr
Donny McCaslin: sax
Mick Rossi: keys
Dana Leong: cello
Stephan Crump: bass
Clarence Penn: drums

We will play music from the recent Chamber Music America Commission as well as some older work.
$7
55 bar, 55 Christopher St. in W. Village- www.55bar.com

Tues., Jan 11
Joel Harrison and Spartacus

Jh- gtr
Gary Versace- keys
Stephan Crump- bass
Jordan Perlson- drums

KORZO: 9: 30 pm (Konnections @ Korzo)
$5 suggested
20th and 5th Ave. Park Slope
667 5th Avenue
(718) 285-3425

New Haven this friday

2010-12-15T10:36:00.000-08:00

THIS FRIDAY

Dec. 17, 8:30 and 10 pm

Joel Harrison Septet: Singularity

Firehouse 12

45 Crown Street
New Haven, CT 06510
(203) 785-0468

tickets and directions at www.firehouse12.com

Christian Howes : violin
Clarence Penn : drums
Dana Leong : cello
Donny McCaslin : saxophone
Gary Versace : piano
Joel Harrison : guitar
Stephan Crump : bass

2010-12-09T12:16:00.000-08:00

Joel Harrison and Spartacus: JH: gtr, Gary Versace: keys and accordion, Stephan Crump: bass, Jordan Perlson: drums

Date: 01/11/2011

9:30 pm: Konceptions at Korzo - Brooklyn, NY

667 5th Ave between 19th and 20th St.
Brooklyn, NY 11215 US

2010-12-07T15:52:00.000-08:00

On December 11 and 12: From most recent recording, Life Force (Orange Mountain Music, 2010) at Bargemusic, New York City’s floating concert hall moored in Brooklyn under the Brooklyn Bridge. Solos and duos composed by Harrison and performed by Wendy Sutter (cello) and Tim Fain (violin), as well as the music of Franz Schubert with pianist Pedja Muzijevic. Life Force will be performed at Bargemusic at Fulton Ferry Landing, Brooklyn on Saturday, December 11 at 8 p.m. and on Sunday, December 12 at 3 p.m. Tickets are available at the door for $35 regular, $30 senior and $15 student. Advance reservations may be made by email at reserve@bargemusic.org or by phone at
718-624-2083.

ALSO

10 pm Dec. 12 @ Banjo Jim's

Duet with guitarist Adam Levy

9th ave. and Ave C

Jazz, Country, originals

Pass the hat

Oct 27 Chez Oskar Ft. Greene

2010-10-21T07:41:00.000-07:00

Wed., Oct 27: 8 to 11pm

Joel Harrison (gtr, voice), Jerome Harris (bass, voice)), Todd Isler (hand percussion)

Chez Oskar, 211 Dekalb St. in Ft Greene, Brooklyn

Great food, no cover

www.chezoskar.com

2010-10-17T12:55:00.000-07:00

DOUBLE BILL - WEDNESDAY, OCT 20th, 9pm & 10pm sets

INTERNATIONAL QUARTET & MAOZ/RAVITZ/KELLY TRIO with special guest BRIGGAN KRAUSS

9pm - International Quartet
All new music with Joel Harrison (guitar), Roy Powell (keys, Norway), Lorenzo Felicitano (bass, Italy), Craig Weinrib (drums)
Preparing for a new recording with Cuong Vu (who can't make it from Seattle for this date, alas). Premiere performances of compositions from all members of the group. The only US performance with these amazing players that have come from overseas to record. Come hear the debut of this exciting group!

10pm - Eyal Maoz (guitar, effects), Ziv Ravitz (drums), Daniel Kelly (keyboards, effects) w/Briggan Krauss (saxophone)
This trio walks a tightrope balancing act of sonic madness, ambient meditations and heart-pounding metal grooves. They are joined by brilliant saxophonist, Briggan Krauss for this gig.

$10 Suggested Donation

Douglass Street Music Collective
295 Douglass St. between 3rd & 4th Avenues in Gowanus, Brooklyn - buzzer #1

Nearest train is R at Union St. and 2,3,4,5,B,D,Q,M,R at Atlantic Ave/Pacific St

Duo Gig on Oct 10

2010-09-30T06:20:00.000-07:00

Sunday, Oct 10, 10 pm

The Art of the Duo

Joel Harrison (gtr, voice) and Glenn Patscha (keyboards, voice)

Glenn is best known for his work with Olabelle- he also is a remarkable improviser in many styles

The first in an occasional series at Banjo Jims

700 E 9th St@ Ave. C
New York, NY
(212) 777-0869

Glenn is best known for his work with Olabelle- he is a remarkable improviser in many styles. We plan to do free improv, country, jazz, appalachian, and hell, maybe a version of Dark Star

Pass the damn hat!

2010-09-07T11:53:00.000-07:00

Sept. 23

Trio w/ Chris Howes and Stephan Crump

Artspace:

7:30-10 pm

710 Texas Street
Shreveport, LA 71101-3514
(318) 673-6535

New Music in New orleans

2010-08-30T14:57:00.000-07:00

Contact Richard Read * 504 940 2808 * rread@noccainstiute.com

JAZZ GUITARIST AND COMPOSER JOEL HARRISON DEBUTS GROUNDBREAKING NEW WORK AT NOCCA

Performance also features Harrison’s work for cello, performed by NOCCA faculty member Jee Yeoun Ko

Friday, September 24, 2010 * 8pm * NOCCA’s Freda Lupin Memorial Hall

New Orleans, LA — Guitarist, composer, and Guggenheim Fellow Joel Harrison debuts a new project this fall entitled Singularity, featuring a septet of top-notch New York jazz musicians, including Christian Howes (violin), Donny McCaslin (saxophone), Dana Leong (cello), Gary Versace (piano), Stephan Crump (bass), and Clarence Penn (drums). These new compositions were commissioned by Chamber Music America’s prestigious “New Works” program. The project premieres at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) on Friday, September 24, in Freda Lupin Memorial Hall. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at www.NOCCAInstitute.com or by calling 504 940 2900.

