emu sick

[The following is a true story, despite the annoying and hopefully temporary lack of photographic evidence]

Early this evening, I was walking a dog down a street I don't walk down very often, and happened to glance into someone's yard. I stopped. An emu walked over. Is it legal to have an emu as a pet? I stepped back, worried it might peck my eyes out or that the dog might attack the big bird.

The emu and I stood for a while, contemplating each other. The dog sat, but was equally attentive. As the few cars to go down this street passed by, I semi-attempted to draw the drivers' attention to the emu. "Have you seen this?!?!"

The emu, who was quite still the entire time, seemed a fairly amiable and non-aggressive fellow. As I walked away, it followed me on its side of the fence. A dog started barking, in the same yard. Apparently dogs and emus can cohabit.

top of the avantpops

An email I just got:

----

ELLERY ESKELIN NEWSLETTER
web site: http://home.earthlink.net/~eskelin/

Eskelin w/Parkins & Black Concert Videos on-line...
Just posted a number of concert videos of the band from our 2001
European tour appearance in Barcelona, Spain. They are available for
free streaming at google video. Included are:

1. One Great Day...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6238231473687968797

2. T64K37B
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4162162452320575983

3. Paris Swallowtail / Nymphaliadae
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8950518500868596748

4. India
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1129209851771062984

5. Mediation
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=665471029928519022

The Barcelona video was professionally shot by a crew with several
cameras and artfully edited. For best sound I would suggest using
headphones or listening on a good set of speakers as opposed to the
small ones in your computer. Thanks to Arco y Flecha for the
production.

Also included are a couple of 1999 out-takes of Eskelin & Parkins from
the film "Off the Charts - The Song Poem Story" by Jamie Meltzer.

6. "Yummy Yummy Dum Dum" (version one)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5524359523099878745

7. "Yummy Yummy Dum Dum" (version two)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6382421039558055890

This selection is from our 1996 CD "Green Bermudas" (eremite). Thanks
to Jamie for the use of these clips.

Lastly is a trailer from the band's 2004 DVD "On the Road..." narrated
by my son Rami Eskelin. I probably should have made this trailer at
the time of the DVD release but better late than never, eh?

8. DVD trailer
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8274449157158470890


Upcoming recording by the band...
Since the 2004 release of the band's last recording, "TEN", we've
accumulated quite a bit of new music. So this past spring during our
European tour we took a couple of days to record in one of France's
finest studios, "la Buissonne" in Avignon. The result will be "Quiet
Music", a double CD package set for release in October on my own label,
prime source. In addition to myself, Andrea Parkins and Jim Black we
are joined by vocalist Jessica Constable and keyboardist Philippe Gelda
on selected tracks.

There will be a more detailed newsletter to follow in October upon the
release of "Quiet Music". In the meantime, the web site is always
updated with upcoming appearances and tours:
http://home.earthlink.net/~eskelin/

As always, recordings can be obtained from the site:
http://home.earthlink.net/~eskelin/order.html



Next appearance by the band...

Ellery Eskelin w/ Andrea Parkins & Jim Black

55 Bar
55 Christopher Street
New York City
Sunday, August 13th / two sets at 10 pm
www.55bar.com


if you're in NYC then please stop by...

to be removed from the list please reply with "remove" in the
subject...thanks


EE

topped off

I watched the last-ever Top Of The Pops yesterday, which, fittingly, was as anti-climactic as almost every other TOTP episode I've seen (I'm not a regular viewer). The choice of archival full-length videos seemed to have been made in five minutes, yielding results probably slightly worse than a totally random selection. Not that any particular selection was terrible, it was more of a general "42 years, and this is what you come up with?" feeling. Maybe that's for the best: digging out the truly historic TOTP performances (whatever they may be) would have lent the show a gravitas it studiously avoids, most of the time.

Things that struck me:

1. The Spice Girls' "Wannabe" performance is great precisely because it's only a very small step above an end-of-year high-school performance. I actually enjoyed it far more than the Rolling Stones and David Bowie clips.

2. The juxtaposition of Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe" and Beyoncé's "Crazy In Love" was (unintentionally?) brilliant, despite Jay-Z's absence.

