Simon Weil

Here's an email I got from Mike Ricci: Don't know what the tech difficulties are, but anyway not trolls. Simon Weil

http://www.jazzservices.org.uk Is a massive website for things Jazz in the UK. If you hit the "gigs" button on the entry page, the "gigs by region" button on the page after that, and the "London" button on the page after that, quite a full listing comes up. A bit long to post... Simon Weil

Right, this is where I was going with my comments about Burns. That series presented Jazz as essentially a past music. It was also, in my opinion, boring. To me, that's where the leading edge of Jazz - at least in its public face - has been for the last 20 years. Stylish but rather boring, worthy music living in the past. In that its public image has been Wynton Marsalis. Simon Weil

I assumed you meant ALL jazz here. I now see you meant NEW jazz. There's probably more old jazz on sale than there's ever been. But the majors have given up on all but the most commercial in the new. Which is my point. The price drop at Universal is only good news if you are in the market for purchasing lots of back catalogue. It's going to make it harder for the wonderful little companies who continue to put out the new. I was really trying to convey the idea that the majors have, in some important sense, lost faith in Jazz. That is expressed in them moving from boosting new artists to boosting back catalogue. But in the back of my mind is also the idea that, of all the "Jazz" sales in the last few years "Smooth" played a large part - so that, although "Jazz" as a whole "held its own", "Jazz" as most people would understand it went backwards. This is distinct from the fall in music sales as a whole - and is despite Ken Burns' Jazz which was supposed to bring people back to the music - and didn't. If one looks at Ken Burns' series as an attempt at marketing Jazz which failed (which is true on some level, surely), the industry conclusion might easily be: this is not a music that is going to increase its market share any time soon. In other words Burns might have worked out as bad for Jazz. Now I'm just guessing, but my feeling is that the sales of Jazz going backwards in that way has resulted in wholesalers dumping stocks (because they've decided that's a permanent thing) - and labels (i.e. manufacturers as opposed to wholesalers) deciding to retrench in some major way. That is they're going to bring down prices - which they hope will bring up sales; cut out developing new artists; and concentrate on selling what they know people will buy, reissues. Altogether it's a conservative "old news" strategy (but, of course, I'm guessing). Simon Weil

Well, yes and no. The days of the big labels putting out new hard bop records by young, relatively talented young lions is over. For example, Verve wouldn't release any Harper Brothers records in this era. You have to be either a big name (Wayne or Herbie or Brecker) or have some crossover appeal, for the most part. Or be a vocalist. Still, while you may not see as large of a jazz section in stores today, from what people in the business tell me, the jazz imprints at the major labels are holding their own, in many cases far better than their pop counterparts. There's money to be made in jazz, even for the big guys, they just can't go out and start signing Marlon Jordans and Javon Jacksons to multi record deals anymore. That sounds altogether plausible. I think "holding their own" is a phrase that tells a story, though. It does speak of rather lowered expectations. Oh c'mon Bev. That's kinda the point. It's old music. Once it was new music - You know thirty years ago (in the case of Jack Johnson). "Jazz is old news". Geddit? Simon Weil

I'm guessing the industry views Jazz as old news. Simon Weil

The other thing that bears thinking about is the amazing succession of "cheap" Jazz offers (such as zweitausendeins mega-sale). I just can't believe, in the long term, this bodes well for Jazz. Maybe a year or so ago I started noticing what seemed like fire-sales on Jazz stock in bricks and mortar stores, and, to me, it feels we're still in that zone. Basically I believe that wholesalers are cutting down on the level of Jazz stock they carry, with the view that the Jazz market is now permanently smaller than it was. That's also how I read these price-slashing deals. The labels themselves believe that the market for Jazz has shrunk in some real and permanent way, and they're doing their best to bring it back (anyway for themselves). I know people will say, well, all music sales are down - But my instinct is different. Ever the bearer of the bleak view. Simon Weil

Look at it as giving BN an opportunity for another public relations triumph. Simon Weil

It seems like a nice find to me, with an awful lot of stuff, seemingly from 1999 to 2001. There's 11 forums. I've checked the limits of the first two and the (sort of) legible start point for the others: Artists http://www.bluenote.com/bulletinboard/ubb/...TML/000002.html to http://www.bluenote.com/bulletinboard/ubb/...TML/001544.html Reissues http://www.bluenote.com/bulletinboard/ubb/...TML/000002.html to http://www.bluenote.com/bulletinboard/ubb/...TML/001402.html New Releases http://www.bluenote.com/bulletinboard/ubb/...TML/000001.html Recommendations http://www.bluenote.com/bulletinboard/ubb/...TML/000003.html Known Release Dates http://www.bluenote.com/bulletinboard/ubb/...TML/000003.html Forum Suggestions and Fedback http://www.bluenote.com/bulletinboard/ubb/...TML/000004.html Miscellaneous http://www.bluenote.com/bulletinboard/ubb/...TML/000003.html Mosaic http://www.bluenote.com/bulletinboard/ubb/...TML/000001.html Live Shows http://www.bluenote.com/bulletinboard/ubb/...TML/000001.html Vocalists http://www.bluenote.com/bulletinboard/ubb/...TML/000001.html Blue Note's 60th Anniversary http://www.bluenote.com/bulletinboard/ubb/...TML/000001.html (Missed the last/first one) Simon Weil