Joining Harrison and his septet for this performance is acclaimed cellist Jee Yeoun Ko, who will perform a solo work for cello featured on Harrison’s recent Life Force CD.

Singularity, composed by Joel Harrison, has been made possible with support from Chamber Music America’s 2009 New Jazz Works: Commissioning and Ensemble Development program funded through the generosity of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

late july/ august gigs

2010-07-20T03:36:00.000-07:00

Saturday, July 24 w/ Christian Howes

Columbus Jazz Festival: 7pm

http://www.hotribscooljazz.org/

Alternative Guitar Festival

Curated by Joel Harrison

Monday- Wednesday, Aug. 2,3,4

Shows at 8:30 and 10 pm

Cornelia St. Café, 29 Cornelia St., NY

Mon. Aug. 2- Admission $10 for whole night

8:30 – Vic Juris and Mary Halvorsen

10:00- Pete McCann and Adam Rogers

Tues., Aug. 3 Admission $15 for whole night

8:30- Rez Abbasi and TBA

10:00- Brandon Ross and Michael Gregory

Wed., Aug. 4- Admission $15 for whole night

8:30- Joel Harrison and Anupam Shobhakar (sarod)

10:00- Marc Ribot and Elliot Sharp

Guitarist/ composer and guest curator Joel Harrison has assembled a cross-section of improvising guitarists for a three -day festival at Cornelia St. Café. He has focused on duos that bring together unusual, (mostly) first-time, pairings. The emphasis is on fearless innovators and improvisers- jazz, country, blues,prog, noise, Indian, and classical will seamlessly meld together. Surprise will be the order of the day. Mr. Harrison hopes that this will be a yearly event in which fine guitarists, who operate outside the commercial realm, will have an opportunity to demonstrate their skills.

The players, according to Harrison:

Aug. 2

Vic Juris is a master. He plays jazz standards as well as anyone alive, but also veers into all kinds of surprising modernism. His nylon string playing is lovely, and his feel and imagination are incredible. Mary Halvorsen is a fresh face on the scene, a Braxton acolyte, with a fiercely independent style. I have no idea what these two will sound like together which is absolutely enticing. I have a feeling they won’t play Stella by Starlight but if they do you may not know it.

Pete McCann is the Clark Kent of the guitar. Watch out when he steps into the phone booth- it will be deadIy force, no matter the style, delivered with a smile. Adam Rogers…what can I say about a guy who soloed next to Michael Brecker for many years? Everything he does comes out sounding perfect. Adam’s technique extends into so many avenues of guitar playing it’s silly. He is an encyclopedia of guitar.

Aug. 3

Rez Abbasi is one of the most lyrical jazz players alive. His ability to play long, beautiful phrases, using complex harmony is amazing. I love his tone and touch. Partner TBA

Brandon Ross first caught my ear in Cassandra Wilson’s band, but since then I have seen him in numerous settings. His commitment to individuality, creativity, and new sounds is fascinating and unpredictable. You can’t pin him down, which I love. He is joined by one of my primary early influences Michael Gregory. I first heard Michael in the late 70’s with Oliver Lake, and it was life-changing. I took a few lessons with him way back when. One thing I loved was that he sang as well as played. This is something he shares in common with Brandon.

Aug. 4

Joel Harrison is not going to write about himself! But he (I) can say that the pairing with sarod fulfills a lifelong dream to collaborate with an Indian classical musician. I plan to play mostly National Steel Guitar, using slide. These instruments, the multi-stringed sarod and National Steel, are like long lost brothers. Anupam Shobhakar, from Bombay, is a young master of his instrument, an immense talent, and the great nephew of the best-known sarodist of the past 50 years, Ali Akbar Khan. We’ll find common ground in Indian, jazz, and blues.

Elliot Sharp defines the word “innovative”. His bag of tricks on guitar is truly deep. Whether tapping, skronking, wacking, pulling, or caressing the instrument, it’s always unique and in your face. Marc Ribot is one of the few players who crosses over from absolutely insane new music to absolutely lyrical American roots music. Anyone who knows me will see why I value this openness.

2010-06-25T11:11:00.000-07:00

This is in response to a you tube video circulating where another Marsalis (Jason) pretends to have answers for all.

Responding to Jason Marsalis

It is astounding to me that this conflict still rages between old and new trends in jazz. Anybody who cares a wit about culture knows that the only way forward in life is with change. Some change may be lasting and some not, but the dust bin of history is littered with individuals like Jason who fulminate against modernism, only to find that they won the battle but lost the war. Remember Louis Armstrong putting down Dizzy Gillespie? Does Marsalis accept that as fact, 70 years later?

It’s actually funny- he reminds me of a redneck bluegrass musician saying there should be no electric guitar in country music. My Dad would be 95 if he were alive today, and he couldn’t begin to understand my music being a Gershwin man, but he had ears enough to say, “I know you’re doing something worthwhile, even if I can’t understand it.”

But to be more specific, since most of these “nerds” are probably my friends…If he is talking about the people I THINK he’s talking about, Vijay, Potter, Ethan, Steve Coleman, etc., I am quite sure they are outselling him on Soundscan. He says one must "play for the people", but who are the “people” he is talking about? There are a lot of folks who like this new music. Most of these “nerds” can play the hell out of a standard and stand up to the jazz gentry on every level. I’m not even sure that matters, but it’s worth noting. The swing feel is becoming like the “Mozart” of jazz music- it’s classic, it’s great, but it ain’t the end all. I respect those who specialize in it. A question, though- is it wrong to engage one’s mind and heart in something new? If so, let’s call the following people nerds, since in their time countless Luddites accused them of ruining things for “the people”: Galileo, Newton, Picasso, Rothko, Charlie Parker, Coltrane, Walt Whitman, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Ornette Coleman. Progress is a mind set. Curiosity breeds invention, and invention is life.