Apart from Jimmy Savile's shiny gold jumpsuit and impressive pot-belly, that's about it. It was a slow sunday.

+

Bagatellen has a nice list of YouTube links.

+

Friday's happiness recipe:
Gather friends in garden.
Drink several glasses of IVN's mojito.
Accompany BBQ'ed meat with taboulé and, especially, salmon/aubergine pasta (and wine, of course).
Fuel late-night discussion with Bacardi and Coke.

Suikerrock 2006, day 3 - 29/07/2006, Tienen

Tienen is one of those places that you have to know both French and Dutch names of if you're hoping to find it on a map, as it's Tirlemont in French. Road signs will switch from one language to another (Liège -> Luik, Mons -> Bergen) without warning.


The singer announced "This next song is by Christina Aguilera. It's called 'I eat Britney's shit.'" I was disappointed: I'd hoped for a "Ain't No Other Man" cover. The set started out fairly metal, but became more straight-forwardly rock as it wore on, which the crowd appreciated. They ended with the only song I recognised, "Diane," (because I heard it on the radio a few days ago) after having played "Die Laughing" "In honour of Syd Barrett. [crickets] Who died last week. [crickets] Big deal in Belgium." The bassist played shiny silver basses and spitted acrobatically. "Adios, motherfuckers."



Heather Nova

The main reason for our presence. Logically, she brought her rock band rather than the chamber group we saw last time. She didn't disappoint, her eyes distant and melancholic, even when rocking out.

The final sequence of "All I Need" (slow 12/8 quasi-soul) and "Sugar" (all-out rock, topped off with a great solo by the lead guitarist) was particularly good (and particularly well-suited to a festival called Sugar Rock). The lead guitarist's every gesture was that little bit cooler, simply because she was a woman, even if she was built like a trucker.








Freeform Five

Apparently, a studio/remixing project gone live. None of the five people on stage looked like nerdy studio types, least of all the two far-too-good-looking male and female singers. Pleasant, in a little bit of dance, little bit of rock, little bit of rap kind of way.

The Human League

Like opening a time capsule and being reassured that, yes, the 80s really were exactly as you remember. They even had three of those strap-on keyboards, which, unfortunately, I didn't get to see on stage all at the same time. The only thing added to the capsule was a Mac laptop, as resplendently white as the rest of the stage set. After a handful of songs, we closed the time capsule.



The Go Go Prophecy

A singer roaming the stage in front of a keyboardist/guitarist and laptop guy huddled in a cubicle. The second song consisted first of a cool, hoarsely shouted verse over a thudding beat, with lyrics that made me think "This is such a MySpace band" ("What's your sign/What's your colour" etc.) and second of a terrible sing-song, guitar-strum chorus that confirmed it ("From virgin smile to porno slut/From DIY to Web Web Web", "Cruising on the Internet"). Inexplicably, this song is not on their MySpace profile. They did play "Cannot Touch My Candy" and "Undercover," though.

The announcer came out afterwards and declared TGGP "100 times better than The Human League," which they certainly were, at least on the tiny "new talent" stage. Far from great, but very loveable, which sometimes is more important. IVN, O and I were hardcore fans by the end. Admittedly, my enjoyment was greatly enhanced by the very sexy girl dancing a few steps in front of me.




Praga Khan

We went into this one in "we'll stay a bit if it doesn't suck" mode, but ended up watching the whole set. I'm not much of a techno fan, but thanks to thorax-rattling sound, a mixture of electronics and live instruments and a couple of wild, sexy dancers, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I may even go to a rave someday. Weirdly, PK's leader is from Tienen, which seemed a very unremarkable, sleepy town.



Peripheral entertainment

Coca-Cola nurses (pictured above) giving out massages, a couple of P Magazine models posing for pictures with passing males (I convinced IVN to get a photo with them, I think she was the only girl to do so), Cointreau cocktails and a Superman-themed monster truck crushing a Jaguar, among other sights and sounds.

woe is me

The ABCs of the Romantic artist

For a long time, it seems, being a great artist — a “skilled manual worker,” as Samuel Johnson put it — was enough. For Bach and Mozart, for Rembrandt and Titian, even for Shakespeare, their art was their job. Their output was valued, but in a social order dominated by church, royal court and wealthy patrons, their standing was not high.