I have looked through the books I've got. The only thing I can find, at all relevant, is this: Jazz In Black and White/Gerrard p77 There's an interview with Tyner in Len Lyons, The Great Jazz Pianists pub 1982 (maybe the interview's from ca 1980) - he seems undifferentiating in his musical interests as far as race goes. He also doesn't seem interested in Africanization any more. But, even on Sahara (obviously a very Afro-centred record), he uses a koto - so he can't have been that Afro-centred even during this period. Or, perhaps, black-centred. Simon Weil

This was posted to rec.music.bluenote in 2001: There's also a post from 1992 saying more or less the same thing. I'm a big fan of "Enlightenment" (The bass solo gets me every time) and also have "Sahara" and "Echoes of a Friend", both of which are good. On the black/white issue, hasn't he had the same, white, drummer for years and years? Or am I getting confused? Simon Weil

Yeah, that's worth buying, in my opinion. Not a classic, but valuable photos and the text is sound, alright. Charles Fox was a decent critic - was on BBC radio three for ca 25 years - and, in my opinion, the last proper radio Jazz crictic we've really had. Up to date with the avant-garde, knowledgeable about all the rest. Really missed. He was one of the co-authors on "The Essential Jazz Records Vol 1", which is a really dense, rich read (and recommended). He doesn't get much of a chance to stretch out here, but it's decent enough. And, yes, loads of character-full, unexpected, Wilmer photos. Abebooks (second-hand mart) has copies. Simon Weil

Oddly, I'm not a guy who forms mental images all that much when I read, Dr J. I am quite visual (used to take photos etc) but it's more the mood I get from the text. It is probably "your milage will vary" - kind of sensibility related issues - to some (even some major) extent. But I do stick to my guns - say in relation to Ridley Scott, who apparently visualises whole scenes and then transcribes them to celulloid - I do think there's some lack in production design. I mean to me the detailing on "Blackhawk Down" or "Gladiator" or "Blade Runner" or "Alien" is just so convincing. Perhaps it's unfair to compare. Simon Weil

The one great thing that Jackson has done - and it is a great thing - is transfer the book to film and make it work. I mean I was one of those people who simply didn't think it could be done. So please view my comments within the context of that. Basically I don't think Jackson is that great a film-maker. I think the production design, particularly in the first film, wobbles - and makes it difficult to achieve the kind of underlying filmic texture that would add to the cohesive sense of the movies. I didn't like the design of Rivendell and Lothlorien, in the first movie, and Treebeard and the Ents, in the second movie - at all. And because these are kind of magic zones in the work, it does take away from the magic of the movies. Liv Tyler is a realm unto herself, however. I think Jackson is much better on the human stuff - and achieves a depth and a grandeur in that. And Aragorn really helps. I think that's some fine acting there. I think that's the real strength of the movies, in the human zone, though I'm getting more impressed by Frodo as the movies go on. Gollum does work- and that eye is pretty evil. On the books, well I'm about half way through the Two Towers, reading at the pace of sludge. I just remember it more or less as I'm reading it. I never thought it was a great work, like Tolstoy or something, but it's a very good one. A bit of a modern myth that works. It has its flaws. I agree that he can be a bit didactic and the poems are skippable, but it is all of a piece and kind of magical. So... Simon Weil

Whatever these "studies" are, they aren't science. I mean, honestly, coming to some sort of conclusion on Bolden (Daniel A's link) who: 1) We don't have any records by (apart from Chuck's cylinder that is). 2) We don't have any interviews by 3) Our knowledge about is, in general, terribly lacking is just amazing. Quite apart from trying to psychoanalyze the poor guy being in appalling taste, you simply don't have any evidence to work on. It's cheap magazine journalism, sensationalist yes, dressed up. In a way, what these articles seem to do is take the old myth of Jazz being the result of black primitives and recast it as a new (attempted) myth of Jazz being the result of emotional primitives - i.e. people with psychological problems. Devious, Unpleasant. Simon Weil

I read that they were going to put out the two existing movies in the run up to the final one too. Seems like a nice idea, both marketing-wise and fan-wise. I got Two Towers a week ago. I think it's actually the more cohesive movie, of the two. They've changed the story-line significantly(from the book), which they didn't do with the first movie. I thought the first movie lacked a certain dramatic tension - which the second movie does have. All the stuff about Aragorn falling into that deep ravine and then coming back to the battle, I don't remember as being in the book but was of a piece with Gandalf coming back from his fall into the deep and the kind of moral descent to the depths that they're putting Frodo through. I don't think the movies are a patch on the book, really. They don't have its texture. But they're good fun. And, like the Philip French review said, they do have a certain grandeur. I was surprised to see how glad I was to have the characters back again. Simon Weil

Here's a review by Don Rose on the Jazz Institute of Chicago site. A google search also says there's been a review in Coda (March/April 2000). Simon Weil