Some new music sounds “nerdy” to me too. Almost everyone has their “nerd” barometer. Odd times can get boring as 4/4 can. Too many notes can be a drag, and too few can be too! But I would NEVER claim to have THE answer for anyone other than myself. Only self-righteous, fist-waving revisionists do that. Music “for the people?’ That’s called pop music. Jazz is largely for intellectuals and has been since bebop. Do I really have to point that out to HIM?

Let the doors always be open to all courageous souls who dare to take “the road less travelled”.

2010-06-13T09:16:00.000-07:00

NEW SHOW and PROJECT

Wed. June 23, 8:30 and 10 pm

Cornelia St. Cafe

29 Cornelia St
New York, 10014
(212) 989-9319

Debuting a new collaboration with an amazing young sarod player, Anupam Shobhakar

plus Dan Weiss, Gary Versace, Stephan Crump

original pieces featuring national steel guitar, plus reworking of older pieces

www.anupamshobhakar.com

Indian, jazz, country/blues

QUESTION of the day: Are romanticism and avant-garde tendencies irreconciliable?

CD release show June 5, Life Force

2010-05-24T09:14:00.000-07:00

Orange Mountain Records CD Release show

Wendy Sutter (cello) and Tim fain (violin) Play My Music

Sat., June 5 from 7 to 8 pm

Dinner and wine available

City Winery

www.citywinery.com

155 Varick St
New York, 10013
(212) 608-0555

ALSO:

Wed. June 23, 9 and 10 pm

Cornelia St. Cafe

29 Cornelia St
New York, 10014
(212) 989-9319

Debuting a new collaboration with an amazing young sarod player, Anupam Shobhakar

plus Dan Weiss, Gary Versace, Stephan Crump

original pieces featuring national steel guitar, plus reworking of older pieces

www.anupamshobhakar.com

Composer’s statement

Life Force

When Wendy asked me to write music for her second solo cd, I was thrilled by the challenge. The lessons I learned in composing in such an intimate setting have been a gift. Feelings about one’s own music are not always to be trusted- they change with the prevailing winds; however, I had the strong sense after we recorded this project that with this music I had finally begun my real life’s work. I find it very difficult to articulate why this is so. All I can say is that this project forced me to ask a question whose ramifications are substantial and ongoing: “What is most important to me? If I strip my music to its essence, what is left?”

In a sense my goal was simple (even if the process was not): I wanted to write music with soul. The cello and violin, especially in the hands of masters like Wendy and Tim, are deeply expressive instruments. Their ability to illuminate the extremes of human emotion are amazing. Though I have some familiarity with the wealth of Western classical string literature, I looked elsewhere for starting points. For instance, movement one of the duo was inspired by the great jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius (a favorite of Tim’s) and his gift for both passionate, lyrical melody and intensely driving funk. The relentless rhythmic activity contrasting with simple tunes is a way of speaking about the poles of Jaco’s, and my own, personna. The opening cello piece, “Go Towards the Light” came out the way it did largely because I am a guitar player partial to alternate tunings, the ringing sound and bell-like harmonics of open strings. The remarkable sound that Wendy produces in the “circular bowing” sections of the piece, sometimes roaring, sometimes whispering, comes from my attempt to bring into sound a vision I had as my father died of a great wheel that never stops turning, constantly bringing all things in and out of creation.

The sound world of this project is quite focused and particular, and it might surprise those who have heard my jazz music. Frankly, some of it surprises me. As the foundations of the pieces revealed themselves, Wendy and Tim helped reel me back in to the original intent. They were more than performers- they were editors and co-conspirators.

Much of this music is dedicated to, and inspired by, recent events with people I am very attached to. I truly hope that I have honored their singular spirits with this work. More and more it seems to me that music acts as a bridge to the dead, that the notes are rungs of a ladder that we climb in order to peer into other worlds. The wonder of music is that it can deepen the mystery, without ever claiming to offer answers to the questions that are raised.

ALSO:

Wed. June 23, 9 and 10 pm

Cornelia St. Cafe

Debuting a new collaboration with an amazing young sarod player, Anupam Shobhakar

plus Dan Weiss, Gary Versace, Stephan Crump

www.anupamshobhakar.com

George Russell and the conundrum of large group jazz

2010-04-13T05:33:00.000-07:00

Small Groups vs. Larger Groups in Jazz: Issues for me, and for others

I have been listening to George Russell’s music of late. A symposium on his life that Jerome Harris led last month piqued my curiosity, and when I began to dig deeper I discovered a treasure trove, cd after cd of fascinating music. The fact that I’d missed so much of his work was dumbfounding. If I, who profess to be a serious jazz composer, haven’t heard much of Russell’s work, who has?

The reasons are many- however, I want to focus on his work, in particular the sextet and septet music, and its implications on my own work, rather than the question of why one of the most important jazz composers of all time has been hiding in plain sight.

His cd’s Ezzthetic, Stratusphunk, Live at Bremen, and Jazz Workshop, all from 1959 through 1964 are marvels of innovation and balance. Russell was not so much inventing a new language (as Ornette did) but adding layers of nuance and complexity to existing norms. There are a few particulars that intrigue me:

His written material, sometimes through-composed, always continues beyond the “head”, the main motifs, into and through the solo sections. He obviously thinks like a big band composer in small group settings. Background horn lines frame the soloist, tempos change as solo sections progress, counterpoint is added to a mid-piece melody, and the ending theme is not always a replica of the beginning. All of this keeps the interest level high, while never interfering with the feeling of spontaneity in the solos. I find Barry Galbraith’s guitar work on Jazz Workshop particularly beguiling. Russell wrote him into the ensemble in ways that had rarely if ever been done with guitar. Jim Hall’s parts in Guiffre’s trios have a similar bent, but frankly, Russell’s guitar writing sounds more advanced at this point, if one were to compare their output.

His harmony (which is perhaps his best known contribution to jazz via the Lydian Theory book) is never predictable, often spiced with dissonance, mysteriously original, and thoroughly invigorating. The melodic material seems to leap out from the players’ horns, urgent, edgy, yet with an austere beauty.