Then came the Romantic movement, and with it, artists turned from pleasing the world to indulging themselves: they rebelled against conventions, proclaimed their uniqueness, disdained the bourgeoisie as philistine, savored their own melancholy and formed cliques. Many also chose a bohemian lifestyle to exhibit their otherness.

Flaubert's skewering of Romanticism, when he turns Madame Bovary's suicide - the ultimate Romantic gesture - into a farce, is hilarious. There have been others:

In truth, this was already such a cliché that around 1839 a mischievous Spanish artist, Leonardo Alenza y Nieto, painted his “Satire on Romantic Death,” which portrays a crazed-looking artist as he leaps from a cliff, dagger in hand, leaving behind his sword, writings and a poet’s laurel on a cross. In the background, two other artists have already committed suicide, one by hanging, another by gunshot.

And yet, the Romantic artist continues to be one of the dominant ways of thinking about creative people. Shuffle over to the music section to see it in action, in Kelefah Sanneh's article on DMX.

you're weird

What makes me laugh about Weird Al Yankovic's "You're Pitiful" is the "did I start too early?" bit. I never did get that about the original.

[via ThinkSong]

i don't remember trains being mentioned in music theory class

Great video on the making of a record circa 1937, featuring Duke Ellington. The narration is priceless.

[via Do The Math]

bridge over troubled pond

visionsong has joined the fray:

Americans, especially black Americans feel a justified feeling of ownership of jazz, and I can see how seeing E.S.T get press in the New York Times ahead of Marcus Strickland or whoever can hurt. It’s not necessarily a rational emotion, but it’s a pretty understandable one.

Second, the roots of jazz are, above all else, African rhythm. Traditionally, jazz has been what one of my teachers calls “gut music”, connected to a groove that you feel in your loins. Groove is the main connecting line in all American black music, from Louis Armstrong to Bessie Smith to Ornette to Fats Domino to Prince. (Yet another reason the JALC crowds’ rejection of fusion is so absurd, but I digress…)... When I think about the “Euro-jazz” albums I go back and listen to a lot, groove is not the main reason I listen to them.

So in a way, this is an argument about cultural ownership and nomenclature more than it is about music.

Note that Ken Waxman's column at One Final Note is called Unamerican Activities. Tongue in cheek, sure, but still indicative of something.

danger, danger mouse!

The Notorious B.I.G. + Gnarls Barkley = hard to say

[via On The Download]

the empty foxhole, filled again

It only took a few weeks for Destination: Out to make itself indispensable. It's now cemented its place in jazz blog history: drop everything and go download three tracks from Ornette Coleman's recent three-bass Carnegie Hall concert.

I'll admit to near-total ignorance of Coleman's career beyond the early stuff, so I was grateful for D:O's first Coleman installment. His tone at Carnegie, though, is incredible, as classic and delicious as any you could care to name, starting with Johnny Hodges. Sound Grammar should be great.

the hard e-sell

Chuck Mitchell, a former head of Verve/Polygram, writes to Rifftides:

I'm unconvinced that there is enough consumer demand for most deep jazz catalog to justify continued CD manufacturing and retailing in conventional stores. When I was running Verve/Polygram in the mid-to-late 90s, there was a good deal more stability in the jazz reissue and catalog market than there is now, and we still had to work hard to convince retailers to hold more titles of slow sellers...

That began to change in 1996-7, as stores became saturated with product of all kinds, and we started to see a radical escalation in returns. Things kept getting worse from there. The record industry would have you believe it's all about downloading, but many other factors have brought the CD business to where it is now, beginning with outrageous pricing in an attempt to rescue a bad-margin business. The simple fact is that most catalog titles don't turn over fast enough to justify the retailers' cost of doing business, starting with real estate and shipping costs... if it was tough to sell Dizzy a decade ago, how does it make sense to try to get Chubby into whatever stores are left today?

