Bird Up! The Charlie Parker Remix Project

[chris]

It's bricolage. Nothing wrong with it. It's like trends in poetry towards found poetry and collage and litanies composed of lines from other poems-- it's just a different kind of art that isn't about being a traditional musician. Sometimes it's interesting, sometimes it isn't. Judging them as lacking because they aren't playing instruments is unfair, in a sense, because whatever it is they are doing, it isn't trying to be a musician, just as a person "Creating" found poems or collages isn't exactly a poet anymore.

I don't like most found poems or collages either... but I don't see it as disrespectful. Like most here, I don't value that kind of creation as much, but I see no reason to get all up in arms about it.

Although I am constantly tempted to make a similar kind of argument about a lack of musicianship when it comes to some of the atrocious avant garde jazz that I have been exposed to. And then there is the whole problem of thinking that because something is unique or hasn't been done before this automatically confers some kind of value on the dissonant, flat, non-swinging crap these truly bad musicians play (and they can't even escape by claiming not to play the instruments at all like remixers can

[Leeway]

The December issue of Jazz Times has an article on the Bird remix project. There is a lot of interesting discussion about the project. Many of the criticisms voiced in this thread are addressed therein.

Matthew Backer organized the project. He says:

[danasgoodstuff]

I'm sure you didn't mean the empty Quote boxes as symbolism, but the're too perfect... Oh and I have listened to a little bit (as much as I could stand) at the listening station at Borders, some of Madlib's Bluenote thing too. Didn't do nothing for me.

Edited December 9, 2003 by danasgoodstuff

[Leeway]

                                                                                             

I'm sure you didn't mean the empty Quote boxes as symbolism, but the're too perfect

Nah, no symbolism, just not too good with some of the posting features on the board. Oops, I did it again. hey, maybe that IS symbolic B)

[Alec]

I haven't heard the Parker remix project, but I have heard both the "Verve Remixed" and the Madlib Blue Note projects. What I find most interesting about these projects is the discussions they engender.

The questions of what is scared, what is creation, what is 'art', what is respect, what is despoilment, etc., are all good, valid, and necessary.

I don't think there are right and wrong answers to these questions. Ask one and it only leads to more questions without answers.

We all have to deal with the past and embrace/reject/accomodate/re-classify it as we see fit. We are all archeologists who mine the past for things we can use in the future.

These remix projects remind me of the photomosaics. Half the fun of them is the ability to both explore the individual parts and then to step back and see the new image.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

or, if you are a cynic:

"When the world is running down, you make the best of what's still around" --Sting

I think that this remix phase is leading to something new---perhaps creating sound arraingers who are just as creative as those who make the sounds.

::stepping off box and returning to lurk mode::

[Rooster_Ties]

::stepping off box and returning to lurk mode::

Please post more, and lurk less. Word!!!

[Alexander]

I downloaded this from iTunes yesterday (so I only paid $9.99 for it, which is the most I was willing to spend on a "curiosity" such as this). I was VERY curious to see what the DJs would do with Bird. I have to say, I was unimpressed, but for different reasons than many of you might think. I'm not down on samples or remixes...quite the contrary, I think that these things embrace the very essence of jazz, and I think that their application in jazz is virutally unlimited. What disappointed me about "Bird Up" (and there were cuts that I liked, such as "Bebop," "Salt Peanuts" with the Kronos Quartet and Rob Swift and the X-Excutioners AMAZING turntable work on "Cheers") was the fact that the Parker samples were too often poorly integrated into the "new" compositions. Sample Bird, but please sample Bird WELL. The best tracks on this album created a sense of dialogue between the original recordings and the new settings. Alas, these moments were outweighed by some decent hip-hop occasionally interrupted by a totally out-of-place Parker sample (sometimes samples can tug against the groove, and that's a good use of a sample, but these sounded obligitory: "Oh, yeah. We're supposed to be remixing Bird, aren't we? Quick, drop a sample from "Koko" right here"). I don't think "Bird Up" went far ENOUGH. These DJs and producers should have been thinking, "If Bird were a hip-hop artist, what would he sound like?" This "Bird" just doesn't fly high enough for my tastes.

The best project of this kind that I've heard to date is still Bill Laswell's excellent "Panthalassa," which arguably IMPROVES on the original Miles Davis recordings (which were all cut-and-paste jobs anyway). The "Panthalassa" remixes were quite nicely done, too (Miles's seventies music anticipated hip-hop in a number of ways, so it works very well remixed). I haven't heard the Madlib project yet (I might get it from Napster or iTunes), but I'm heartened by the comments that it *doesn't* sound like a Blue Note rehash. The Us3 stuff was predictable in the extreme.

Edited December 22, 2003 by Alexander