The rhythm section crackles with swinging authority. This is not music just for the brain, the body is involved as well. Certainly Russell’s use of rhythm at this time is less interesting and advanced than the ensemble writing and harmony; nonetheless it is an important aspect of what makes this music so exciting. It’s interesting to note the 5/4 opening section of “Ye Hypocrite, Ye Beezlebulb.” While not exactly radical, it presages developments to come.

Short solos! Because it is a sextet with three soloists, whether Dolphy, David Baker, Dave Young or others, the solos are relatively brief, not just in the studio, but live. Plus, the solos seem tethered to the writing, not arbitrary. What a relief this is to the listener. We are hearing a true composition, where the timing of the solos weighs in just right against the pull of the written material. Too much soloing deadens so much jazz for me. Many of my friends feel this way, too. It is sort of an open secret, yet we all continually find ourselves in situations where it continues to happen. I know this is an confrontational thing to say. But many long solos, except in the hands of a master, have little development, and are too often macho displays of athleticism in my opinion. To be clear, I am not being stupid enough to put down “Chasin’ the ‘Trane”, but I wonder if ‘Trane’s way of playing, which of course gave rise to a sea change in jazz, is as relevant today as it was then? Perhaps it’s a matter of taste. What I find most off-putting is when one must suffer through multiple long solos in one piece over the course of a whole set! It’s often feels as if the idea of balance and timing, so central to a classical composer, is traded for “self-expression” and a certain freedom. However, self-expression is not always expressive and freedom doesn’t always feel free. Where is the happy medium? Russell does a good job finding it.
Russell tends to compose episodically, like any good classical composer. Surprising intro’s, interludes, tempo and meter changes, as well as orchestration choices all elevate the music. There are jazz composers doing the same now with smaller groups, but it’s surprising just how rare it is.

What does this all add up to? For me it adds up to a small but important life change. Russell is a model in that he chose to continue to write for and perform with groups that ranged from 6 pieces to more than twenty pieces. He heard music this way and he stuck with it despite the diminishment of performing opportunities. He never wrote trio or quartet music just so he could tour, where he would have been forced into the role of featured soloist, where the layers of counterpoint, the three or four part harmonies were sacrificed in favor of a more improvised, less notated, setting.

I, however, have often sacrificed the live music that I hear in my head for expediency. The reasons are almost entirely economic. When I tour Europe I am never paid enough to bring more than four people. You will look long and hard to find any groups larger than a quintet, featuring band leaders with a similar or even higher profile than I, who can book a two week tour. Sure, a few dates might crop up, but that’s about it. Hardly enough to hang your hat on! I am forced to play music written for a sextet with four folks.

It works like this: the best non-festival gigs one can possibly hope for only pay enough for a quartet. There is a kind of “norm” that has been established, where a certain pay-scale is expected, and more is rarely possible. A bandleader must choose between not touring or touring with a small group. The result? An enormous loss for jazz. For me, personally, it means my music often ends up sounding less interesting than it could. One simply cannot justify losing thousands of dollars by bringing along a sixth or seventh person.

Why is this so? How have we allowed ourselves to be forced to squeeze our creativity into what has become a predictable format? Blame is tough to assess. It’s a question worth asking, that’s all I know.

I don’t deny the value of what one might call the “blueprint” for a small jazz ensemble. Some of our greatest music has been passed down by quartets led by Charlie Parker, Coltrane, Monk, and so many others, where a melody is played, there are solos by sax and piano, maybe the bass, and then the head is played out. This structure is fundamental to our history, and will continue to bear fruit for a long time.

But...it’s being WAY overdone. It is too often the fallback position. Just how many “great” solos is one supposed to suffer through in any given week in New York to justify the sameness of the orchestration? We do it because it makes life easy, it’s our roots, and because it’s fun, but also because we have been thrust into the ghetto of the jazz pay scale for so long. And I wonder if we are also a bit lazy? Are our aspirations as simple as blowing over another well-written melody, or if we could, would we lean more towards our writing and less towards our improvising for select projects? Sure many jazz musicians have multiple projects, often involving interesting instrumental or conceptual choices. However, these group rarely play live.

Can you imagine a world where classical music was almost exclusively made by quartets? With the SAME instrumentation everytime? Hell no! In classical music there is an enormous range of live instrumentation, but the same is not true for jazz. There is institutional support for classical mid-size and large ensembles in schools and concert halls. I can only summon a couple of venues to mind that do the same for jazz- Lincoln Center being one. However, devoted music omnivore that I am, I have almost NEVER been to Lincoln Center, as the programming is far too tepid for my taste.

So what to do?

t’s not as if I don’t play with brilliant musicians in a quartet setting. And it’s not as if we don’t come up with some wonderful moments. However, I HEAR larger ensembles, and I am sure other composers feel the same way. My best work exemplifies characteristics that I have just extolled in George Russell’s work. I, like him, enjoy placing other soloists than myself at the forefront.

I have come to the indisputable, but somewhat disheartening conclusion that I have to perform less. In return, when I do perform, the music will fully declare my intentions. The thing is, I love to play. I love to play so much that I have been willing to sacrifice compositional and ensemble ideals. I have projects that seemed plausible to present with smaller groups- esp. Free Country. But as one gets older, one’s focus damn well better get stronger. For me that means writing for larger groups, whether it leads towards a deficit of live performance or not. Do I worry about how I will develop the music if it is not played often enough? Yes. Still, I have to write what I hear.

EVENT CALENDAR

2010-03-20T12:02:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my NEW calendar page

Executed with my own 2 hands:

Here is the most important event for me this Spring:

Sat., June 5, 7 pm City Winery

Orange Mountain Records CD Release show

Wendy Sutter (cello) and Tim fain (violin) Play My Music

Stay tuned for more details- it's my first cd of completly non-improvised music

calendar

2010-03-20T05:18:00.000-07:00

would this space work for my calendar instead of the wacky "widget" from reverb nation on my home page?

responding to Alex Ross regarding state of classical music in NYC

2010-03-20T05:15:00.000-07:00

Dear Alex

I wanted to comment on your thoughts on the state of classical music, especially as regards Poisson Rouge and new venues.