Which makes the "long tail" of digital distribution the only hope for the continued existence of the highways and the back roads of the riches of our recorded musical archives.

ready ornette

After The Roots, something else to look forward to: Ornette Coleman's Sound Grammar. After all the ecstatic live reviews of his two-bass band, apparently the album doesn't disappoint. Phil Freeman says:

his new album is just as brilliant and beautiful as you're hoping it will be. It's live from last year, with the two-bass band he's been traveling with since '03, and...well...it's hard to describe just how fucking awesome it is. It's called Sound Grammar, it comes out on 9/12, and if you don't buy it, there's no excuse you can offer - I just don't want to be your friend anymore.

There's some more info in a USA Today blurb:

"Sound Grammar is to music what letters are to language," says Coleman, 76, who is launching his own Sound Grammar label with this release. "There are only 12 notes, but they are used by everyone to compose and sing."

The album showcases eight Coleman compositions, including a remake of Song X, the title of a 1985 album, and Turnaround, from 1959's Tomorrow Is the Question.

"What is unique about this record is that the melody and the playing are all equal in relationship to ideas," he says.

Coleman's current publicity boiler-plate is here. Looking up those Coleman quotes, I found a possible, but probably remote, reason why TBP have been hanging out with Ornette lately: they have the same publicist

roots play again

Lately, I've been wondering about The Roots. Namely, has let's-save-the-music ideology overtaken innovation? Do You Want More and Illadelph Halflife represented a phase of ambitious sharpening and tightening, which culminated in Things Fall Apart. Phrenology sprawled and reached for new things, just as ambitiously. The Tipping Point's back-to-basics, quasi-preservationist drive seems to have devolved into blandness, at least on Game Theory's first single, "It Don't Feel Right." Even the rock edge of "Long Time" doesn't really help: the chorus is weak (but the backing on the verses is nice), Black Thought is enjoyable, but doesn't really bring anything new (but Peedi Crack's verse injects some energy). Hopefully it'll all sound better in the context of the album (not to mention on CD rather than on a lo-fi MP3), which the singles from The Tipping Point certainly did.

It's not like I was ever not going to buy the new album (I mean, I have Organix, the From The Ground Up and The Legendary EPs, the two-CD edition of Come Alive and both volumes of Home Grown! The Beginner's Guide To Understanding The Roots), but Status Ain't Hood has unexpectedly heightened my expectations. However, his last sentences ("I wouldn't call it a masterpiece, but Game Theory is certainly a triumph for the Roots, a breakthrough to a new sensibility. They're onto something special here, and I hope they keep going with it.") show he still has a little ways to go to understand this band.

Is it plausible that someone in the Roots' camp will stumble across Ulrich Beck and the next album will end up being called Risk Society?

of jazz blogs and dictators

J.B. Spins mixes jazz and right-wing politics. J.B. does a lot of reviews of jazz-related books and films, which is unusual and refreshing. His writing is matter-of-fact and concise.

The jazz and the politics regularly cross paths. For example, in a discussion of Bobby Previte's Coalition Of The Willing. I don't share much political ground with J.B. (or his appraisal of Previte's cover art), but I've long wondered what Che t-shirts (not a new phenomenon) were supposed to mean. Even more puzzling is when his effigy is brought to peace rallies. At the same time, I've never seen anyone wear a Martin Luther King, Jr. or Gandhi t-shirt. Those t-shirts must surely exist, but I've never seen any and I'm certain that they aren't fashion icons.

A few weeks ago I was surprised - maybe even shocked - to see bags with Mao's face printed on them in a shop window. Che's rebel cachet is understandable, but why would anyone want to flaunt Mao? Who next, Stalin? Franco? Pinochet? Idi Amin? Pol Pot? (actually, that one might not be too far off) Put bloody dictators from all continents in your wardrobe, collect them all!

fatha and brothers

A couple of pictures from a series on Slate.

[via UniBrow]

newton and miles

Nat Hentoff joins the Miles Davis R&RHoF induction debate (remember that?), mainly responding to Ben Ratliff's article.

Recently, hearing a radio interview with one of my favorite musicians regardless of genre—Toots Thielemans—my inability to salute Miles Davis as a rock and roller became more meaningful, at least to me. Toots has worked with Charlie Parker, Bill Evans, Zoot Sims, Quincy Jones, Oscar Peterson and many other jazz creators—as well as with Paul Simon, Billy Joel and other non-jazz performers. But he said in the interview, whatever the gig, “My center of gravity is jazz.” While Miles Davis could never purge his music of jazz—nor would he have wanted to—the performances that resulted in his becoming, posthumously, a member of rock royalty, did not have jazz at their center of gravity.

