Stuff about Jazz

 

BBC 4 did one of its intermittent Jazz evenings last Friday. A repeat of the excellent Miles Davis documentary 'Birth of the Cool' and a revival of the Jazz 625 concert series featuring Sons of Kemet, Nubya Garcia and the rest of what I'm sure will be called the New Wave of British Jazz at some point (NWOBJ?). There was also a history of Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, and the man himself. You can find the programmes here and they are all worth a watch.

Back in the summer I bought a collection of Jazz CDs, about 400 of them. I bought this on the strength of a pile of Blue Note and similar discs. I'm writing up a longer price about this collection and collecting in general, but for now one of the areas that I knew relatively little about was British Jazz of the 50s and 60s. I had always had this down as very much a copy of American music of the period, and hadn't explored names like Tubby Hayes, Peter King, Tony Kinsey, and Ronnie Scott himself. Wrong. One of the interesting things about British Jazz of the time is that it didn't reject earlier forms of the music quite as completely as the Americans did. Ronnie Scott kept the lyrical tone of Ben Webster and Coleman Hawkins adding it to Be Bop rather than subtracting it in favour of a full-on Parker style note storm. So, I’ve been listening to it, and a lot more of the British Jazz has ended up on the iPod than I thought might.

To connect back to the BBC4 evening, the original creator of this collection had some clear preferences, piano trios, Stan Getz, the West Coast “cool” Jazz of the mid 50s, and trumpeters. Lee Morgan was clearly a favourite and you can’t fault him for that, Donald Byrd, Humphrey Lyttleton, and many others. One name is strikingly absent from the list, apart from one ropey compilation. Miles. Given the breadth of the dark magus’ work surely there must be something that appealed. Anything recorded after about 1970, or sounding like it had at any rate, is missing from the collection. But that leaves the Prestige albums and the early Columbia records all of which he would surely have enjoyed?

Anyway, all this will prompt a few more posts about Jazz, simply because I’m listening to a fair bit of it at present, and this is after all a blog about what I’m playing on the iPod…

  

Ambient - instrumental in my wellbeing...

I spoke briefly about ambient music and Soundscapes a few weeks back. Sat here on a Sunday morning with a bit of a headache (from being in front of a screen too long) I’m listening to one of the pieces that helps me relax and achieve a stiller mind. Robert Fripp’s ‘At the End of Time’.

The best version of this, in my view, was from a performance, better a recital, at Wulfren Hall Wolverhampton in December 2005. One of the things that I find with Fripp’s Soundscapes is that they are “immersive”. You can lose yourself in them and come out refreshed, and for me at least, approaching the world in a calmer, more reflective state.

“Robert Fripp's "Music for Quiet Moment" series… will be releasing an ambient instrumental soundscape online every week for 50 weeks. Something to nourish us and help us through these Uncertain Times.” I was surprised to find this is up to week 28. If you’ve bought all of these (as I have) then you have something like 3 hours of music that does exactly what it says on the tin. I have had M.E. in varying degrees of severity for the last 25 years, and one of my strategies for helping with pacing my life is music like Soundscapes. I remember playing the ‘At the End of Time’ mentioned above when my Dad passed away and finding a measure of consolation from allowing this music to wash over me.

It’s not just Fripp though. Bill Nelson has produced some fine ambient albums, but his music tends to be more “active” than Fripp’s. ‘Altar Pieces’ is a fine ambient album, although the found sound voices disrupt the mood a bit for me. ‘Model Village’ and ‘All That I Remember’ are probably the places to start with instrumental Nelson, and then just get all the rest.

The found sound aspect of Bill’s work is also there in Virginia’ Astley’s ‘From Gardens Where we Feel Secure’ where the sounds of the English countryside mix with piano and clarinet to produce something surprisingly rich and textured. I mentioned Cloudland Blue Quartet’s recent ‘4^th May 2020’ previously, and it remains a favourite on the iPod at present. I haven’t explored as far into David Reilly’s work as I would like yet, but having auditioned several of his albums on Bandcamp, ‘Through The Day’,  and the “guitarscapes” of ‘Disquietmusik’ feel like the places to start. They seem to combine the immersive quality of Fripp and the slightly harder edge of Nelson, which works for me. There is another more song-based aspect to his music that I have yet to touch at all.

Cloudland Blue Quartet’s music drifts into the world of Modern Classical music at times, something I’m fairly new to but finding things like Philip Glass’s ‘Low Symphony’ interesting. I have an album of Steve Reich’s Six Pianos & Terry Riley’s Keyboard Study #1 which , this area feels like a subject for further exploration. As does Brian Eno. I saw a concert by Brian Eno and Joanna MacGregor, possibly 10 years or more ago at Bath Abbey where he did part of Music for Airports. I’ve tried Fripp and Eno’s albums, but not Eno’s ambient albums on his own. Where to start?

The Weather Station - single review

Tamara Lindeman, otherwise, The Weather Station, has been pigeonholed in the folk world so far despite regularly pulling in elements of indie pop, and other sounds. Having signed with Fat Possum records she has taken the opportunity to make a sharp turn in her sound. 

Saxophone is the dominant voice, and the washes of sound that have characterised her work (particularly on the album Loyalty) are supplied mostly by organ rather than strings or acoustic guitar. Far more percussion heavy than much of her music, 'Robber' could be the work of Mazzy Star, Radiohead or even Cowboy Junkies in places. The sound is more unsettling than her previous work and of the video, her first as a director, she says “From an emotional and mood standpoint, I wanted the video to feel like how 2020 does to me; steeped in a sort of omnipresent unease and a threat of distant violence, even as life goes on”.