The reason that LPR is important, and is receiving seemingly endless press, is that it fills a critical need. I feel I have a unique perspective on this since I cross over between jazz, classical, and all manner of American popular music. Classical music is to my mind uniquely stuck in the past, in ways that have almost no parallel in the worlds of art, theater, movies, books. LPR is perhaps an antidote to that tendency.

Does Proust, Mann, Milton, Balzac etc., completely dominate the bookstores? No.

Is Orson Welles, Fritz Lang, or John Ford shown at every Cineplex monthly or weekly? No. Do we see recreations of 18^th century court dancing at Lincoln Center and BAM on a weekly basis. No. True that many museums have older art in large part, but you can get in for free to, say, the Met if you like. And what is the musical corollary to MOMA? Imagine if there was a single concert stage, a big, beautiful endowed one, where all they did was modern music!

Why then do the ancients completely dominate the classical music stages? I love and worship Beethoven as much as the next person, but enough is enough. I know no one under 50 who cares much about Mendelsohn, or many other second-tier composers whose works dominate our concert halls, and in fact I know almost no one who cares much about what the Philharmonic does. It is dominated by one class and culture and is not even remotely representative of the feelings, the needs, the passions, the provocations of our great, whirring, wild, unruly country.

But I do not wish to single out the “ancients”. We are cursed, also, by a welter of “new” classical music that leaves the listener wanting to sprint for the exits. Again, much of this music is dominated by a certain class and culture and lacks that most crucial element without which we all wither- SOUL!

Counterpoint occurs…when George Wein seemed to dominate the jazz scene in June along came Michael Dorf in the 90’s with the Knitting Factory Festival. Of course he went bust, so that’s a consideration! Thus comes LPR, counterpoint to Lincoln Center.

It corresponds with a remarkable thaw in the classical world. It is a world that has often felt cold and forbidding to me- until recent times.

I call it a thaw because there are so many new, young groups now who do not approach classical music with quite the formulaic, upper crust stiffness that is historically part of this scene. They approach the music in a more unruly, relaxed way. Groups like Alarm Will Sound, Bang On a Can, Brooklyn Rider, Kronos play extremely serious music but the repertoire they choose, and their means of presenting it, give one the feeling of being invited more to a jazz or folk concert, than a “tails and fur coats” concert. I love seeing the Phil or Vienna play Mahler, ok? But we NEED counterpoint.

How well I remember when Kronos first came on the scene. What a breath of fresh air. That was THIRTY FIVE years ago! These days more and more groups approach classical music as Kronos does, inviting pop, jazz, world music into the mix, but it is only now that New York has a hall that specializes in this world view. (One could include Zankel, I guess, but that is way out of reach for most of us.) How nice that it exists, and how sad that it took that long.

But enough about me... One feels in the “eclectic” music, exemplified by the afore-mentioned artists, a connection to the concerns of the day, to the world around us. Alex, isn’t this what so many of us crave? To hear the world we live in come back to us through sound? Alarm has a way of making new music feel relevant, alive. They connect to the audience and at the same time make tremendous music. More and more classical musicians, perhaps because they secretly want to be rock and roll musicians, want to connect. They are willing to learn to improvise, amplify and distort, to expand their horizons into world music to do so.

The hybrid, or poly-stylistic music of today is not a passing fad- it represents the way we live. Many composers I know have been grappling with this “hybrid” style since the 70’s. In some ways one can trace the efforts of Riley, Glass, Reich, etc. to Bang On a Can, through Alarm Will Sound, etc. The influences of African, Indian, jazz, rock are giving classical music youth, soul, vigor. Of course not all efforts are equal, and plenty of mediocre hybrids exist, but that is inevitable in any era. One peeve of mine is that there is still so little conversation between jazz and classical. This dialogue consumes me more and more.

It is no accident that some of the more popular composers of the day make music that has…a beat! For thousands of years humans have made music with grooves. It would be nonsensical to expect modernism to do away with it all. As more and more variations and hybrids proliferate, more outlets will appear, whether small non-profits, or venues like LPR. I truly believe that the future of classical music depends on these smaller outlets, just as the future of jazz has always depended on the small clubs. This is where the dirty work, the searching, the growing is done. The major developments in jazz are NOT reflected at Lincoln Center Jazz, trust me, but at places like 55 Bar, Jazz Gallery, and countless out of the way door gigs in Brooklyn.

It feels a bit devastating to us composers that so few outlets currently exist, as compared to the volume of music being created. We need MORE places where a listener can relax, pay only $15 to get in, have a drink, stand at the bar afterwards and greet friends. We need more venues for whom jazz and classical are equals, not adversaries. We need more venues where Black, White, Indian, African, Chinese music sit side by side. Of course rich white people are the ones sustaining the Met and Lincoln Center because it serves their tastes and interests. Soon enough though I would love to see philanthropy flow more towards what is actually happening on the ground, in the minds of those who hold the present and future, not the past.

jazz composition trends-from CMA magazine article

2010-01-21T09:41:00.000-08:00

This article appeared in the nov./dec. issue of Chamber Music America Magazine

It's a bit rambling, but I think it touches on some interesting points

A.B. Spellman asked the question. Reviewing Ben Ratliff’s The Jazz Ear in the July/August issue of this magazine, he wrote: “Never before has this music had this many practitioners with so much technique, theory, and history, yet this is the longest that jazz has been without a defining genius or a radical new movement. I have been wondering if this is a composer’s era.” (my italics)

I believe the answer is “yes”: this is, indeed, a composer’s era in jazz. We are arguably in the midst of radical changes, driven not by one defining genius but by many forward-thinking individuals all working at once. What I find interesting these days is not so much how people are soloing- it’s the new materials they’re being fed. It used to be that jazz was predicated on improvisational interpretations of “standards” (often Broadway tunes), or brief “head charts” that offered a vehicle to solo off of. Now, however, almost all players write their own music, much of it of an increasingly complex nature.