Lots of those Hentoff columns are worth reading. In April, he pre-empted my little Euro-US discussion. A year ago, he recounted some fascinating Clark Terry anecdotes.

fluffy (i want you)

I kind of feel like someone who's written ten symphonies, but is best remembered for an advertisement jingle. Okay, that's gross hyperbole. Had I known that kittens would get me my first NewMusicBox appearance and lots of first-time commentors (welcome!), I'd have done it a long time ago. After all, if Alex Ross can, why can't I? Not to worry: upon further reflection, I won't be converting wholesale to Hallmark-worthy clichés.

Initially, the kitten project was much more ambitious: a Feline Big Brother, with readers voting on which kitten to keep and which to kick out, as well as choosing a name for the winner. Regular photos and videos of their progress would have been posted. Too much trouble, as it turned out. It's probably best for them not to become media stars at such a young age, anyway. I'll now be returning to the real cats, like those who play on Ascenseur pour l'échafaud.

i'd already guessed he didn't come from canada

Doug Ramsey (for whom, I hasten to add, I have much respect for), provides an example of the caricatural treatment European jazz often receives:

Magris is one of those European artists so steeped in jazz that in a blindfold test a listener--no matter how perceptive--would be unlikely to conclude that he was hearing somone not from the United States

sibling rivalry

Many naming suggestions have rolled in. To show my appreciation, here's a pretty good idea of what the two brothers spend half of their time doing (the other half is spent sleeping). Ours is the lighter of the two.

A warning for sensitive readers: there is a disturbing moment in which ass-kicking turns to ass-licking.

night of the amsterdamned

Friday July 21 was the 176th birthday of Belgium's creation. To celebrate, we decided to drive to Amsterdam. IVN and I disagreed as to whether the last time we went was in 1997 (me) or 1999 (IVN). Any credibility those memoirs I was planning to write might have had is now lost.



Hotel rooms there are expensive, so we ended up spending the night in a rather funky camping site on the city's eastern edge.



We rented a couple of bikes. Definitely the best way to see this city, despite the blazing heat on Friday and the brief, unexpected downpour on Saturday. The backpedal braking system is kind of treacherous.



For those less motivated, the leisure of cycling can be combined with the effortlessness of driving.



This trip was totally unprepared, so we simply bought a map and cruised the canals, did some shopping and napped in the Vondel Park, Amsterdam's equivalent of Central Park, until the rain chased us away.







Of course, there's more to Amsterdam than pretty canals, H & M and the Indonesian restaurant on Spuistraat. There are museums and the red light district as well. We didn't do any of the former, but did pedal through the latter Saturday morning on our way to a neighbourhood market. Understandably, Saturday morning is not the district's finest hour: apart from a few unsavoury stragglers, we did cross the path of a stag party. I assume the bridegroom was the one wearing nothing but sandals and a jock strap.



Modern dutch design and architecture are formidable. The cars parked outside the appartment blocks in the northern dock area indicated that they were not social housing. The barrier (I have no idea what it was) outside of Utrecht, which we passed on the highway, also deserves mention.



The same docks area also houses some upscale interior design shops. Upscaleness doesn't guarantee taste, though.


Decades of bloody dictatorship, but at least they got a snappy name out of it (translates to Pol's Pots, Pol being a common first name or nickname).

I tried to fit some jazz into our Friday night by going to the BimHuis (another architectural marvel). I didn't know any of the participants, but they sounded good from the entrance. Still, I felt too sweaty and stinky from a full day's worth of driving, cycling and shopping in crushing heat to be truly comfortable in the BimHuis's rarefied atmosphere. The night before, Ahmad Jamal's trio had played there. I would have stunk up the place for that. Instead, we hung out on the waterfront underneath the building for a while, which allowed me to watch (from a distance) Beyoncé's BET Awards performance on some guy's Mac laptop. Without the sound, it was awesome. I don't like "Déjà Vu," but the visuals remain awesome. YouTube has it in very lo-res.