AllenLowe

it's all history, and I don't expect other people to have the same degree of obsession as I have with the details, aesthetic and otherwise. The other thing I would note is that I understand that when someone attacks something that you admire, it feels personal. It's not, but I know it's an unavoidable response.

thank you. Maybe we have reached an understanding.

after the back and forth about Jason Moran's JR Europe mess I wanted to post our recording of Castles in the Sand, my JR Europe reference, with me on tenor, Kellin Hannas on trumpet, Ken Peplowski on clarinet, Aaron Johnson alto and Lewis Porter on piano. To me, the key is to ignore re-creation and instead get into the spirit of what those 1913 musicians were just discovering:

once again the point is being missed - I ENCOURAGE re-interpretation; listen to my own music. But that re-interpretation either has to give us a new and interesting perspective, or it has to somehow capture the spirit of the music in a parallel way. As for Sonny, well, bad bands are bad bands. Clearly in the Milestone years he saw his chance to establish a commercial beachhead, which he did; fine, it is his right. But that doesn't mean we as listeners have to accept everything he did. It's called critical judgement; though it is funny, here you are arguing for Jason's right to play whatever he wants, but telling those of us who were not fond of the Sonny Milestone era that we have no right to our opinion. What's wrong with this picture? thank you for taking the time to tell me my multiple and very-specific posts on what is wrong with Moran's interpretation lack "insight" and are pejorative.

it's been a little while, I will go back and check them out.

I have sent him emails - not contentious ones, but about other subjects - that he doesn't respond to, which is ok and expected, though I do consider myself to be a peer. But my larger assumption is based on dealing - and trying to deal - with people at that level of fame. I think it breeds a certain sense of un-touchability, a desire not to have to deal with unpleasant disagreements, and an ability to avoid those disagreements just because you can. And honestly, I don't have the energy to make any more futile efforts; it's next to impossible to get in touch with famous people and I am too old and have enough pride (not a lot but enough) to not want to face predictable rejection.

I am sorry but I feel that this completely misses the point. Of course Jason can play it any way he wants, but that doesn't free him from any judgement that someone may make that he is misunderstanding the music and the idiom. Yes, if he gave an alternative that made sense, that would be a good thing, but he has turned a very free and liberated music into one that is walled in by muddle-class inhibition and a snowflake-like over-sensitivity to racial style and context. I am NOT arguing that it is un-idiomatic; I am arguing that it is dull and denatured and has lost the feeling and essence of the original - which he was trying to preserve in what I think is a very misguided way. You disagree, fine, but you cannot deflect criticism by saying that the artist has the right to do the material his or her own way. No one is arguing for censorship. And I wasn't comparing the musical choices to MAGA - I was simply saying we have this double standard. We hold people's political decisions to certain principled standards based on information and historical perspective, and that is what I am doing musically here. If anyone is put off by my way of arguing - and I have attacked no one here personally - then they can counter my argument. I give my opinion and then I outline my reasons for having that opinion. If you are put off by that, well....you just don't, in my opinion, have a real sense of the necessity of intellectual give-and-take. It's not personal; I think that when someone pretends to be delving into history by merely reproducing a very middle class and "respectable" interpretation of something that was, actually, quite respectable and even middle class - but the middle class of 1913 and not the middle class of 2023 - then there is a problem and I feel like someone needs to speak for these musicians who cannot speak for themselves. Yes, that's my opinion. I am not advocating that anyone be forced to accept it (btw I am about to teach a 16 part course on this for Lincoln Center, and it's free, so anyone who wants to get a better understanding of my perspective is welcome to attend by Zoom). he will never go public with this kind of discussion, which I would love to have. The reason is that he doesn't have to. I am a mere fly spec on the ass of the universe for people like him, who, at that level, do not need to engage with anyine to justify their own positions. All they have to do is give a monologue.

My point with the Trump comparison is that when it comes to politics, we are critical of people who make judgements with insufficient evidence or information. To me there are particular kinds of music, historically based, that require a certain level of knowledge in order to understand how they sound and why they sound that way. I’m sorry if I offended people who liked Moran’s recent things, but the James Reese Europe stuff in particular is so musically misguided that it just needs to be said. Just as I wouldn’t try to judge a classical performance, these old black forms require a more comprehensive understanding of how music was made in those days and why it was made the way it was made And this is not some kind of abstract intellectual point of view, because the original music is still there, still available, and not to listen to it is like preferring Pat Boone to little Richard. The difference is that dramatic.

So it’s a bad idea for me to offer a strong opinion, but it’s OK for you? Attacking what you think is my narrow little world? Well, it’s not really that narrow. I’ve sold a lot of books and my work has been circulated pretty widely, more widely than your post. If you don’t know the music, you shouldn’t talk about it. It’s the Trumpies version of political opinions. Lots of ideas with no information. that older musical world is complicated and ingenious. It’s like all of Jazz, you can’t just listen to a little snippet, and then become an expert. It’s the irony of it all… In the name of African-American heritage, we present watered down versions of that heritage. It’s like a fear of facing the real music, which is just nasty and complicated.