Twelve years ago, when I released a composition-driven octet CD called Range of Motion, I felt that I was in rather sparse company. Long-form, multi-sectional pieces with world music influences, odd meters and unusual instrumentation were somewhat rare then—now they are not. The language of jazz has changed as much in the past 15 years as it did between Charlie Parker and Coltrane. These changes may be less easy to quantify than the changes Coltrane brought, but they are nonetheless real.

Call it the Great Assimilation: classical music and jazz are really beginning to blend now. Meters jump around like fruit flies. Indian, African, Jewish, and Balkan music are no longer used as window dressing—they’ve become a core compositional principle for some, as have Cuban and Central and South American music. The many guitarists now playing jazz have brought every conceivable subspecies of American roots music into the mix. John Zorn has pointed out that we may disagree on what to call this music. Maybe some of it isn’t “jazz.” I am not compelled to argue about who or what belongs in the genealogical tree. One thing’s for sure: the music I am talking about has far more connection to Mingus than Mozart.

There is a dichotomy at the heart of jazz composition: how can the soul and spontaneity of improvisation live within the framework of substantative notation? Conversely, how can notation enliven the presence of the soloist? The key is in finding ways to make the blend seamless, so that the two impulses are made stronger by their union, not weaker. The presence of the unknown in a piece of music is irresistible to a jazz player. Personally, I find it hard to live without mystery, where the music is different each time, but I am even more enthralled if I also hear a bedrock of writing that anchors the solos and keeps surprising me.

There have been important people throughout the history of jazz who have grappled with these issues: Ellington, Mingus, Gunther Schuller, Bob Brookmeyer, Gil Evans, George Russel, Jimmy Guiffre, Henry Threadgill to name just a few. In recent years, though, the numbers of composers following the “meta-jazz” path has begun to grow exponentially. There is a certain all-inclusive view that can be intoxicating when handled well.

I personally am indebted to Ran Blake of the 3rd Stream department at New England Conservatory. In our private lessons, circa 1978, he would encourage me to look past jazz standards for both writing and improvising; Greek folk songs, Marvin Gaye, Charles Ives and film music were all grist for the mill. My Free Country project was a direct descendant of his world-view, where the fundamentals of jazz are enriched by association with other traditions. This aesthetic is practically commonplace now for young musicians. In the space of one piece, or even one solo, you might find free-form blowing, luscious tonality, rock and roll, Indian raga, or electronics. I call this progress- and I see a direct line from the forbears mentioned above to where we are today.

Jazz, of course, is no longer the strict province of Americans (although most of its best practioners are still American). As it has become a music that is played all over the world, other nationalities are stamping jazz with their own imprimatur. There is a lot of interesting jazz composition coming from Europe now. Americans with a variety of ancestral roots also are stirring the pot, infusing their writing with their bloodlines. This year’s list of CMA New Works grantees includes individuals of Persian, Indian, Pakistani, Chinese and Cuban descent, all foraging for a new voice. In fact the very existence of the New Works Jazz Composition program helps illustrate my point—it fills a growing need, and a few years ago it did not exist.

Of course this multiplicity (or to use the word du jour, eclecticism) is also taking place in the classical world. Maybe there is a commonality between the “post-classical” adherents, as Kyle Gann recently described them (Reich, Lang, Adams, etc.) and a burgeoning “post-jazz” world.

Modern jazz composition has its pitfalls: in its more elaborate forms it consciously lives in two worlds, the spontaneous and intuitive, and the pre-ordained and immoveable. I maintain that bridging these worlds is amongst the greatest and most interesting challenges any composer can undertake. It is difficult to master one tradition, almost impossible to master two, and as far as I know the world has never known anyone who mastered three. I have found it incredibly hard to find the time and energy to equally serve the gods of improvising and writing, and my attempts to build a focused, personal sound have led me to stretch myself pretty thin. I felt it was necessary to study Western harmony, counterpoint, various formal 20^th century compostional techniques, all kinds of improvisation, American vernacular like rock, blues, and country, and to some degree African and Indian music. As a result it took me a quite a while to find my own sound. I always emphasize to students how the myriad choices in today’s musical world creates an altogether modern enigma. Too many choices can make writing music harder, not easier! You have to dig deep for the hidden treasures in any tradition with great patience, or your music can end up sounding superficial. A key to success is choosing ONE medium as your foundation. I am at heart a jazz musician, even when composing music with no improvisation. This insight serves to ground all my endeavors.

The time will come when a non-improvising string quartet or chamber orchestra will regularly share bills with a jazz group. Conservatory trained players will more commonly learn to improvise with authority, seamlessly moving between jazz and classical; jazz players in turn will increasingly share ideas with classical composers. The borders between black, brown and white will continue to be more porous. Other cultures will find increasingly fluid ways to enter and enrich the jazz tradition. As this happens it is possible that mainstream jazz, the kind that emulates the sound of the 50’s, will go the way of Vivaldi—deeply appreciated and studied, but less and less relevant to contemporary practice.

As jazz grows it may become less club-centered and more a concert music, and will need corresponding institutions to support it. Will it continue to lose some of its all-important “street sound”, and therein its African-American historicity? Perhaps so… all the “technique, theory, and history” that is accumulating in schools all over the world are, of course, meaningless without soul and roots. But traditions always change with time and we must have faith that the music will maintain its vitality. My hope is that as jazz composers proliferate, their groundbreaking work will enjoy the same level of attention, support, and prestige as their brethren in the classical world.

Joel Harrison

NY Times review Jan 10 gig

2010-01-21T09:40:00.000-08:00

Orange Mountain Music, Philip Glass’s record label, was founded in 2001 as an outlet for Mr. Glass’s archival and out-of-print recordings. But the label quickly began releasing Mr. Glass’s new works as well, and before long it was releasing discs by musicians in Mr. Glass’s ensemble and young composers who had caught his ear.