Watch it a few times and then buy the single, and I’m sure I don’t need to say do that from Bandcamp.

 

 

Judee Sill

 

 I wrote about Judee Sill over at Americana UK. recently. For me she is one of the great unique voices in music. If you don't know her you should Read my piece HERE

Eddie van Halen

The first guitar magazine I ever bought, Beat Instrumental, had an interview with a hot new guitar star that suggested there was life beyond punk. Later in 1978 I saw Van Halen blow Black Sabbath off the stage of The Bristol Hippodrome. The first album mingles hard rock and punk better than any band except Motorhead. Reading Eddie van Halen talk about Allan Holdsworth lead to Bruford's 'One of a Kind' and the first U.K. album and then on to Holdsworth's solo work and into Jazz Rock and most other sorts of Jazz. Reading Steve Lukather's self serving autobiography he minimises Van Halen's role on  Beat It, which is rubbish, it's one of the iconic guitar solos. Reading Thomas Dolby's memoir he talks about becoming friends with Eddie van Halen who contributed to his excellent 'Astronauts and Heretics' album.

And now he's gone, from Cancer aged 65. A tweet from the band Pearl Jam says "changed everything and played with soul". That is probably a pretty decent legacy. His finest moment below.

 

Enough!

Visiting the Twitter this morning, my colleagues at Americana UK had retweeted a royalty statement published by Alec Bowman to show what he had earned from 25,000 streams of his music. I hope Alec won't mind me re-posting it here, but it highlights the single biggest problem facing the music industry at present. Now I have talked before about the fact that music is mostly a cottage industry these days, and if you want to be able to listen to the huge amount of amazingly good music that is being quietly turned out by people all over the world then you need to put your hand in your pocket. If you're looking at this and thinking "well Spotify are doing better than everyone else that's OK I'll support them," look again. If this is 25,000 plays Spotify are paying Alec £0.000446 per stream. that is four one thousandths of a penny. 

Now I wasn't familiar with Alec Bowman's music until today, but it is sort of indie folk rock of the finest. Start with his song 'Safe Mode' and then just buy the whole album, which I shall be doing in a minute or two - from Bandcamp. Bandcamp are quite transparent about the costs and benefits of dealing with them. Effectively the artist pays 10% off the top of each sale. CD Baby were until recently an alternative but they have closed their shop and now focus on distributing to the streaming services, and internet radio. A possible alternative to CD Baby is Distrokid, suggested by Bandcamp if you really must be on the streaming services. But beware the comment of a Reddit user. Distrokid costs about $20 per release...

"Just know that getting a return from those services is HARD. Making back the Distrokid costs in a year from Spotify streaming is pretty difficult. I didn't move to streaming services until my second or third release"

Rant over - for now. 

Cloudland Blue Quartet

Thoughts of Bandcamp enables me to correct an omission. I haven't talked about Cloudland Blue Quartet here yet. I love the Soundscapes of Robert Fripp, the ambient music of Constance Demby, and much of what Brian Eno produces. David Reilly, Mr Quartet, is easily their equal. A release that I had to my shame missed until today was '4th May 2020'. Years ago I had thought of using found sounds from Shortwave Radio in pieces. i never did anything about it and wouldn't have the talent to make it work anyway. On this album David makes it work and along with field recordings made around the date of the title and music that builds through the three movements producing a dense soundscape by the end of the third. Needs to be heard on headphones which I haven't been able to do yet. My favourite albums are Aftersilence  - Soundscapes and Disquietmusik II. This music will take hold of your soul. 

I'll come back to Soundscapes in general and Cloudand Blue Quartet in particular soon, but a last thought, and one I've made in several posts recently. "Name Your Price" on Bandcamp does not mean as little as you can get away with. It means a decent amount. I start at £5 and you should too.

Join the Club? - Not likely!

I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member - Groucho Marx 

One of the more interesting musical events of recent years was the induction of Yes into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Looking at the videos on You Tube the antagonism and resentment shimmers like a heat haze around the stage. In terms of progessive rock and 70s music Yes matter so it is a shame that it took until after the death of Chris Squire who was very much keeper of the Yes flame for the whole life of the band. They would, I feel,  have been entitled to follow Stella McCartney's slightly grumpy line. When her father, Paul in case you you weren't sure, was inducted as a solo act she went to the show wearing a tee shirt saying "About Fucking Time". And who's to argue with her. 

Artists become eligible for nomination into the hall 25 years after the release of their first record. Nominations are by committee with ballots being sent to 1000 "rock experts" to decide who gets the golden ticket. The 2020 inductees are

• Depeche Mode
• The Doobie Brothers
• Whitney Houston
• Nine Inch Nails
• The Notorious B.I.G.
• T. Rex

But what is far more interesting are the people who despite being eligible for many years have never been given the nod. 

Kraftwerk -  The most glaring omission. How? Why? 

Pat Benatar - OK so you may not be that fond of her music but she has as much reason to be there as  
                       many acts far younger and selling far less well. She is huge, still, in the USA. 

Iron Maiden - Again a hugely popular act, with no support from radio, TV or the erst of the industry. 

The Smiths - Another How? Why? because they are British and Morrissey can be a bit of a prat.

Not being white, male or American is not quite the bar it once was... Whitney Houston was clearly token woman and B.I.G token person of colour in 2020. Given where "Rock & Roll" came from this was unacceptable 30 years ago, and is way beyond the pale now. Nominated but not selected in these groups. Carol King, Esther Phillips, Mary Wells, Ben E. King and Chic. Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards are not in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Seriously?

The chances that this institution continues to have any relevance to anything are slim. But it would be nice to see some of these creators of great music get noticed before they bulldoze the whole sorry edifice.