I also note how sterile the recording sounds - basically everything sounds completely isolated, which is probably the way it was done. There is no real space, no harmonic interaction between the instruments, like it was phoned in. Honestly, and this goes counter to some other things I have said, but white audiences of a certain kind love this kind of b.s, think it's socially edifying.

but for reasons that have nothing to do with race; this is an art music. And in the years since it faded from the pop charts even more so.

I found it edifying. Since I've listened to it I have become a MAGA person, since the recording fits the persona of people who are deathly afraid of real blackness.

I am going to say something self-promotional here; Jason is a great pianist, but that album to me represents the worst kind of pseudo-interpretation of older materials. It sounds like just another stiff white version of old-timey music (in spite of some "contemporary" sounding soloists who end up just sounding like they are at the wrong session). Musicians who do these kinds of projects tend to expose themselves as having not really listened to that old sound - black and white - and have ended up with these awful, polite examinations of what should be unruly music. Now the self-promotional aspect of this post - on our new release I do a JR Europe reference of sorts with a thing we did called Castles in Sand, which is miles above anything on that Moran album. It's frustrating to hear people flocking to fame, when the music is what should be essential.

I think it's a cultural sea change - well, it's been going on for a long time - and black writers seem, for the most part, to have moved on. As for you statement about white audiences - I should have spoken up before, but it is an absolute truism, based on my experience of attending jazz events for about 55 years. This is not to say that there are not black audiences for jazz, but the music would have died a slow death years ago without the support of white folks.

Dan and I disagree about a lot of politics, but I know him well enough by now that when it comes to race and music he is only about the music, and doesn't get stuck in pseudo-woke poses. As for white fragility, you've got it backwards - to me the fragility is white folks who just bend to any opposite argument about race, who deny their own personal opinions because they are afraid of causing political offense. They are too fragile to risk dealing with heavy issues in which they might hold an unpopular opinion.

I really take offense at this; I have been teaching, playing, and advocating for this music for about 50 years, at great personal sacrifice; I have recorded over 20 CDs, most of which are related to an examination of jazz's complex history; I have helped numerous musicians, gig-wise and financially; I have given up that career for a period of 20 years to help my son and basically had to, from a professional standpoint, start over again; I have written books on the subject - including all of American music - which are more comprehensive on the subject than that of virtually any other writer, white or black. At this point jazz and black vernacular music is so far from its roots that the music is an art form accessible to anyone, regardless of blood line or racial hierarchy (which strikes me as Nazi-like in its dependence on genetic continuity); some of the worst writing I have read of late on jazz or black culture has been from African American writers, one of whom, in a recent, book informed us that white writers were hopeless insufficient from a racial standpoint and could not understand the music like black writers (and then proceeded to write articles that were completely devoid of any historical, social, or musical understanding). This whole thing reduces those of us who have spent so many years in support of this music to idiotic racial symbols. The truth is, without these white advocates, neither jazz history or the history of the blues would have been preserved in any comprehensive manner. I have just had enough of this bullshit. I support black writers, but I refuse to change my standards based on a false sense of historical reparations (which I also support). I write a lot about this, btw, in my recent book Letter to Esperanza, about the stupidity of ideologically-based historicism with people like Rhiannon Giddens and Daphne Brooks. And don't get me started on Nicholas Payton.

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for me his best work are the solo piano albums; there are two or three that I own. I find his post-'60s orchestral work intriguing but ultimately aimless, with some notable exceptions. But the solo piano work shows how amazing his musical conception was, in small, focused snippets.

price increase; you missed your chance: $275 plus shipping.

thanks; Dick was just frustrated, I think; this would really have put him out there.

question for those reading the bio - does it mention Dick Katz? He was the last pianist Sonny hired in the '50s before Sonny decided to go without a piano (sorry, I may have mentioned this earlier; I am having some of what I hope are temporary cognitive glitches due to a sudden and major resurgence of neuropathy). Dick was still pissed off about this 20 years later, feeling that he had missed a big chance.

final price drop before these go to the Audio Graveyard: $250 plus shipping in the USA.

Jim - I may have posted this already, but I once told Bill Barron how good he was on that recording, especially against a powerhouse like Ervin. Bill was a very modest guy, and I think he was embarrassed but very flattered.

George Adams' playing drives me up a wall; always goes into that patented yodel of his; an entire Mosaic of him would definitely send me to the loony bin (which might make my wife happy). I will tell you a great Mosaic - and one that I actually believe would do well - Dave Schildkraut; I've got everything, even one with a solo from circa 1954 that sounds pre-Coltrane (and Trane admired him, voted for him once as best alto, and dedicated a song to him at his Jazz Gallery gig). There's plenty, a lot of amazing side man work, and I think I have everything (including a mint reissue LP pressing of Like Cool with Eddie Bert and Hank Jones). And I recorded him in 1978 and there is some amazing stuff that he did. That settles it; I guess the consensus is for Schildkraut.

I will post a picture - I think they sound best elevated at least slightly -