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Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

Artists From Philip Glass’s Orange Mountain Music Label From left, Tony Trischka on banjo, Foday Musa Suso on kora and the guitarist Joel Harrison, members of Fojoto String Band, at Le Poisson Rouge on Sunday.

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The label presented a few of its recent finds at Le Poisson Rouge on Sunday evening. Though Mr. Glass was present, he neither spoke nor performed, nor was any of his music played: the cellist Wendy Sutter was scheduled to play his “Songs and Poems” but withdrew because of illness.

The opening set was devoted to a suite from Trevor Gureckis’s soundtrack for “Les Adieux,” a score for piano, violin, cello and flute. Mr. Gureckis works as Mr. Glass’s musical assistant, but his boss’s influence is scarce: the three movements he offered here are built on mildly angular, light-textured piano themes, with the flute and string lines weaving intricate counterpoint around them. This is music with a Gallic urbanity, even in passages where the piano figures have an almost Webernian quality.

The guitarist and composer Joel Harrison was to have presented chamber works he is recording for the label, but those would also have required Ms. Sutter. So instead Mr. Harrison convened the Fojoto String Band, an improvisatory collaboration with Tony Trischka, the banjo player, and Foday Musa Suso, a virtuoso on the kora, an African string instrument that looks like a lute and sounds like a harp.

Mr. Harrison described the group’s music as African, Appalachian jazz, and that seemed about right. When Mr. Suso and Mr. Trischka provided the starting points for the ensemble’s extended explorations, they each drew on traditional styles and specific figurations associated with their instruments, yet when they played together, they created a texture so unified that it was often hard to separate them.

Mr. Harrison’s contributions, on acoustic and electric guitars, stood apart more clearly and often provided the impulse for the ensemble to shift directions and balances.

The trio was joined by the composer, pianist and percussionist Mick Rossi, who played a dumbek (a Middle Eastern drum) in most of the improvisations, and by the saxophonist Andy Laster and the percussionist Charles Descarfino for the wonderfully idiosyncratic arrangement of John Coltrane’s “Chasin’ the Trane” that closed the set.

Mr. Rossi was ostensibly on hand to promote his new recording, “Songs From the Broken Land.” But he played only one piece from that collection of solo piano works, the energetic, Bartokian “Lockdown.” He devoted the rest of his set to his appealingly supple jazz compositions, for an ensemble in which he was joined by Mr. Laster, Mr. Descarfino, Russ Johnson on trumpet and Kermit Driscoll on double bass.

2009-12-21T19:11:00.001-08:00

Reading an interesting discussion on Nate Chinen's blog, I added this comment:

I want to briefly weigh in with a quote from a recent article on Jazz composition I wrote for Chamber Music America Magazine: " We are arguably in the midst of radical changes, driven not by one defining genius but by many forward-thinking individuals all working at once. What I find interesting these days is not so much how people are soloing- it’s the new materials they’re being fed." The materials that the most interesting composers are using today...the force that motivates the improv...it's changing, growing at pretty great speeds. To me the single overriding factor in discussions about the identity of jazz is this: jazz is a set of practices that can be used in any context with any motivating set of notes and rhythms to work from. Many people today are finding extravagantly diverse building blocks for jazz music. It could be no other way. Those who invented jazz endowed it with qualities that embrqce all serious comers, no matter whether they want to color their sound with Indian music or Rock n' Roll. There are those who believe that jazz is a set of TRADITIONS- well yes, but it's more and many of the least interesting musicians of the year seem bound by tradition. As always the most interesting music turns tradition on its head without at all abandoning it. Joel Harrison

Youssou N' Dour and musical meaning

2009-06-07T17:25:00.000-07:00

Last night I saw Youssou N'Dour at BAM. It was one of the most emotional musical experiences of my life. It made me feel awe (again) at the undeniable, sublime power of music. His voice, and the phenomenal band he uses, penetrated me to the core. It got me thinking...

Some people are born masters- they have a gift which seems to come from beyond normal imagining. All the hard work and devotion in the world will never make a mere mortal into a Youssou N'Dour. His voice is the voice of all that is- pure, intense, shocking, completely unnerving, raw energy, immense beauty, destroying all defenses. Why and how are some people given the gift? What are we mortals to do, once we know that we cannot ever attain this native ability? We work, and learn to love our work, because of or despite this knowledge, spurred on by those farther up the mountain.

More to the point- the musicians in my milieu often speak in abstractions, in metaphor, in irony, indirectly. These things are part and parcel with our "post-modern" culture, the death of our religion, the emptiness of certain aspects of our culture. But a universal truth is that music can rise above all that is banal, distracting, disenfranchising. Isn't the point of music to bypass all defenses and deliver a direct blow to the heart? Youssou is completely one with his intent. One note and he can do this. (His religion is a big part of it). What is MY intent? What is the intent of modern jazz? I'm not sure there is one easily defined (though there may be many). Very little music at all blasts inside you like a dagger, with the clarity that N'Dour's brings. Many of us are searching, and may ALWAYS be, for that direct hit, beyond ideas, beyond our defense mechanisms, our fear, our need to couch what we are saying with a wink or a snigger. Many of us may believe in something and yet never come close to being able to convey it with the clarity with which N'Dour speaks of his family and griot history.

It's not easy: the struggle towards sublime beauty goes on. And that's what so odd. It IS a struggle, and yet its attainment gives one the feeling of perfect ease.

To me there is only one reason to make music: listen to Youssou N'Dour (live) and you get it. It's got nothing to do with the harmony or rhythm you choose, your religion or race. Rather it has to do with the context you place yourself in, and your ability to allow the listener to experience mystery, meaning, and the unfathomable treasure of simply being a human being.