I enjoyed the Bley book. It seemed like an "entertainment" to me - like definitely not the full monty but still worth reading. It's so easy to read, you probably don't notice all the stuff in there. But at the same time, the guy is obviously canny and, in a certain way, is not giving anything away. So the general "light" feel of the book definitely made me feel I wasn't getting the whole truth. That is, from the style point of view, I'm coming to a parallel conclusion to Mike's. If you want to give someone who's interested in the birth of the avant-garde a present, this is an enjoyable book. And you don't (or I didn't) feel cheated. Simon Weil

This is not the same Ian M(a)cDonald who wrote REVOLUTION IN THE HEAD, is it? That's the best book about the Beatles that I've ever read. He has a new book out, too, a more general overview of popular music, but I'm not sure that it's been published in the U.S. Doesn't look like it: http://jazzinstituteofchicago.org/index.as...le/dameron2.asp And: http://www.rocksbackpages.com/writers/macdonaldi.html But the're both MacDonald. Simon Weil

Yeah, that's it. I don't remember it as being distinguished, I just kind of liked it. I have this weird sensibility where sometimes I can do the whole intellectual thing and sometimes I go for mindless rubbish. Whoops, there goes my credibility. Simon Weil

Yeah that was a good movie - and bleak. It's by Christopher Nolan, who's English and quite young. In a way the hero redeems himself at the end, which cuts down on the bleakness quotient. Before that Nolan did Memento (?sp) which was even bleaker and/or better. That was one of the more original American films of recent years. It has the guy who played the Judas-figure from the Matrix as the villain. I quite like Pacino even though he does go in for operatic-style scenery-chewing. He raises the octane of a film even while you notice how he recycles the same sorts of chewing from film to film. He was in the Mann film I mentioned. I remember his younger style as being quieter, but maybe I'm kidding myself. Imagine Pacino in Bresson film. Maybe a Besson film. Simon Weil

Yes, I remember Louis Malle saying something to that effect. The Bresson film is another monument from his most creative period. The man was creating superb austere films from 'Journal d'un Cure de Campagne', 'Pickpocket', 'Le Proces de Jeanne d'Arc', \Au Hasard Balthazar', 'Mouchette', to 'Une Femme Douce' all in a row. An amazing succession of masterpieces. Louis Malle's Lucien Lacombe is good but in the same WWII mood, I should have mentioned Joseph Losey's 'Monsieur Klein' which gave Alain Delon his best film part ever. I'm no fan of Delon but he was incredible in that gripping and (yes) bleak film. Yeah, I just love that minimalist aesthetic - a bit related to Japanese art and at the very opposite extreme to current Hollywood. I suppose the Joan of Arc film would be a natural for him and that's one I'd really like to see (actuallyown). There is something terrible compelling in the sort of texture in his movies. This is probably sacriledge (and it's not really the same because it lacks Bresson's kind of mystical thing. Michael Mann is operatic), but the slow textural detail of "The Insider" (the 1999 Hollywood movie) is compelling too. Delon's (?) a romantic lead. I saw him in a gangster movie with Belmodo once - quite liked that. My knowledge of French movies isn't good, really. King Ubu wrote: I don't think I've seen "L'argent. "Lancelot Du Lac" is really bleak and when I saw it in the 70s I thought "that's probably what the Middle Ages were really like". I think some days I just need bleak more than others. Simon Weil

I haven't seen that, or really know Malle's work, but I do seem to remember him saying that the central character is more or less that of the young boy in Bresson's "A Man Escaped", which is one of my favourite movies. In general, I really like Bresson from when I saw "Lancelot Du Lac" in the 70s. "Au Hazard Balthazar" is another I like, and I'm probably forgetting a few. I think Bresson and Kurosawa became bleak at more or less the same time, in the late 60s. I do love Kurosawa. He is evidently influenced by Western movies and I also think John Ford is great, the Cavalry Trilogy etc, etc. Actually there's a scene in "Seven Samurai" where the bandits rain down on the village from the hills which is just like the scene at the end of "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon" where the calvary attack the Indian camp. Ford also got bleak towards the end, with "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", "The Searchers" etc. I think "The Searchers" is a very special film. Yes, bleak is the mot de jour. Simon Weil

It was pretty well reviewed, but on my couple of listenings, I didn't really like it. I thought it was a bit monochromatic. It does occur to me, now, that I found the "comeback" Gateway recordings (also with Dave Holland) like that, but on return listening found an awful lot going on under the surface. I think Holland and Jones are an exciting team on Joe Lovano's "Trio Fascination" and I've also got an ancient tape of a radio braodcast with them and John Surman and Albert Manglesdorf which is really good. In general, I don't think this is a particularly representative Frisell album. If you like the "post-modern" thing is Frisell, I think his duo record with Fred Hirsch is very worthwhile (though perhaps also not particularly representative). Of the more recent records, I also like Marc Johnson's "Sound of Summer Running" which couples him with Metheny to gorgeous effect. I guess I think his records for ECM are his "representative" ones. Simon Weil

Maybe this one, based around a Stephon Harris quote. Certainly has Braxton in it. Simon Weil