geographically positioned to score
In a bar-where-you-can-dance context, is there any more depressing sequence of songs than "I Will Survive"/"YMCA"? Then came "Daddy Cool" and things, believe it or not, started looking up. This Guardian article on non-anglophone pop reminds me of how fantastic Shakira's "La Tortura" is. Thank you, reggaetón!
The article also led me to this awesome Glukoza cartoon video. Corrupt-regime-as-pigs, Russian-pop-star-as-rebel-leader, all-out warfare in a mish-mashed retro-sci-fi setting, oink-oinks and an oompah beat: what more could you want?
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Nothing really new, but some interesting info in Dan Ouellette's "Digital sales boost indie jazz labels". A philosophical point by Thirsty Ear honcho Peter Gordon sums it up: "What a major label calls marginal, we call a hit. That's the cost of freedom."
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Another philosophical point from a totally different source, former model Inès de la Fressange on Belgian TV: "Tradition is interesting, what is certainly not interesting is convention." Rang true as, later, I listened to Eric Dolphy, but certainly all the greats performed this balancing/re-imagining act.
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TBP discover GPS. Does it not exist in the USA?
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"One of the great misconceptions of the arts is that an artist has to have a "tortured soul" to produce great work. If they haven't experienced suffering and hardship there's no point in listening to what they record, reading what they write, or looking at what they paint. The thing is that most artists could have done without the agony thank you very much.
"You see its not the artist's suffering that produces the great art. It's their sensitivity to the world around them that allows them to produce great art, which also causes their suffering. They feel too much in a society where to feel is to be shunned, end up being taken advantage of, and live a life of quiet desperation looking for some sort of relief."
- Richard Marcus reviewing a Billie Holiday album
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I bloglined myself and saw that I had 23 subscribers. Awesome! I've been using Bloglines for some months now, it has immeasurably improved my online life.
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The lastest Secret Society show is up at Darcy's. It wasn't until I read Steve Smith's Time Out NY pre-concert announcement that I realised that the then-4-now-5 concerts on the blog represented the DJA SS's entire performance history. The band was born in New York and worldwide almost simultaneously. Already, the staggered spires/spirals that open "Ritual" feel like old friends (and Sebastian Noelle's guitar solo on that tune is crazy. Is that Björk?) and newcomer "Induction Effect" is a welcome, quietly whirling, addition.
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Steve Smith's review of the above-recommended concert (as well as his ongoing, indefatigable classical coverage) made me wonder what the Ratliffs, Chinens and Davises of the world were waiting for (if any French/European jazz journalists blog, let me know). Some questions need to be answered: do the NY Times guys ever see anything other than first sets? Don't they feel like escaping the cookie-cutter feel of their newspaper's day-to-day coverage? It even seems to be dragging Kelefa Sanneh down: his old spark seems to have gone out, lately (addendum: he does bring the passion in this N.O. rap piece, even it's a compilation of things he's been saying for nearly a year). Mssrs. Smith, Ross, Reynolds, Gann, Ramsey, Wilson and many others have proven how complementary the two forms can be.
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"Odd" meters are so common. Do they still merit mention?
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"Women over 50 now buy almost twice as many albums as teenage girls and the charts are now reflecting their tastes."
- The BBC brings this big story. Mum-rock: thank you Tesco's!
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Tyshawn Sorey: it's cool that today, you can be 26, have a big afro, be known as a jazz drummer but also play Afro-American 12-tone piano improv. Unrelated, but see also Gabriel Kahane for some quietly harmonically daring piano/voice music. [via The Rest Is Noise]. I have yet to really delve into MySpace, perhaps principally because I find the format horrendous (but the media player is fantastic, as I prefer streaming over downloading). I kind of feel like I'm not seeing the elephant in the other room, though.
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"'You don’t want people to think you’re homeless,' [Jason Stuart] instructs. 'Though how could they, when I’m carrying around a $4,000 piece of wood? But they will. People are strange. They’re more inclined to tip you if they think you don’t need the money.'"
- In a nutshell, the basis for much of contemporary society. Howard Mandel on busking. [via Arts Journal]
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