Jaco

2009-04-12T10:34:00.000-07:00

I spent a couple of hours searching for jaco pastorius clips on youtube this morning

I remembered...

the feeling when as a 17 year old his solo cd came out, and my musician friends and I sat dumbfounded listening to Donna Lee- it was a once in a lifetime moment- and then I saw him with Weather Report in 1976. The sight and sound of him playing Purple Haze still resonates. He is to the electric bass what Hendrix was to the electric guitar.

Not coincidentally, he almost always quoted Hendrix in his solos. I had almost forgotten (how shall I say it) how "gorgeous" his rock star look was, and, like Jimi, how dangerous his playing was. And like all my favorite musicians, no matter what he did, it sounded beautiful. No matter how loud, funky, over the top, it remained lyrical and aspirational.

I decided to name a violin/ cello duo I am composing

"Jaco Pastorius Ascends to Heaven"

I suppose the title is both slightly comical and deadly serious- which is maybe what it felt like to try to play electric bass AFTER him.

More importantly- what heart the guy had...each of his notes consumes you.

Encores and random thoughts

2009-04-10T15:13:00.000-07:00

Can someone tell me why jazz bands always get asked to do an encore in Europe but rarely in the US. It really is a good feeling (even if they are pretending in Europe, which I trust they are not)

Nels Cline's new solo cd lays down the gauntlet. Any solo record is a devilish endeavor. Really hard to do. But he's inspired me...someday, in the not too distant future (before 2012 I swear)

I saw an American Masters PBS special on Philip Glass- he said a wonderful thing. Something to the effect of bringing together the worlds of Ravi Shankar and Nadia Boulanger in 1967, an idea so radical that he could be (in his words) "accused of being a complete idiot." And then he laughed and said, "well, I AM an idiot."

In the context of a serious, loving portrait of his music it was hilarious. I realized a little more deeply just how radical that idea was in 1967. And I enjoyed the humility in his recounting of the moment...

1960 Fender Telecaster

2008-12-01T11:53:00.000-08:00

This is one of the most magnificent guitars ever made. The bridge pick up is warm and full enough for any kind of jazz, while the neck pick up screams bloody murder when you step on it. It is tremendously beat up, looking like it was left in a barn for 12 years. I had Flip Scipio refret it. This Telly is simple, direct, subtle if need be yet warlike too. I have used it on bar gigs for Blues and Country for which it has no parallel. I also did some slide work on Passing Train, trying to give it a pedal steel sound. I've used it for solo jazz pieces. What I can't really do on it is play with the type of facility that I have on a Gibson. The shape of the neck, and the scale make it a little harder for me to get around, so it is left at home for a lot of hard core jazz gigs. I grew up in Washington D.C. with Danny Gatton as a huge influence. Everytime I pick up my Telly I think of him.

First Blog!

2008-09-07T13:48:00.001-07:00

Hi

This is my first blog! My first issue is this- I welcome anybody’s success stories vis a vis their usage of blogs, facebook, myspace, etc. I am told, by wise people, that these platforms, and all the time they take away from other pursuits, will help my career. While I am sure that some have found these virtual community-builders useful, I personally find them a little ridiculous, so far. I know what actual community feels like, and it is physical, having nothing to do with staring at a screen. The possible exception is myspace, where people can at least listen to my music, which is a good thing.
Folks, tell me your stories. Is Facebook, or Linked In, or Pulse Plaxo, or whatever bringing you work, sales, useful connections? Or is mostly a waste of time?

Onto other matters: I saw Bob Dylan in Prospect Park Brooklyn last month. I am a huge Dylan fan, and in general I am willing to forgive the occasional faults from someone who has given the music world so much. But this concert was unforgivably mediocre. The man’s voice is utterly shot. He has no range, and I mean NO range. He croaks, barely suggesting the melodies. The deep, creaky expressiveness on, say, Time Out of Mind, is gone. It was difficult to confront a man ruining his best work, like a great painter heaping a bucket of Benjamin White on his masterpiece. The guitarists, one in particular, were shockingly lame. Bad tone, bad phrasing, almost laughable. I’ve met 17 year olds who could have done better. How on earth is it possible that the great BOB DYLAN could not even realize he is playing with a hack? It mystifies me. Bob Dylan can’t even take the time to find a guitarist who doesn’t wreck his material! What’s the world come to?
Of course the sound was bad- and I should know by now that I am too old and mean to go to an outdoor show. I could barely hear the fine pedal steel/ banjo/ fiddle player.
There was one positive aspect to the show, and that’s the rhythm section. On the better tunes, “Like a Rolling Stone”, “Everybody Must Get Stoned”, they played with passion and authority. Unfortunately too many tunes came from the mediocre cd Modern Times (it's anything but modern) This cd is the type of thing that makes Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf’s spirits shriek. Bad 12 bar blues tunes played with no distinction, too many rambling words, not a single good solo, making one ache to hear the real source of Dylan’s troubled tributes. Hootchie Cootchie man, anyone?

Some years ago I attended a particularly off-putting concert by the great Ornette Coleman. I ran into dear, sweet, recently deceased Andrew Hill on the way out and began talking with him. I asked him what he thought of the show. He replied, rather delicately, that it had caused him to contemplate a question that felt very pertinent and personal- “When do you stop?” When does a great artist say, “I have done enough and I am no longer serving the music?” Clearly Andrew had considered this for himself. Of course he ended up doing some of his finest work at the end of his life.

No one has the right to suggest that any artist should give up, stop touring or playing. But what an ardent fan and intelligent listener can ask for is that the artist continue to exercise self-judgement. As we age can we still hear with the alacrity, professionalism, wisdom and zeal of our younger years? It is imperative that we never lose the capacity for self-reflection. Ironically this may be easier to do when you’ve never had success, as fame seems only to weaken the great. I have to say that in recent times I have heard Ornette play some of the most amazing saxophone playing of all time. So as self-appointed critic, I have to make sure not to judge anyone on one or two concerts.

By the way, if you want to check out my own attempts to try new things, please see my somewhat new song collection at www.passingtrain.com.